Day 6 — Mini Pumpkin Ginger Scones
Welcome to a special 10-day “TJ’s Quay” series where we hoist the main sail of autumn by reviewing Trader Joe’s hottest fall foods.
The holiday season is filled with cozy weather, time with family and friends, and nostalgia-inducing food at every turn. This combined flurry of activities along with the love, time, and… more time that these goodies require can add stress to any seasoned galley chef’s kitchen.
Looking for a pumpkin provision that earns you 99% credit for a homemade treat with 1% of the effort? Sail no further than the frozen aisle of your local TJ’s to procure their 12 Mini Pumpkin Ginger Scones.
Serving scones is fancy enough. Adding in a seasonal twist will have you the talk of the wharf. Top that with crystalized ginger? You’ll have sailors of all stripes on your shores.
From yesterday’s fully prepared to today’s par-baked, let’s get cooking.
Flavor — 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 8/10
Airy. Savory. Flavorful-y.
Texture in baked goods is one of the first sensations I experience and scones are the true Goldilocks combination. Not too soft. Not too hard. TJ’s magical artisan (pre)bakers got this just right.
Next item to strike the palette is the swirling flavors of pumpkin and ginger. It’s definitely pumpkin-forward with a, as Michael Scott would say, ginger afterbirth.
Gross quote/analogy aside, this is crystallized ginger — a fancy way of saying they added sugar until it became sweet… and then they added more. The pumpkin-ginger alliance is strong and a nice departure from the typically cinnamon-heavy season.
Ingredients — 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 7/10
While only needing finishing touches in you home oven, the ingredients aren’t that far from a full DIY situation. There’s a handful of commercial ingredients that you probably don’t keep in your galley — could I borrow a cup of riboflavin? — but, overall, they’re straightforward.
Outside of the baking ingredients, both actual pumpkin and actual ginger are here. While ginger is a part of the pumpkin spice girls (literally and figuratively), it’s usually downplayed. Here it takes center stage while the others are anonymously lumped together at the end as “spices”.
You take your moment in the spotlight ginger…
Value — 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 8/10
They are mini but there’s also many (12) of them. From the flavor alone you get a lot of not-much-work-but-it-seems-like-they-were-so-you-will-get-a-lot-of-head-nodding-while-chewing value.
At less than $0.50 per scone, it’s a lot of pinky out experience for non-generational wealth money.
Final Thoughts
These scone-y scones check a lot of boxes and add another flavor/access edge to your seasonal repertoire. You even have the flexibility to throw in just a couple for yourself on a crisp morning or bake the whole batch for the pending fall breaks.
Whatever the quantity, just save one… or four… for me. 🧡