Last Sunday, my mom and I decided at the spur of the moment {yes, yet again!} to attend one last baseball game. The major league team located closest to us, the Oakland Athletics, played their last home game of the season that afternoon, and knowing their manager’s tendency to trade many of our favorite players during the off-season, we wanted to see them in person one last time… Just to be safe.
After purchasing our tickets, we walked into the stadium and settled into our seats in our favorite section: on the left side of the field, right next to the A’s dugout and even with third base. With the temperature above 90°F at first pitch (unseasonably warm for Oakland this time of year!), we purposely picked seats farther back from the field and underneath the second level overhang, which shielded us from the sun for the entire game.
Even with the shade, we still felt rather warm and a tiny bit sweaty throughout the first six innings, and as we watched fans around us return from the concession stands with ice cream sandwiches, Häagen-Dazs bars, and soft-serve sundaes, we felt so tempted to do the same! Instead, we opted for slightly healthier options of iced tea and plenty of water as we cheered on the A’s in their 7-1 victory.
A little while after arriving back home, I made my favorite protein smoothie as a cool, sweet treat, and I took my glass outside to slowly sip while answering emails. But… Because the sun had already sunk below the hills behind our house, the temperature had cooled off by more than I anticipated, and I started to get goose bumps while drinking my smoothie!
I dashed inside to throw on a sweater, and instead of the refreshing ice cream at the stadium from earlier in the day, I kept thinking about cozy autumn treats while I finished my smoothie, like these Clean Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones. With their irresistible combination of pumpkin, cinnamon, and chocolate, they always disappear within just a few minutes of me pulling them out of the oven!
Thank goodness they’re so easy to make… And contain no refined flour or sugar!
To make these healthier scones, you’ll start with white whole wheat flour. It sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, doesn’t it? However, white whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of white wheat, whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from a heartier variety of red wheat. This type of wheat gives white whole wheat flour a lighter taste and texture, similar to that of all-purpose flour, which allows the pumpkin flavor to shine. And it still has the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour, like extra fiber!
Note: Whole wheat pastry flour would be a great substitute, and I’ve included my recommended gluten-free option in the Notes section, if you prefer.
Unlike traditional scone recipes that call for an entire stick or two of butter, this recipe only uses 2 tablespoons of butter! It’s incredibly important that your butter is very cold, basically straight from the fridge. With very cold butter, it won’t heat up until you put the scones into the hot oven, and it will create little air pockets and a very tender crumb when it melts.
Note: This is why I recommend against using coconut oil, if at all possible, because coconut oil has a much lower melting point than butter and will quickly turn to liquid once you begin mixing it into the dough.
With so little butter, the rest of the scones’ tender texture comes from a combination of two ingredients: Greek yogurt and pumpkin purée. If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know how much I love Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture as extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your baked treats a protein boost, too.
Remember to buy regular ol’ pumpkin purée for this recipe! Skip the canned pumpkin pie mix because that contains refined sugar, which we’re avoiding in this healthy recipe. Instead…
You’ll sweeten these scones with pure maple syrup! It generally comes in thin glass bottles or squat plastic jugs, and the only ingredient on the label should be “maple syrup.” I’ve also bought it online here at a discounted price.
And of course, the best part… The chocolate chips! I use mini chocolate chips because their smaller size ensures that every bite contains at least one morsel of chocolate. These are the kind that I buy because they taste really rich and melt very well!
No more super hot weather for me… I’m so ready for fall and baking plenty of these scones! ? And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your scones and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Clean Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (180g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 6 tbsp (92g) pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie mix)
- 2 tbsp (30g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp (45mL) pure maple syrup
- 3 tbsp + 2 tsp (55mL) nonfat milk, divided
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp (28g) miniature chocolate chips, divided
- Preheat the oven to 425°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or the back of a fork until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the pumpkin purée, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, 3 tablespoons of milk, and vanilla. Fold in 1½ tablespoons of chocolate chips.
- Using a spatula, shape the dough into a ¾” tall circle on the prepared baking sheet, and brush with the remaining milk. Slice the circle into 8 triangular segments with a sharp knife. Gently press the remaining chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 425°F for 16-19 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
For a gluten-free version, use the following blend: 1 cup (120g) millet flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, ¼ cup (30g) brown rice flour, and 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends will work as well, if they’re measured like this.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the pure maple syrup.
Any milk may be substituted in place of the nonfat milk.
For a vegan version, substitute Earth Balance buttery sticks in place of the unsalted butter, additional pumpkin purée in place of the Greek yogurt, and any non-dairy milk in place of the nonfat milk.
In a pinch, coconut oil may be substituted for the butter, but the texture of the scones will be affected. Very cold butter is required to achieve their tender texture, and since coconut oil melts at a much lower temperature, the results will not be the same.
{gluten-free, vegan option, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
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You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Clean Maple Pumpkin Scones
♥ Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Mini Muffins
♥ Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
♥ Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bran Muffins
♥ Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Skinny Single-Serving Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mug Cake
♥ Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie Brownies
♥ The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
It sounds like you had a great time at the baseball, Amy! I am currently enjoying a delicious mocha chocolate brownie – I made your recipe yesterday, and they are so yummy!☺ These pumpkin scones look brilliant too! Sadly, I wasn’t able to get any pumpkin puree when I last went shopping, as they had run out. Tinned pumpkin is so difficult to find over here, which is a shame as it’s so brilliant in recipes!? Butternut squash and sweet potato can often be used instead, but they are quite tricky and time consuming to prepare. I have had great success with using an equal amount of pureed cooked carrots, so if there are any readers who also struggling to find tinned pumpkin, they could maybe try using that instead? Thank you for the delicious brownie recipe, Amy!?
I’m so glad you enjoyed the brownies Katie! 🙂 I hadn’t heard of substituting puréed cooked carrots for pumpkin purée, so thank you for sharing that! Hopefully your grocery store restocks their pumpkin soon!
Ahh yes, fall is here! I’m sure CA still has decent baseball weather, it was raining here today! I don’t mind though, it’s cozy.
As long as I can stay inside on rainy days, I love them just as much as sunny ones! But we have the most bipolar weather this time of year… Three days ago, it was 100°, and now it’s barely 60°!
Thanks Amy. I made these scones yesterday and they are fab. I’ve passed your recipe onto my bezzie too as she’s a huge fan of healthy ingredients (and cake!). I used butternut squash as we can’t source pumpkin or pumpkin puree easily in the UK and, although I haven’t tasted them with pumpkin, I think they were probably just as good. I baked 4 butternut squash and pureed it and have frozen it into six tablespoon portions, so I have plenty more for other recipes.
I’m so glad you loved the scones, and thank you for sharing my recipe Tania! That means a lot to me. 🙂 I really appreciate you sharing your butternut squash tip — that sounds like a great substitute! I’ll have to try that sometime. I can’t wait to hear whether you try it in another one of my recipes too!
Amy;
Hi,I just copied down your clean pumpkin chocolate chip scone recipe and this is going to be my first time making this recipe at home with my mom’s help if Ineed her help.iI am going to buy the ingredients at the end of this month so that I can make your recipe.
I was at David’s tea store on sept.15 and the owner has pumpkin agave syrup that is low in sugar that I can actually put in your recipe as well as in your pumpkin smoothie that I am also going to make in my magic bullet blender while I am waiting for your pumpkin scones to finish baking.Iwill let you know how much we enjoy your scones and your smoothie.
I live at home with my family.
Kim
I really appreciate your interest in my recipes Kim! Yes, that should be fine. It sounds like such a fun product! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these scones and the smoothie!
I made these measuring the flour like you said but somehow they’re still really dry 🙁 I can’t figure out where exactly I went wrong.
It means a lot that you tried my recipe, Ashley! That sounds disappointing and not like how these scones are supposed to turn out, so I’m happy to help solve that. In order to do so, I have some questions for you!
Did you make any substitutions or modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section?
Did you measure the flour with a kitchen scale or my “fork-and-level” method?
If the latter, did you shake the measuring cup back and forth at all while filling it? Possibly to “level” the top so it wasn’t in a giant mound, by any chance?
Which flour option did you use — white whole wheat flour, the gluten-free blend I provided in the Notes section, or something else?
How did you measure the rest of the ingredients? With a kitchen scale or measuring cups/spoons?
Did you use canned pumpkin purée (also called 100% pumpkin)?
Did you use the full amount of pure maple syrup, Greek yogurt, and milk?
Can you describe the consistency of your scone dough prior to baking, when you transferred it to the baking sheet?
Did you separate the scones at all before baking? Or did you leave them in the circle with all of their sides touching?
Did you brush the dough with milk before baking?
How long did you bake them at 425°F?
Were the insides so crumbly that they wouldn’t stay together? Or just on the more bready side (rather than moist like pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, or something similar!)?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but I’ll have a much better idea of the culprit (and how to fix it!) once I know your answers to all of them! 🙂
You’re so sweet to help me! It was kind of disappointing because the flavor was good (especially for healthier scones like I wanted).
I used white whole wheat flour and measured it with the fork and level method. I don’t think I shook the measuring cup down, but there’s a chance I guess I could have? But if I didn’t do it more than once.
The only substitutions I made were almond milk instead of cows milk and I didn’t have mini chocolate chips so I used regular size.
The rest of the ingredients I measured using spoons and cups. The pumpkin was straight canned pumpkin not pumpkin pie and I used the full amount of the other ingredients.
The consistency before baking was kind of sticky similar to dough like for bread before you knead it. And I cut all the triangles but couldn’t get them to separate much because of the stickiness. I did brush them with the milk before baking and I think I ended up baking them 19 min.
The insides were not crumbly falling apart, they were more like bread.
Thank you for helping me! I loved your pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so I’m sure these would be so good if I could just get the texture right!
Thanks for sharing your answers, Ashley! I’m happy to help. 🙂 Based on your replies, I have a few more follow-up questions. I really appreciate your patience — I think we’re almost there!
Did you use a regular oven or a small countertop oven?
If the latter, then how many different rack positions does your oven have, and which one did you use?
Did you check on the scones after 16 minutes, by any chance? If so, were the tops still pale and not at all golden?
When you removed the scones from the oven, how dark were their tops? For example, on a scale from 1-10, with 1 being the same color as the raw dough and 10 being black and burnt, were they close to a 5 (similar to a perfectly golden toasted marshmallow!) or darker than that?
I’m glad to hear you at least enjoyed the scones’ flavor, and it truly means a lot that you love the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies too! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know!! ♡
I used a regular oven and did check at 16 min but honestly with the pumpkin it was hard to tell a color change at all. They were just already brownish so I let them stay a few more minutes and then took them out even though the color didn’t really seem to change. Could three minutes have made them that much more dry? The color was like 5 but it was that way before I baked them too
Thanks for sharing this too, Ashley! The pumpkin does make it a little more difficult than with other scone flavors. 😉
The two most common culprits of dry or cakey scones are too much flour and over-baking. Based on how you described the consistency of your scone dough, it seems like over-baking is the most likely culprit for your batch, but if you did shake the measuring cup while filling it with flour from your fork, there could have been a bit too much flour as well.
With scones, since they’re not very thick (compared to baked goods like a bundt cake or quick bread loaf, where the batter is a couple of inches deep in either of those pans!), a few minutes can make a noticeable difference in the texture. I’ve had it happen quite a few times while recipe testing scones, so you’re not alone, if that’s any consolation! 😉
So if you make these pumpkin scones again, I’d recommend baking them for less time (and being extra careful with the flour!). That should make the insides softer and less cakey or dry! 🙂
Ok thank you! I might try it again soon. I really appreciate all your help.
You’re welcome, Ashley! I’d love to hear how your next batch turns out, if you do! 🙂