Pumpkin and Ginger Beer Biscuits
I rarely make biscuits. They’re really easy to throw together but I just don’t think of it. I saw this recipe on Foodgawker and it caught my eye. Mostly because it had ginger beer in it.
I have been loving a good Dark and Stormy recently. The fizz and spice from the ginger beer is awesome. You can taste that same fizz and spice in these biscuits. (confession – I’m not sure that you can actually taste fizz, but Hubby and I both thought these biscuits tasted fizzy, so just go with it).
We snacked on these biscuits while they were still warm with some melted butter. They were perfect with subtle hints of pumpkin and the taste of ginger (and fizz).
One Year Ago: Brasato al Barolo (Beef Braised in Wine)
Pumpkin and Ginger Beer Biscuits
Yield: 10 biscuits
Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
A pinch of fresh nutmeg
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup ginger beer
Milk, for brushing
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425F. Grease a 9x9 pan and set aside.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt, powdered sugar, nutmeg, and ginger together in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the middle and add cream and pumpkin puree. Using a pastry cutter or a knife, begin to cut wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Gradually begin to add ginger beer until there is enough to form a soft dough. The mixture should hold together but not be sticky.
Working quickly and gently, gather dough together on a floured surface. Try to handle the dough as little as possible, using lightly floured hands to stop dough sticking to you, and pat the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. You can lightly knead the dough with your hands but be sure not to overknead it.
Cut out rounds and place next to each other in the prepared baking pan. Brush tops with milk then bake for 12-15 minutes, or until scones are cooked through and golden on the top.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then cover with a tea towel until you are ready to serve. Serve warm with butter, or jam & cinnamon whipped cream.
Recipe adapted from Raspberry Cupcakes
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I really need to stop reading blogs in the morning. I’m craving fries at 9am!! They look perfect 🙂
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 8:05 am
I hear ya there. Sorry to put the idea in your head so early in the morning.
OK, I have to ask … what is the point of the paper towels??? I could understand using foil to avoid the clean-up, but I don’t get what the paper towels are for? As for bacon, I’v never done it on racks, just drained it on paper towels, but now you’ve got me thinking about it and wondering if it would make any difference in the cooking. I’ll have to try a half and half tray next time to see… and that I definitely line the pan with foil for. 😉
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 9:02 am
The paper towels just soak up the grease as it drips down so it doesn’t smoke in the oven since it’s at such a high heat. With bacon, you have a lot more grease dripping down than with potatoes. I’m sure foil would work just as well for these french fries.
Ahhhh, gotcha. My first thought was clean-up, but that didn’t make sense because the oil would go right thought the paper towels. Thanks.
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 9:22 am
Yep. I guess it would make a lot of sense to do foil then paper towels for ease of cleanup and keeping the oil from smoking.
oh my gosh- i’m totally trying that rack trick! (for fries as well as bacon!) these look amazing 🙂
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 10:57 am
Definitely try it – I started doing it when Alton Brown posted on Facebook about it for bacon.
I was really hoping for some sort of uncommon ingredient or complicated instruction so that I wouldn’t be tempted to make these, but I have all of those things on hand. Looks like I’ll be making french fries this weekend!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 7:20 am
Ha – sorry I couldn’t have made it more complicated. Hope you enjoy them!
Hey this is great! Salty snacks are also a weakness for me 🙂 I also bake fries around here, especially out of sweet potatoes, but never thought to use a rack. Of course that will help! And I can’t wait to try your curry ketchup! Thank you.
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 9:30 am
I think sweet potato fries would be awesome with the curry ketchup!
I just made tomato free ketchup last night (for acid reflux) and am now hunting for lower fat things to dip in it! I think these will do nicely!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 1:59 pm
Oh – what is in tomato free ketchup? I’m intrigued…
The recipe I tried last night was cranberry sauce, pears and carrots, plus vinegar, sugar and spices. It was a good first effort, but I still need to work on getting the proportions right.
I already make a tomato free pasta sauce from sweet potatoes, carrots and beets (plus lots of basil, parsley and oregano) which I am also going to try to turn into ketchup.
I’ve had to give up a lot of foods in my life , but giving up ketchup is just a bridge too far!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 3:14 pm
Oh wow. That does sound like an interesting combination of flavors! We got a juicer earlier this year and have been making a bunch of vegetable juices. The sweet potato/carrot/beet combination sounds like one of my favorites. It also has red bell pepper in it.
Oh this is so wonderful! Homemade fries are the best 🙂 especially when they are perfectly crispy like these!
I have got to try these!! They look amazing!
It seems like a good alternative to frying potatoes that would still result as crunchy. Good post.
I followed the instructions and they burned. I have a convectional oven and I think that may be why, so I’m just goibg to stick to frying pans
beantownbaker — July 19th, 2013 @ 2:19 pm
Bummer they burned for you! My oven has a convection button on it, but I’ve never used it before…
Tried these tonight and they were a greasy, soggy mess. Way more greasy than my usual oven fries. Followed the directions to the T… confused and disappointed. Going back to my old recipe which is crunchy on three sides.
beantownbaker — August 4th, 2013 @ 6:45 pm
Sorry to hear these didn’t work out for you…
I just made this recipe and all I can say is WOW!!!! So easy to make and the paper towel idea is great. I may never buy frozen french fries again. THANKS so much for this awesome recipe. My husband who is a great cook really liked them.
beantownbaker — August 12th, 2013 @ 7:41 pm
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Do you know the calorie count for these fries? just wondering
beantownbaker — August 13th, 2013 @ 5:50 pm
Sorry, I don’t know the calorie count for this recipe.
Watch your back, McDonalds! The noms 🙂
beantownbaker — September 13th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
🙂
Just twittered about it here: https://twitter.com/SissyWillis/statuses/378581929638895616
beantownbaker — September 13th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
Thanks!
I have cooling racks but they’re black and I’m worried they will melt or burn… They’re the basic ones from Walmart… Anyone else have these kind? Just wondering before I try this yummy recipe!
beantownbaker — September 25th, 2013 @ 4:14 pm
Hm. I’d be worried about that too… If you have a broiler pan that came with your oven, you could use that instead. Just line the bottom with paper towels.
I’m with you – if the fries are good, I can eat an embarrassing amount. I made these tonight – I soaked them for a few minutes to remove some of the starch, then dried them thoroughly and followed the rest of the directions. These were stupid-easy and completely delish. I have deleted all of my other fry recipes ’cause they can’t compare.
beantownbaker — October 8th, 2013 @ 9:49 am
So glad you enjoyed these. And I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who can house some fries! Soaking them to remove some of the starch is a good idea. I’ve also made these with garlic and parm – SO GOOD.
I just made these. They took WAY longer than I expected (but that’s probably because I don’t wait for my oven to preheat because I’m impatient), THEY WERE AMAZING. i feel like I’m eating carnival fries, they’re perfect. Hats off to you!
beantownbaker — October 28th, 2013 @ 9:32 pm
So glad you enjoyed them. Preheating definitely helps, but cooking them longer works too 🙂
I am making these right now and just turned them after the firts 10 minutes..should of oiled the racks as some of them stuck..but so far they are awesome….yes tasted already..lol..my greatest weakness is french fries and these do rule..thank you so much
beantownbaker — November 3rd, 2013 @ 12:35 pm
Glad you enjoyed them! Oiling the racks is a good idea. I’ll update the recipe to mention that.
I made these tonight CAREFULLY following the directions ( And I have been cooking for 50 years) The only ones that were crisp were the ones too burned to eat — the others were a soggy, greasy mess and were much too salty.It will certainly discourage me from trying other recipes from this site. Oh, and no, the paper towel did not burn- just turned brown & the kitchen did smoke up — would probably set off the smoke alarm if I had not had the vent fan on.
beantownbaker — November 7th, 2013 @ 10:08 am
Sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you. It sounds like it might need a few tweaks to work with your oven…
I am making these right now and so far, 30 minutes into baking them, they are greasy and soggy. Not sure what happened, but next time I’m going to try soaking them in water first to remove the starch.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:34 pm
Bummer they didn’t work out for you. Did they ever crisp up?
Just made these babies! They came out perfect! I noticed some of the fatter slices stayed a bit soggy. I know better for next time. Thanks for the recipe!
beantownbaker — January 18th, 2014 @ 9:05 am
So glad this was a hit for you! It is really tough to cut a potato into evenly sized slices, so yes, sometimes the fatter ones are a bit soggy. I usually remove the ones that are done and throw the rest back in the oven for a few more minutes.
Came out very soggy, cooked them longer too. Kids were real upset, came out nothing like the picture.
FYI..you can use stale or reg slice bread under the rack to catch the oil…works great for bacon so am guessing will work for this too….will be trying these fries tonight : )
beantownbaker — February 3rd, 2014 @ 5:01 pm
Great tip about the bread. I’ve never heard of that. Let me know how they come out. I know some people needed to bake them longer to get them nice and crispy.
Get yourself a gadget that slices potatoes into french fries. Size will be consistent. Make sure you dry the potatoes really well before cooking. Try less oil. I use olive oil..
I’m making these right now. I haven’t tried them yet, but my smoke detectors keep going off from the paper towels burning, so i had to take them off 🙁 i hope the turn out alright!
Tried this method and also the method without the cooling rack and there is a noticeable difference. The batch using the cooling rack really makes the fries more crispy. I dunked the fries in cold water for both batches to get some starch out and dried them before putting them into the oven. Although not terribly soggy, the ones without the cooling rack never really crisped up. True about seasoning… I thought I seasoned mine too much, but the end result was still too bland. Thanks for this recipe!
Just made these tonight and paired them with Horseradish Fry Sauce…. umm we didn’t even get them to the plate they were so delish! Let’s not ever speak of my fry obsession again.
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:23 pm
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Best French fries (can you still call them that if you bake them?) ever. I took steps to avoid them becoming crispy, and they were nice and soft. I know I’m in the minority here, but that’s how I prefer them. I had to substitute a few things. Chili powder in place of paprika, garlic powder in place of garlic salt. They were the best fries I’ve ever had (I’m including deep fried fries in that). They tasted like what you would get at Ruby Tuesdays but better.
I am making them tonight, I used an apple corer to cut the potatoes, cut a little in the bottom, so potatoes stand up, the middle part I just slice in half, I always soak them in water after there slice, it does cut the starch. Make sure to dry them good, before using the seasoning.