These paleo pumpkin scones are tender and full of pumpkin spice flavor! Serve them warm topped with a pumpkin spice drizzle for a special (healthier!) treat this fall. Gluten free and paleo with dairy-free options.
While this is the second paleo scone recipe I’ve tried out, it’s actually the first I’ve posted! Not to worry, because my chocolate chip (non-pumpkin!) version is soon to come.
I just wanted to make sure you all get your pumpkin baking fix before, well, you’re WAY over pumpkin baking.
I’m far from over it, after all, we’re only in mid October! We just got pumpkins to carve with the kids yesterday, and I’m still making a pumpkin spice latte for myself basically every single day. We are pumpkin strong right now, and there is just no stopping!
I’m glad I made another scone recipe before trying out this pumpkin one, because the comparison turned out to be really important, texture wise.
The issue with pumpkin-baking is always balancing the moisture that the pumpkin provides. This is especially important with scones!
I wanted the texture of these scones to be drier and less “fluffy” than your typical muffin. I took a couple of steps to encourage more of a scone texture over a muffin one.
First, my pumpkin was on the wet side so I actually just drained it on a paper towel before using it. This is less of an issue if you use homemade roasted pumpkin, but if you’re using pumpkin from a can this is a great step to incorporate.
Second, I tried to balance the dry/wet ratio in favor of less moisture without making the scones dry. I used a small amount of full fat coconut milk to accomplish this. The fat helps keep them moist and I kept the measurement at 1/4 cup.
The dough will still be sticky and need to be chilled in the freezer a solid 30 minutes before working with it. I outlined in detail in the recipe the tips and tricks I have for working with this sticky dough.
Of course I couldn’t resist a LEGIT icing to top off these pumpkin scones! I made my own paleo powdered sugar for the icing using maple sugar, which is SO easy that I wish I knew about this years ago.
You just blend maple sugar with tapioca flour and BOOM! A paleo powdered sugar that functions just like regular powdered sugar. I combined it with a bit of coconut milk, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice to make it special!
This recipe also calls for baking powder, which is not paleo due to the corn, even if gluten free and aluminum free. If you want to make strictly paleo baking powder – see this post for the easiest recipe.
Ready for more good news? These paleo pumpkin scones freeze perfectly! Since I made 8 of them and was all by myself, I decided to test freezing them right away, after the photos. My husband wound up having one for breakfast, reheated, until they were gone.
When frozen right after baking, there’s no big difference in the texture, BUT I do recommend icing them after reheating to avoid melting.
I hope you’re ready for a MAJOR paleo pumpkin treat! Get your pumpkin, pumpkin spice (just all the pumpkin!) ready and let’s do fall RIGHT with these pumpkin scones!
Paleo Pumpkin Scones with Pumpkin Spice Drizzle
Paleo Pumpkin Scones with Pumpkin Spice Drizzle
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 3/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder aluminum free
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup maple sugar or coconut sugar
- 6 Tbsp grass fed butter or ghee, or palm oil shortening or coconut oil, cold, broken or cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup coconut milk full fat, plus a bit extra to brush on before baking (optional)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree drained on a paper towel
- 1 large egg whisked
Icing:
- 2/3 powdered maple sugar** or organic powdered sugar
- 2-3 tsp coconut milk
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl (including the sugar).
- Add the fat (butter, ghee, etc.) and blend with a fork or pastry blender until an evenly crumbly mixture forms. This can also be done by pulsing a few times in a food processor.
- Make a well in the center of the crumbly mixture and the egg, coconut milk and pumpkin. Stir well until no flour spots show - you should have a sticky dough.
Place the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle some tapioca or arrowroot flour on the parchment lined baking sheet and place the chilled dough on top. Wet your hands lightly and work the chilled dough into a 7-8” disk.
- Using a very sharp knife, cut dough into 8 triangular wedges. Wet the knife to help it glide more easily through the dough*
If dough becomes sticky, place in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm. Separate wedges with a rubber spatula or your hands about 2” apart on the baking sheet. If desired, brush a very small amount of full fat coconut milk over the tops of each one. This makes the tops crisp up a bit more.
- Bake in the preheated oven about 20 mins or until lightly browned on top. Remove from oven and allow to partially cool, then drizzle with icing (see below). Scones will be best served right away although can be frozen and reheated, if desired. Enjoy!
Icing:
- Whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Add just 2 tsp of coconut milk initially, then add more if needed to reach a good “drizzle” consistency.
Recipe Notes
*Alternatively, you can drop the dough in 1/4 cup amounts onto the baking sheet as you would with biscuits to make things easier!
**To make paleo powdered sugar, blend 1 cup maple sugar with 1 Tbsp tapioca flour in a food processor until powdery. Use just 2/3 of this mixture for the icing and save the rest for another use.
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo Pumpkin Dessert Recipes? Try One of These!
Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles
Paleo Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Paleo Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips {Nut Free}
Paleo Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cinnamon Frosting
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These look so good. I have to be egg free. Do you think a chia or flax egg will work in these?
Can you make the dough and let it sit overnight? Or best to mix the morning of?
On the topping, I assume that the powdered maple sugar is 2/3 of a cup. Gong to make these now but didn’t want to forget to let you know about the typo. I will come back to rate it once I get them made and approved of. Pretty sure with your history, I will give it 5 stars. Never been unhappy with any recipe I’ve gotten from you. You are an angel!
This looks so good! Just a quick question…I notice a lot of your baked goods contains coconut sugar. Can you recommend a substitute? Would honey work for this recipe?
Trying to get my husband to eat Paleo is like pulling teeth, however, I didn’t have much trouble getting him to try these with the smell coming out of the kitchen! I used organic sugar because I couldn’t find my bag of coconut sugar! I took one bite just to taste them but I can’t eat any kind of sugar with my gut issues and sugar intolerance if I want to feel good so one bite bothered me plus it was too sweet for me even if I didn’t have sugar issues. I have been “desugarfied”! I took one to my Mom in the nursing home and she managed to gobble hers up and asked me to bring another tomorrow. These get 5 stars from my husband and my mother. Next time, I will cut the sugar in half and buy another bag of coconut sugar if I still can’t find my other bag!
Sounds good to me, glad they enjoyed! And being more sensitive to sweets is a good thing 🙂
Nice post about the Paleo pumpkin scones gluten free, this is very amazing information, thanks for sharing…
These are so good!! So Fall! I love your website!
Just made these and they turned out delicious. Great tip about draining the pumpkin, I think it helps a lot.
I have made these twice (once with chocolate chips). My coworkers (who are not paleo) love them so much they have requested them every Thursday! This is the best paleo scone recipe out there. Thank you!
Just made these and they are yummy and look so pretty!! Can’t wait to try more recipes!
Soooooooooo amazing! I used butter (bc that’s all that was cold) and I used a nut milk bag to remove moisture from my canned pumpkin. This recipe is perfect and a new staple for our family!
Can you freeze the dough ahead of time? If so how far I advance? Thanks!
Yes – I’d wrap and freeze for up to a few days.
The best Paleo Pumpkin Scone!
I love these!!! We actually substituted ground buckwheat groats for the almond flour as we limit our nut consumption and my daughters classroom is nut free.
Made a batch this morning and they are delicious!
These are soooo good. Make these today!
Just made these and they were DELICIOUS! Ended up needing to keep them in the oven for ~35 min and swapped out the maple sugar for coconut sugar and they were great! Thank you for putting together a scone recipe that was actually easy to follow!
I made these last night and they are perfect. They turned out quite moist even though I did strain the pumpkin in a nut milk bag. I used that coconut oil/palm oil combo shortening which was completely tasteless and worked perfectly. I also need to make things lower carb for blood sugar reasons, so I used allulose instead of maple sagar, and for the icing I substituted powdered erythritol, which I’m aware isn’t paleo but tasted amazing. Mine baked for exactly 20 min and were brown. Thanks for another hit recipe Michelle! Xo
Searched for an oven temperature on this entire recipe. Nowhere to be found. Going in now at 350
Mine are out of the oven, iced, cooled. Have great top crust, interior more like a blondie than a scone. Taste amazing
This was absolute perfection!! I had been craving a baked goody and this absolutely hit the spot! I’ll be making more of these to take to work.
I was craving scones and I love anything pumpkin so this recipe was perfect! I didn’t make the icing but they are delicious sans topping.
I didn’t have tapioca flour so we used sorghum flour instead and these are AMAZING!! So yummy on day 1 and 2! Thanks for the recipe.
These are amazing! I used 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp all spice. I did not have the other spice. Sooooo good.
While the flavor of these were OK in the “pumpkin-ey” sense, they really lacked in texture. First, I made these exactly according to the directions. Second, while the texture was decent right after eating, the following day, they were definitely more like a moist cookie than a scone.
I’m giving it a 3 for the flavor, but honestly I’d give less if it was a matter of texture. Sorry, this was not a keeper!
Wow, we cannot get enough of these!! Delicious, flaky, the perfect Fall treat! I cut the coconut sugar in the dough to 1/4 cup and then added 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips. For the glaze I melted 1/4 cup of coconut butter with 1 T pure maple syrup, vanilla, and a dash of pumpkin pie spice. SO SO GOOD! My son said, “Did you make these?”HA!
Made these today and they were very good. I cut the coconut sugar to 1/4 c, used Bob’s Gluten free flour instead of the arrowroot flour and added 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger instead of pumpkin spice. I iced with a cream cheese icing and pieces of candied ginger. SO GOOD! plus I did not have time to freeze the dough but it stills worked out great and they did not fall apart. Thanks for the recipe
Oh my gosh these were so good, full of pumpkin flavor. I added chopped pecan and maple glaze on top. Recipe was easy to follow.
So good! I have tried a couple other scone recipes and was always disappointed. The texture and flavor was perfect.