Boo! It’s Halloween weekend, folks. Time to be barraged by candy or trick-or-treaters or both. I giggled out loud this week when I read a friend’s Facebook post. “wondering how people will react on Halloween when they say ‘Trick or Treat’ and I throw a four-year-old in their bag…..” (She has 4-year-old TRIPLETS!)
At my house, the munchkins have been practicing wearing their costumes and looking for treats all week! We’ve already had dress-up days at both schools, a Father-Son Pumpkin Carve at preschool, a Mother-Daughter pumpkin carve at home, a trip to the pumpkin patch, a trip to a farm with – yes – more pumpkins, and a kindergarten costume parade! Still ahead? A haunted walk through the woods, a neighbor’s Halloween bash (complete with a live band!), and, of course, trick-or-treating! Despite this embarrassment of Halloween riches, I’m going to squeeze in one more treat…these delightful Pumpkin Biscuits.
Light and flaky, these would make the perfect breakfast treat for a crisp weekend morning or a great complement to a steaming bowl of your favorite fall soup. Biscuits take hardly any time to make and you’ll feel so accomplished by the time you gently cut them with an overturned glass (because, really, who has a biscuit cutter?). A little icing jack-o-lantern face would be adorable…
Pumpkin Biscuits
adapted from Cooking Light, 2008
makes 14
2 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
5 Tbsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 c. lowfat buttermilk
3/4 c. canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling!)
3 Tbsp. honey
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or a large fork until mixture looks like coarse meal. Chill 10 minutes.
3. Whisk together buttermilk and honey; add canned pumpkin. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and stir until just moist.
4. Dump dough onto a floured cutting board and knead lightly. Roll dough into a 9×5 rectangle (about 1/2″ thick). Sprinkle top of dough with flour and fold dough into thirds. Reroll dough into a 9X5″ rectangle (again, about 1/2″ thick) and dust dough with flour. Fold dough into thirds again and pat it to 3/4″ thickness. Cut dough with a 1 3/4″ biscuit cutter (or an overturned glass measuring about that diameter).
5. Place uncooked biscuits onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 for 14 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Cool 2 minutes on wire racks and serve warm.