Don’t over-mix the dough. As this recipe uses wheat-based pastry flour, the more you mix the scone dough, the more the gluten in the flour will develop. If you overwork the dough, your pumpkin scones will turn out more like pumpkin muffins. (Obviously still delicious but not what we’re going for.) For the ideal scone texture, only knead the dough as much as is necessary to combine the ingredients. I find this is best achieved by using a pastry blender.