Low-Carb Pumpkin Buns

This started off as an adaptation of Paratus Familia's pumpkin scones recipe.  I made this a few years ago and it worked well with flour.  I wanted to try substituting almond flour for most of the wheat flour to see if I could produce a lower-carb version that would meet the needs of people with diabetes or insulin resistance.

I ditched the glaze and just swapped out two cups of flour for two cups of almond flour:

2  c almond flour

1/2 c flour

6 Tb sugar

1 Tb baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 c butter

1/2 c pumpkin puree

3 Tb heavy cream (or milk; see below)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

First I dumped all of the dry ingredients into the bowl--making a very pretty display--then added the butter.

I let the butter soften, then cut it in with two forks.  I don't have a pastry cutter, but the two fork method works pretty well.  If the butter is soft, an entire stick can be cut into the flour in about five minutes. 

I mixed all of the wet ingredients, then added them.  I have now made three batches of these.  Twice I have used condensed milk, three tablespoons, undiluted.  Once I used heavy whipping cream.  I don't really notice a difference.

Until this point, I was expecting to make almond flour scones.  I formed a circle of dough and tried to cut a wedge, but the dough didn't have enough cohesiveness to hold together as I lifted it and tried to put it on the cookie sheet.  At this point I realized I was going to be making pumpkin biscuits, soft cookies, or buns, but not scones. I baked them at about 17 minutes at 400 (I have learned, by the way, that my oven runs about 20 degrees cool--meaning I actually baked them at 380; 17 at a true 400 degrees might toast them a little too much).  They turned out reasonably well.

It may be that I need a greater percentage of wheat flour to get them to hold together, or it could be that making a drier dough would help.  One way to do that would be to substitute powdered whole milk in place of regular (or condensed) milk.  I may try that. Or I can just live with buns instead of scones. The flavor is fine.