Scones are so good!

This past weekend I starting cooking some breakfast items for Thanksgiving. I did the same thing last year when my family came to visit and they turned out great. It makes it easy to be able to pull out breakfast from the freezer and heat it up instead of spending a lot of time cooking in the morning. Plus, if we want to cook, we can always add bacon and eggs! I made sausage and cheese scones and pumpkin scones. They are both so good!


Sausage and Cheese Scones
Makes 2 loaves

4 c. all purpose flour
2 tbsp. baking powder
4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
6 tbsp. chilled butter cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I use sharp.)
1 roll ground sausage-cooked
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.
2. Cut butter into the bowl, mixing it up until it looks crumbly like meal.
3. Stir in the cheese and cooked sausage.
4. Whisk buttermilk and egg white together and then add to the dry ingredients until just moist. I do this in my kitchenaid with a dough hook and then skip kneading. If you are doing this by hand, then turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 4-5 times. Make sure you flour your hands because the dough is very sticky!
5. Pat dough into two 8" circles on prepared baking sheet. I spray it down with cooking spray.
6. Use your pizza cutter and cut into 8 wedges. Cut into but not all the way through. I generally stop about a 1/4 of an inch from the bottom.
7. Bake at 400 degrees Farhenheit for about twenty minutes. It took more like 25 minutes this time until lightly browned.
8. Cool.
9. Cut wedges all the way through and wrap individually with saran wrap. I skipped the plastic wrap step this time since we will be eating them next week!
10. Put in a ziplock bag and freeze.
11. You can reheat these in a microwave for about 30-50 seconds until warm or pop them into the toaster oven for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees. (Keep an eye on them!)
    

Pumpkin Scones

4 3/4 oz. canned pumpkin
3 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. white sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves (I left this out because we didn't have any.)
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tbsp. baking powder
8 oz. unsalted butter-chilled and cut into chunks
3/4 c.-1 c. buttermilk
egg wash-optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. Combine dry ingredients: flour sugar, spices, salt, and baking powder.
2. Add butter and mix until it is mealy. The pieces will be about the size of green peas-a little smaller.
3. Add pumpkin and mix.
4. Slowly add buttermilk while you are mixing. How much buttermilk you add is determined by the moisture content of the pumpkin puree. Stop pouring when the dough begins to stick together. It should be crumbly, but not dry. When you feel it, it shouldn't be slick or wet.
5. Form a ball of the dough and pat it out onto your cooking surface. It will be about nine inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inches thick. I used a baking stone dusted with flour, but it will probably work well on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.
6. Use your pizza cutter and cut into 8 wedges. Cut into but not all the way through. I generally stop about a 1/4 of an inch from the bottom.
7. Bake until golden brown. It took mine almost half an hour. I kept having to put it back into the oven to cook some more. I started checking at twenty minutes.
8. Cool completely. Cut wedges all the way through and wrap individually with saran wrap. Place in gallon freezer bag. I have not tried freezing these before, so I will let you know if they don't freeze well. I hope they do!
   

I also premade and froze my great-grandmother Mama Zerah's homemade dressing. It is so good! We have enough for Thanksgiving and smaller portions for future dinners to come. It is one of my favorite things.