Pumpkin Biscuits with Pumpkin Spice Butter

Makes about eight 2 1/4" square biscuits.

Preheat oven to 400F.

I found this recipe in a Kroger magazine.  It doesn't appear to be a sweet, spicy biscuit so I made the pumpkin spice butter to complement them.  The texture was really soft and the biscuits held together very well while regular biscuits typically crumble a lot.  Since this isn't a sweet or spiced biscuit on its own, I think it would work well for a breakfast biscuit, such as sausage, egg and cheese (with some grape jelly, mmm).  This recipe is also a great way to use some of that leftover pumpkin puree you have in the fridge from making pumpkin bread or pumpkin pancakes.

Ingredients

2 C all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur organic all-purpose flour)

1 tsp salt, fine

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 T baking powder

1/2 C cold butter (1 stick)

1 C pumpkin puree

1/2 C buttermilk

In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients and mix.  Then cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter or fork until there are no longer any large lumps of butter.  With a fork, stir in the pumpkin puree and buttermilk.  If necessary, add a little more milk, a tablespoon at a time, to absorb any remaining loose flour in the bowl.  The dough should form a rough ball, small bits of butter will be visible, and it will be slightly sticky.

Dump the biscuit dough onto a floured surface.  Press out using your hands until it's about 1" thick then lightly sprinkle with flour and fold in half.  Repeat this process about 5 or 6 times, add flour to the surface as needed to prevent the dough from sticking.  Form the dough into a  4" by 8" rectangle, it should be about an inch thick at this size.  Using a sharp knife (preferably serrated), cut the dough into 2 pieces long ways being careful to not pull the dough with the knife, then cut in half short ways, then cut the 2 parts in half to make 8 total square biscuits.  

Place on a pan, leaving about 1/2" space in between each one.  Bake for about 18-20 min, remove from the oven, then let set for 5 minutes before eating.

Pumpkin Spice Butter

1/4 C butter, softened (1/2 stick)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 T pure maple syrup (you may substitute with honey)

In a small bowl, mix all 3 ingredients until creamy.  Spread on a biscuit and enjoy your moment of heaven.

 Just taken out of the oven.

 Broken open and butter concoction applied.