Moist, fluffy and tender, these utterly delicious gluten-free pumpkin scones are crazy simple to make, oozing with pumpkin flavor, and ready in just 30 minutes! These honestly taste so good you’ll never know they’re gluten-free, and make the perfect breakfast, snack or light dessert!
Recreating Memories with These Scones
When I first started learning to bake in Argentina, one of the first recipes I tried was a recipe for scones – Juan’s mum’s scones to be precise. These were scones that she’d make for him and his brother since they were kids, and for him, the very idea of scones brings back comfort and memories.
However, when Juan was diagnosed with Celiac disease and we began cooking exclusively gluten-free, I never thought that we’d be able to re-create the same kind of scones his mum used to make for him. You see, it’s not often easy to get the right texture with gluten-free flours (for the very simple reason that gluten is what gives many baked goods the texture they have).
Why This Recipe Works:
When I’d just pulled out these gluten-free pumpkin scones from the oven and Juan bit into one of them, his eyes lit up and he said that they reminded him of his mum’s scones – which for me means these pumpkin scones are a huge success!
Light, fluffy, with a deliciously tender crumb (unlike most gluten-free baked goods that tend to be on the heavier and denser side), you’d never be able to tell that these scones are completely gluten-free!
The good thing about these scones (which are a great alternative to the Starbucks pumpkin scones without the icing on top) is that you can use both fresh or canned pumpkin puree (either way will turn out great), so you can enjoy these scones the whole year round, not just during pumpkin season.
Ingredients, Notes, and Substitutions
Here are the ingredients you’ll need, along with any notes or substitutions you can use:
- Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: Make sure you use a good gluten-free all-purpose flour blend (that is made with light flours such as rice flour, corn starch, tapioca starch), and that comes with xanthan gum (which is necessary for binding ingredients together as a replacement for gluten).
- Sugar: I’ve used white sugar in this recipe, but feel free to replace it with light brown sugar or brown sugar in equal quantities.
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Unsalted Butter: Make sure the butter is cold before using it. if you are dairy-free, feel free to substitute the butter with equal quantities of cold coconut oil. If using coconut oil, you don’t have to grate it. Simply add the cold coconut oil to the dry ingredients and mix well until there are no more clumps.
- Pumpkin Puree: I highly recommend using my recipe for fresh pumpkin puree (because it doesn’t have all the nasty additives and preservatives that tend to come with canned pumpkin), but feel free to use canned pumpkin puree if that’s the only option you have. It will work just as well. Alternatively, you can use sweet potato puree, apple puree, or even butternut squash puree if you don’t have pumpkin puree available!
- Egg: If you have an egg allergy, you can try using an egg replacer (such as Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer).
- Milk: I used normal milk in this recipe, but if you are lactose-intolerant, you can swap it out for other non-dairy milks in equal quantities such as my recipe for homemade almond milk or homemade cashew milk.
- Yogurt: To make this dairy-free, you can use coconut yogurt in place of normal yogurt.
How to Make These Scones:
1. Preheat and Line Baking Sheet
Make sure you preheat the oven to 425F before baking to ensure that your oven is at the right temperature when the dough is ready to be baked. You’ll also want to line your baking sheet with either parchment paper or a silpat so that the dough doesn’t stick to the surface.
2. Combine the Ingredients to Get the Dough
In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients together and mix well (gluten-free flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt). Grate the cold butter over the dry ingredients, then mix gently with your hands until there are not longer any large chunks left.
In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (pumpkin puree, egg, milk, and yogurt) until they are well combined. Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring until you have a homogeneous dough, but do not over-stir.
3. Shape Dough and Cut into Triangles
Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured surface (make sure you use gluten-free flour) and use your hands to shape it into a round disk. Cut the dough into 6 equal triangle-like pieces (as you would a pizza), and place each piece of dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure the triangles are at least 3-inches apart (the dough will expand as it bakes).
4. Bake and Enjoy!
Bake the dough for 15 minutes at 425F, or until the edges have turned golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let these gluten-free pumpkin scones cool very slightly before serving them warm with with whipped cream, maple syrup or even eating them plain!
Recipe FAQs:
If you don’t plan to eat these gluten-free pumpkin scones straightaway, make sure to allow them to fully cool before storing them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Yes, you can definitely freeze these scones. Simply place them in a freezer-safe container or ziplock bag and freeze them for up to 3 months. When ready to eat them, let them thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and warm them up for a few minutes in the oven at 350F before serving.
If you would like to make these without using pumpkin puree, simply swap out the pumpkin puree with equal quantities of sweet potato puree, or butternut squash puree, or even apple puree!
Other Pumpkin Recipes You’ll Enjoy:
- Homemade Pumpkin Puree (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Crustless Pumpkin Pie (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
- Pumpkin Scones (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Easy Pumpkin Muffins (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Easy Pumpkin Bread (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Super Moist Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Cheesecake (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Pumpkin Waffles (Gluten-Free)
- Savory Pumpkin Soup (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
- Pumpkin Thyme Risotto (Gluten-Free)
- Pumpkin Gnocchi with Rosemary Brown Butter (Gluten-Free)
P.S. If you try this recipe, I’d love for you to leave a star rating below, and/or a review in the comment section further down the page. I always appreciate your feedback. Be sure to check out my entire Recipe Index for all the recipes on the blog. You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram! Sign up for my Email List to get fresh recipes in your inbox each week!
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Gluten-free Pumpkin Scones
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 large scones 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Moist, fluffy and tender, these utterly delicious gluten-free pumpkin scones are crazy simple to make, oozing with pumpkin flavor, and are ready in just 30 minutes! These honestly taste so good you’ll never know they’re gluten-free, and make the perfect breakfast, snack or light dessert!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons frozen unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425 deg Fahrenheit (218 deg Celsius) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- In a medium bowl, combine gluten-free flour with sugar, baking powder and salt, then mix well.
- Grate frozen butter using a cheese grater into the dry ingredients, then mix gently with your fingers until there are no more large chunks left.
- In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, egg, milk and yogurt until well combined. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, stirring until just you get a homogeneous dough, but do not over stir.
- Remove dough onto a lighted flour surface (make sure you use gluten-free flour) and form a round disk. Cut dough into 6 equal triangles and place triangles on prepared baking sheet, making sure that each triangle has plenty of space around it (note that the dough will expand as it bakes).
- Bake dough for approximately 15 minutes or until edges turn golden brown and a tooth pick inserted in the middle of the scones comes out clean.
- Serve scones warm with whipped cream, maple syrup, or eat them plain!
Notes
Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Blend: Make sure you use a good gluten-free all-purpose flour blend that is made with light flours such as rice flour, corn starch, potato starch, or tapioca starch. The gluten-free flour blend should also include xanthan gum, which is necessary for binding ingredients together (as a replacement for gluten).
Unsalted Butter: Make sure the butter is cold and frozen before using it as you’ll need it to be hard in order to grate it. If you’re lactose-intolerant, you can replace the butter with equal quantities of cold coconut oil – in this case, you don’t have to grate the coconut oil, simply mix it into the dry ingredients.
Pumpkin Puree: While you can use canned pumpkin, I highly suggest making your own homemade pumpkin puree, which in my opinion tastes better, is definitely cheaper than store-bought, and is also healthier (because it’s free from all the additives and preservatives that canned pumpkin comes with)! You can also swap out the pumpkin puree with sweet potato puree, butternut squash puree, or even apple puree in the same quantities.
Egg Substitute: If you have an egg-allergy, or simply want to keep this egg-free, you can use an egg-replacer such as Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer.
Milk Alternatives: I used normal milk in this recipe, but if you are lactose-intolerant, feel free to use non-dairy milk in equal amounts. You can use my recipe for easy homemade almond milk or 5-minute cashew milk too.
Yogurt Alternative: Feel free to swap out the normal yogurt for coconut yogurt in equal quantities if you wish to keep this dairy-free.
Barely adapted from: Laura Fuentes
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: gluten-free pumpkin scones
This was my first foray into gluten free baking with Gluten Free flour mix. My mixture was somewhat dry so I added some additional pumpkin puree and yogurt. I am glad I did….the texture of the scones turned out amazing. Without the additional wet ingredients, I think they would have come out too dry. I also used homemade pumpkin puree (using the recipe on this website). I used a pie pumpkin to make my puree. I was skeptical that I would get much pumpkin flavor with only a half cup of puree and I was correct in my assessment. Unlike the scone photos in the blog, my scones are more yellow….think cornbread. Maybe using a different type of pumpkin for my puree or canned pumpkin would have yielded a more “pumpkiny” tasting scone. The scones are definitely edible but do mot possess the pumpkin embodiment that I was hoping for!
★★★
Hi Lisa! Thanks for your feedback…So sorry to hear that your first foray into GF baking didn’t turn out so well! Sometimes it may have to do with the gluten-free flour mix used – May I know which flour mix you used? I know that some flour mixes are denser and heavier (because they use bean flours like garbanzo bean flour etc), and I usually recommend a flour mix with lighter flours/starches (such as white rice flours combined with potato starch/tapioca starch/cornstarch). I’m glad you followed your instinct to add more pumpkin puree and yogurt. Perhaps adding a hint of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice would have given it more pumpkin flavor that you were looking for 🙂 Thanks again for letting me know how it went!
These are the best GF scones I’ve ever had! I’m dairy free and just substituted coconut oil for the butter and dairy free milk and yogurt and it was spectacular! I did add 1.5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice to give them a little kick. Thanks so much for sharing and I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Your pumpkin waffles are on the menu for this weekend.
★★★★★
Hi Jenny!!! You just made my day, so happy to hear that these are the best GF scones you’ve had!! And that extra pumpkin pie spice sounds perfect for making it extra pumpkin/fall-ish. Fingers crossed you’ll enjoy the pumpkin waffles too 🙂 And thanks again for your note, looking forward to seeing you around here again 😉 Have a great weekend dear! xx, F.
Decided to give these a try today as well…pretty much all the leaves have turned a nice pumpkny color in our yard. The dough is very very soft tho…I coucln’t even get them to cut without them falling apart! They’re in the oven now and hopefully keeping them in the round, like I do my almond flour ones, will work…fingers crossed
Hi Terry! thanks for your note and for trying out the recipe! Yes the dough is very soft, but that’s also what keeps them moist and tender once they’re baked! Fingers crossed they turn out well!! 🙂
Hi Felicia,
I realized that I have not been making any scones for the longest time.
Your modified recipe of gluten free pumpkin scones reminded me, more specifically inspired me, to make another batch of this wonderful scones again.
This time I will try it with sweet potato puree as you have suggested as an alternative flavor.
Thanks again, I greatly appreciate your effort to revisit and modify some of your wonderful earlier recipes for our benefits.
Love and Blessings,
Mum
★★★★★
Hi mummy! Yay, hope the sweet potato scones come out well! I’m so happy that you find the republished/updated recipes more useful, ultimately my goal is for anyone who lands on a recipe on the blog to be able to make it without any issue/doubts, so thanks for the feedback!! 🙂 Love you!!
Hi Felicia!
Thanks for replying so quickly to me! I went ahead and made the scones that day with 2 TBS coconut milk instead of milk and yogurt and used a flax egg and they were EXCELLENT!!! I also set 2 aside before baking and wrapped them individually in Saran Wrap then popped them in the freezer. They were in there for almost 2 weeks (I couldn’t last any longer knowing they were in there!). This morning I preheated the oven to 400°, unwrapped the frozen scones, and baked them (completely frozen) for 25 minutes and they turned out perfect!! I’m excited that it worked! I’ll be making these next week to have on hand for family on Thanksgiving! Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing to know I can keep scones in the freezer at the ready for whenever I want though. 🙂 Thanks for posting this recipe! God bless!
★★★★★
Hey Steph!! Thanks for letting me know how the scones went (especially after freezing them!!) So glad you loved them! I hope your family will love them as much too! 🙂 God bless you!
Hi Felicia! I just found your blog and love it! This scone recipe looks incredible and now want to rush to the kitchen to try them! A few questions for you. I’m hoping to make this for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. Have you made these ahead of time and popped them in the freezer before baking? Also, can I make them with a flax egg and substitute 2 tbs rice milk for the 1 tbs milk and 1 tbs yogurt?
Thankyou! God bless!
Hi Steph!! So glad to have you here! Definitely, you can substitute the egg with a flax egg and use rice milk instead of normal milk and yogurt. I haven’t made these and frozen them before baking, but I’m 99% sure that should work fine!! Let me know how it goes! would love to hear! God bless you too!
I must say that this is the best gluten free pumpkin scones that I have ever had! Thank you for sharing your recipe with us.
★★★★★
Karen! So happy to hear that!!! Glad you enjoyed the pumpkin scones 🙂
I’ve got a few other gluten-free pumpkin recipes on the blog (as well as other that I’ll be sharing in the next month or so!)
In case you’re keen:
1) Easy Gluten-free Pumpkin Muffins
2) Gluten-free Pumpkin Waffles
3) Super-Moist Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread
Hope you enjoy the other recipes too!! Happy Fall!
I’m thrilled you loved my recipe and they were a success at your house! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Laura! Thanks for dropping by! And most of all, thanks for the inspiration to make these scones! They really had great texture!
Hi Felicia,
I was so happy when I managed to find the gluten-free flour blend (both plain and self-raising) sold at NTUC fairprice last weekend. I bought them without hesitation.
Now with your gluten-free pumpkin scones recipe, I am excited to put these flour into good use immediately. Would you recommend that I use the plain one or the self raising lot? If I should use the self raising flour, am I correct to say that I can leave out the baking powder mentioned in your recipe?
Your scones look very tempting and I just cannot wait till I have baked some this weekend to enjoy them with my tea. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
BIg Hugs and Blessings 🙂
Mum
★★★★★
Hello mummy! Yay! glad you managed to find gluten-free flour – hope you’ll like these scones! In this case, I would suggest that you use the normal gluten free flour with the baking powder, although you might also get the same results with the self-raising flour. (Just be careful not to eat too many things made with the normal gluten-free flour as the flours such as rice flour, tapioca flour etc have high glycemic index and are not good for blood sugar). I would say eat foods made with gluten-free flour sparingly so it doesn’t aggravate your already high blood sugar! 🙂
Love you mummy!!