These flaky Pumpkin Spice Biscuits have all the cozy flavors of Fall without any pumpkin. They’re light, buttery, and filled with warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, making them a delicious snack or breakfast treat!
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If you are anything like me and are not a fan of pumpkin, or you just don’t want to have half a can of pumpkin puree languishing in the back of your fridge, these flaky Pumpkin Spice Biscuits are for you! Light, buttery, and easy to make, you can serve these sweet biscuits for breakfast and brunch, or enjoy them as a sweet Holiday breakfast or snack the whole family will enjoy.
Reading through my recipes for pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin spice pancakes, you see that I just can't stand the Devil’s gourd. It’s a legit childhood trauma that I don’t care to recover from, and I took it as a personal challenge to develop a delicious biscuit that contains absolutely no pumpkin purée. A pumpkin biscuit for the rest of us. It's about time!
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Ingredients & Substitutions
This is a fairly standard list of ingredients for homemade biscuits, with the addition of more sugar and some pumpkin spice, along with the ingredients to make the optional spiced maple butter. Let's go over the major ingredients and how you can make this work for you.
- All-purpose flour I don't have any recommendations for a gluten-free flour because I've never tried it in this recipe. If you have leftover self rising flour from making my 2 ingredient bagels or my easy cream biscuits, you can use that here and just eliminate the additional salt and baking powder.
- Sugar This recipe calls for both granulated sugar and powdered sugar. I use granulated sugar in the biscuits, but feel free to substitute with brown sugar for an even richer pumpkin pie flavor. The powdered sugar is for making the pumpkin spice butter. I would not recommend using a different sugar in this case or the butter texture will not be as creamy.
- Maple syrup The spiced maple butter is optional, but it's highly recommended! I use real maple syrup in this spiced maple butter. There's not a lot, but it makes a real impact. If you can't find or afford maple syrup, you can use a little bit of maple extract, half a teaspoon, or substitute with pancake syrup.
- Butter Because there is no standard amount of salt between butter brands, I always use unsalted butter in my cooking and baking. This way I control the amount of salt I do or do not want in my foods. If you only have salted butter, do not add additional salt.
- Pumpkin spice In the recipe card, I will list all of the components to my homemade pumpkin spice. If you already have store-bought pumpkin pie spice, feel free to use that. You could also substitute with an equal amount of apple pie spice or cinnamon. Whatever works for you and your kitchen situation.
See printable recipe card at the bottom of the post for full recipe.
Do you love the flavor and aroma of maple syrup as much as I do? Try one of my other mapley recipes like my maple glazed millionaire's bacon or banana apple cider donuts, and the maple apples in my breakfast chops or on my chai spice waffles are always a hit! Don't forget dessert. You can make a batch of my maple molasses cookies or apple turnovers for everyone!
Instructions
The process for making these pumpkin spice biscuits is very similar to making my original flaky buttermilk biscuits, except we will only be doing one set of cut and stacks. If you do too many cut and stacks you won't get the distinctive layers of pumpkin spice and that's just so pretty to look at.
- To start: In a small bowl mix together 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice. Set aside. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a large sheet pan.
Step 1: In a separate bowl, place room temperature unsalted butter, powdered sugar, maple syrup, pumpkin spice, and kosher salt.
Step 2: Use a hand mixer to combine until fluffy. Place in a small ramekin and set aside.
Step 3: In the bowl of your food processor combine all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and one teaspoon of the pumpkin pie spice. Add in 8 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter that has been cut into small cubes. Pulse for 4 to 5 one second bursts in the food processor.
Step 4: Dump your flour mixture into a large bowl. Add in ¾ cup of buttermilk and mixed to a cohesive dough.
Step 5: If you have a lot of dry mixture at the bottom of the bowl, add up to 2 tablespoons more buttermilk, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together. (you may not need the full 2 tablespoons)
Step 6: Dump onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a square. Use a bench scraper or knife to cut into four equal pieces. Move one of your quarters to the side and sprinkle your pumpkin spice sugar on top of the other three squares.
Step 7: Stack the three squares on top of each other, topping it with the un-sugared piece. Press down gently into a large square and cut into quarters. Roll out to ½ inch thickness and use a round biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.
Step 8: Place biscuits on a parchment paper lined large baking sheet and pop into the freezer to chill while you preheat your oven to 425°F. When the oven is preheated, remove the pan of biscuits from the freezer and brush biscuits with more buttermilk or an egg wash made of one egg whisk with 1 tablespoon of water.
Step 9: Place the baking sheet in your hot oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until deep golden brown and well risen. Allowed to cool at least 10 minutes before spreading with maple spice butter.
Expert tip: Optional vanilla glaze
My strawberry biscuits and blueberry biscuits both have a sweet vanilla glaze, which is awesome on these pumpkin pie biscuits as well. To make the glaze whisk together 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream, ½ vanilla extract, and a tiny pinch of salt. Spoon over the top of cooled biscuits. If you would like a thinner glaze for drizzling, add one more tablespoon of milk or cream.
Recipe FAQs
Toss cold butter cubes into the dry ingredients and, using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix in the cold butter until you have a mixture of flat pieces and coarse crumbs, pea sized bits of butter mixed into the flour. Then continue with the recipe as written.
Store leftover biscuits in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
This can be a challenge if you used a glaze, but leftover biscuits can be reheated in the oven or microwave until warm. For best results, do not glaze until ready to eat.
To make these ahead, cut out your biscuits, freeze them until solid, and place them in a zip top bag until ready to bake, up to 3 months ahead. At that time, just take them out of the freezer while preheating the oven and add a few minutes to your bake time.
More Sweet Biscuits and Scones
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-Cynthia
📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Spice Biscuits (without pumpkin)
Ingredients
Pumpkin spice (or store-bought)
- 3 tablespoons (24 g) ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons (2 g) nutmeg
- 1 ½ teaspoons (3 g) ground allspice
- 1 ½ teaspoons (3 g) ground cloves
Pumpkin spice sugar (for inside biscuits)
- 1 tablespoon (12 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) pumpkin spice (from above or use store-bought)
Spiced Maple butter
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons (40 g) maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) pumpkin spice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Biscuits
- 2 cups (250 g) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (12 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) pumpkin spice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) butter cold and cubed
- ¾ cup (180 g) buttermilk plus up to 2 tablespoons more
Instructions
- In a small bowl mixed together 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice. Set aside. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a large sheet pan.
- Place softened unsalted butter, powdered sugar, maple syrup, pumpkin spice, and kosher salt in a medium mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer to combine until fluffy. Place in a small ramekin and set aside.
- In the bowl of your food processor combine all-purpose flour, the remaining sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and one teaspoon of pumpkin spice. Add in 8 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter that has been cut into small cubes. Pulse for 4 to 5 one second bursts in the food processor.
- Dump your flour mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add in ¾ cup of buttermilk and mixed to a cohesive dough. If you have a lot of dry mixture at the bottom of the bowl, add up to 2 tablespoons more buttermilk, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together. (you may not need the full 2 tablespoons)
- Dump onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a square. Use a bench scraper or knife to cut into four equal pieces. Move one of your quarters to the side and sprinkle your pumpkin spice sugar on top of the other three squares.
- Stack the three squares on top of each other, topping it with the un-sugared piece. Press down gently into a large square and cut into quarters. Roll out to ½ inch thickness and use a round cutter to cut out biscuits.
- Place biscuits on a parchment paper lined large sheet pan and pop into the freezer to chill while you preheat your oven to 425°F. When the oven is preheated, remove the pan of biscuits from the freezer and brush the tops of the biscuits with an egg wash made of one egg whisk with 1 tablespoon of water.
- Place in your preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden Brown and well risen. Allowed to cool at least 10 minutes before spreading with maple spice butter.
Save This Recipe! 💌
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later, plus you'll get great new recipes from me every week!
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