Lately, I've been obsessed with the Great British Bake-Off, which is only the best baking competition show ever. OBSESSED PEOPLE. OBSESSED. The style, the class, the accents, the lingo, the bakes I love it all. In fact, it has inspired me to step up my baking game. Which led to this purchase. Makes total sense.
For the record, I went to TJ's looking for yeast to make bread. Sadly, they were out. In the meantime, I needed a bread-ish product to bake for breakfast. Hence the scone mix. "Scawns" if you're British.
But these are definitely not scones, not by British standards anyway. They are barely scones by American standards. These look more like drop-biscuits, which would still make this a scone-ish, maybe. After all, the British categorize scones under the biscuits. But wait, biscuits are cookies...I'm confused.
Not too much sugar. The label says "spices" without specifying, so I'll have to guess what they used. I've made actual scones before, and it's a bit involved. You have to cut the fat into the flour, roll out the dough, and cut it into triangles. None of that business here.
My experience with TJ's baking mixes has been pretty favorable. The mixes are generally very user friendly. You have to do something egregious to mess it up. The only margin for error here is overmixing, so just mix until the flour is combined into the dough. Don't overthink it. There's no precision here. You literally drop it by generous spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. I tried to make them about the same size and ended up with 10.
I used a whole stick of butter as noted on the package and almond milk because that's what we had on hand. I suppose you could use coconut oil, but this is a scone people. Not using butter here is kind of an outrage.
These came out better than expected. Not as dense as some other scone recipes I've made, probably because those recipes used two sticks of butter instead of one. I'm not sure what spices they used, but the pumpkin flavor here is very acceptable. Maybe cinnamon and nutmeg. Pumpkin spice fanatics might think there isn't enough, but if that's the case, just sprinkle in more pumpkin pie spice. A said he liked it because there was only a hint of pumpkin. I wish there were a few more cranberries in the mix for the bright tartness that it gives. Loved the texture - soft, not overly dense, but not dry or crumbly. I'd take this over a muffin any day. Overall the scone isn't too sweet. If you wanted it more sweet, you could slather on some jam or pumpkin spice speculoos.
This pumpkin scone mix is "seasonal," but for some reason it's still hanging around the shelves. Not bad! Would repurchase to fulfill my need to bake without exerting the effort. Will try the berry scone mix next. That one is "just add water," so we'll see.
TL;DR: Trader Joe's Pumpkin Cranberry Scone Mix. A DIY drop biscuit "scone" that doesn't scream pumpkin spice. or Christmas. It's just nice and easy. 7.5 out of 10.
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