Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Cream Cheese Scones

I inadvertently eat a lot of gluten-free meals, mainly because I don't always have pasta or bread at the meal.  But I had never tried gluten-free baking.  Having a gluten-intolerant friend over for brunch forced me to do some experimenting.  I wanted to make some sort of flavored scone.  I love pumpkin anything, so that was an easy go-to.  My first thought was to use graham flour instead of wheat flour, however I couldn't find any.  After looking at the ingredients label for graham crackers, I knew I couldn't use those.  So I bought gluten-free pancake mix.  The mix contains rice flour, and ingredients to aid in rising and to prevent too much crumbling.   After that, I just added in butter, an egg, and the flavorings.  It was very easy, actually.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Cream Cheese Scones

What you'll need:
1 1/4 cups gluten-free pancake mix
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp cold butter
1 egg
1/3 cup, plus 1 tbsp pumpkin puree
1/3 cup cinnamon cream cheese
2 tbsp nonfat milk
egg white to brush tops of scones

Icing:
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tbsp nonfat milk
1 tbsp cinnamon cream cheese

What to do:
1.  Preheat oven to 425*F.  Mix together all dry ingredients (pancake mix through sugar).  Cut up butter and add to dry ingredients.  Using your hand, pinch together the butter and dry ingredients until mixture looks crumbly.

2.  Add the egg, pumpkin puree, cream cheese, and milk to the dry mixture.  Mix with a wooden spoon until blended evenly.

3.  Form into a ball and flatten out in a disc 1/2" thick.  Cut into 8 equally sized triangles.  Bake 14 minutes until the scones are golden brown.

Separate the scones by about one inch.  If you run out of room, you can line them up in rows.

4.  Combine all ingredients for the icing.  When scones have cooled slightly, drizzle or spread icing over scones.  Recipe makes 8 scones.