Pumpkin scones (recipe & a story)

This is from "Australian Good Taste", June issue, 1999. I thought it is a
lovely story and I did make these lovely pumpkin scones for our Sunday
breakfast because my sister is leaving for NZ tonight… They were DELICIOUS!
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Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen, retired national Party Senator for Queensland

"Everybody seems to associate me with pumpkin scones. It’s because over the
years, when the media would come to visit (husband and former Queensland
Premier Joh), he’d say, ‘Well, give them a cup of tea and some pumpkin scones,
Florence’, so I used to make a batch for everybody. I think the media has got
to the stage where they thought all I was good for was making pumpkin scones!
But I like to think that people know me for the fact I was a senator, not just
a pumpkin scone maker!"
"It would have been a fair while ago I first tasted Mum’s pumpkin scones – I
would have only been about 15 or something like that. I didn’t even help her
make them, to be honest. I wasn’t given to cooking in those days – I had an
office job, so I’d just go to work and leave Mum to do the cooking. When I
arrived home, the scones would be sitting there on the table.
"I didn’t really show any interest in the recipe for them until I got married.
Then I asked Mum for the recipe and, in fact, I asked her for lots of other
nice, plain, wholesome recipes as well. After we were married, I came to live
with Joh at Kingaroy (in Queensland) which was right next door to his mother’s,
and I didn’t want him to have to go rushing home for meals. I wanted to be
able to provide them myself.
"It didn’t take me too long to master the scone recipe and I haven’t changed it
at all because it’s always worked for me. I think as long as you apply a bit
of commonsense when you follow a recipe, your meals will turn out OK. When
people tell me they can’t make scones, I say, ‘Well, what you do is handle them
with TLC – don’t bash them too hard’.
"We have busloads of people come to ‘Bethany’ (the Bjelke-Petersen’s property
in Kingaroy) for a property tour and I still make pumpkin scones for them. We
had 50 here last week. I made 50 myself and so did my daughter-in-law. I
allow a couple of scones per person. We put butter on a few, butter and jam on
some others, and jam and cream on the majority. That way, people have all the
options, and I must say, there are rarely any leftovers.
"Since retiring from politics, I still have a lot to keep me busy. I have
grandchildren who live close by, so I spend time with them. I do plenty around
the house and we have to visit Brisbane periodically. If anybody from the bus
tour asks me for my recipe for pumpkin scones, I certainly give it to them. I
don’t have a pile of photocopies on hand, but I do keep a few copies."
--as told to Rebecka Delforce

Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Scones, make 16
20 g butter, at room temp
110g (1/2 cup) sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 egg
235g (1 cup) cold mashed pumpkin
375g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
Butter to serve

Preheat oven to 225C. Use a wooden spoon to beat the butter, sugar and salt in
a med. Mixing bowl until combined. Add the egg and beat until combined. Fold
in the mashed pumpkin.

Add the flour and use your hand to mix until evenly incorporated and the
mixture begins to hold together. Do not over mix.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until just
smooth.
Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out the dough until about 2 cm
thick. Use a round 5cm pastry cutter to cut out scones from the dough.
Place the scones about 1cm apart on a baking tray. Bake in preheated oven for
15 min. or until golden.
Remove scones from oven and wrap them immediately in a clean tea towel. Serve
warm with lashing of butter.