Starbucks Pumpkin Scone Knock-Off Recipe

About once every month or so, I’ll treat my kids to before-school Starbucks! We did this just last week and my daughter was hoping that they had their pumpkin scones in stock because it’s her absolute favorite Starbucks item.

She was in luck! She mentioned to me that we should just make our own pumpkin scones and I thought this was a very good idea.

So after scouring the Internet for knock-off recipes and then making some tweaks, I ended up with a scone so delicious that my daughter declared it better than the Starbucks version she’d had that morning!

Needless to say, the family quickly polished off the batch I made so word to the wise: this recipe may be worth doubling!

While it might seem like a lot of ingredients and steps at first glance, I can assure you, there’s nothing tricky or out of the ordinary involved.

This recipe is actually quite easy to prepare and chances are, you have most of the ingredients stocked in your pantry.

If you do not have all the individual spices listed, you can always opt to use pumpkin pie spice, which is traditionally a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

For the Scones 

• 2 cups flour
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons half ‘n’ half
• 1 large egg

For the Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the Spiced Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch ginger
• 1 pinch ground cloves

Preheat your oven to 425°.

While you can blend the scone dough by hand, I discovered how very quick and easy this is accomplished in a food processor! Start by mixing the dry ingredients for your scones: flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices. 

Next, throw in the butter. Use the food processor to process until the butter is well incorporated. (Seriously, this is so much better than kneading by hand! But of course, you can absolutely knead by hand if you don’t have a food processor.)

Here is how my scone dough appeared after processing the dry ingredients with the butter.

In a separate bowl, whisk the canned pumpkin, half ‘n’ half, and egg together.

Next, incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until just blended – don’t over mix. The dough will be fairly sticky. This is what you want!

On a lightly floured surface, pat out the dough into a rectangular shape.

Next, using a floured knife, divide the rectangle into sections. For larger scones, just make three sections. I wanted smaller scones, so I divided my rectangle into fifths.

Cut each of the sections diagonally, to form two triangles. I found I needed to re-flour my knife at this point since the dough was fairly sticky!

These are ready for the oven! Put on a baking sheet on the top rack of the oven for about 15 minutes. I checked mine starting at 13 minutes and they were done at 14. Your oven may vary. Remove the cooked scones from the baking sheet and allow to cool.

While your scones are cooling, you can make the glaze. Stir the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk together until you’ve got a liquid glaze. If it’s too thick, you can add another tablespoon or so of milk. However, you do not want it too runny either. Coat the top of each scone with a generous dollop of the glaze. I actually went over each of my scones twice! Give the iced scones a few minutes to set.

Next, make the spiced glaze in the same way. Stir the powdered sugar, milk, and spices until you’ve got a consistency that’s runny enough to work with, but not too thin. Using a whisk or icing bag, drizzle the spiced glazed on top. I zig zagged mine across, like so:

Yeah, these had quite a bit of icing, but I think that’s one of the reasons they tasted so good! Of course, you could always cut it back a bit if it’s too much for you. My kids enjoyed these after school, and they were also great for breakfast the next morning. (I had one dunked in a cup of coffee – yum!)

If you decide to make this recipe, or have ideas to change it up in some way, I’d love to hear. Leave a comment below!

PS – Like this recipe? You might also enjoy my Starbucks Cinnamon Scone Hack Recipe!