A Bluestocking Knits

"Hobbity".  And of course, "hobbit tea" (see what I did there?!), though for a hobbit this is probably the bare minimum for elevenses.  Still — it is comfortable and appealing, being indoors and eating a warm scone with a cup of tea on a cold, bright winter afternoon, and what could be more hobbity than that?

Here is the recipe for the pumpkin scones, translated into American for us benighted non-metric folks, and adapted only a bit to my own preferences from Lady Florence Bjelke-Petersen's famous one —

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar (you can certainly use white, as in the original)
1 egg
1 cup mashed pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour + 1 tablespoon baking powder + 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt OR 2 cups self-rising flour

Preheat oven to 425° F.

Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the egg, then the pumpkin, mixing well, then stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until just combined.

Turn out onto a floured board and cut as you like.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until done.  (I usually use a stoneware tray, which takes a little longer.)

All of the versions of FBP's recipe say "cold pumpkin" but I'm pretty sure this is because the recipe is from the days when a housewife grew her own pumpkins and made the mash, and you would want to have the mash well-cooled so that it didn't start cooking the egg just from its radiant heat.  And there are never any spices in the recipe, but you could certainly add nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. to good effect.