Day 235: Sweet Potato Biscuits ♥

Sweet Potato Biscuits, a sweet southern tradition ♥ AVeggieVenture.com. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special.
A traditional southern biscuit laced with cooked sweet potato, a great way to use up leftover mashed sweet potatoes from dinner, say. (Naturally, if you've got a hankering for sweet potato biscuits asap, you can bake or microwave the sweet potato, special.) The biscuits are soft and pretty and easy to make, no mixer required, just a few pantry ingredients.

Traditional in the American South. Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Great for Meal Prep. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special.


Why Put Sweet Potato in Biscuits?

Mine is a family of biscuit lovers. When I first made Sweet Potato Biscuits, it would take another ten years to master Mom's Perfect Biscuits. (Be sure to check out the step-by-step photos, How to Make Perfect Biscuits (Step-by-Step Photos & Detailed Instructions + Eight Tips for Extra-Good Biscuits).)

But I remember wondering, why do biscuits need sweet potato anyway?

Color! No doubt, Sweet Potato Biscuits have the loveliest pale orange color. I also love how the layers are flecked with sweet potato.
It's a handy way to use up leftover sweet potato.
It adds a little nutrition to the biscuits.
For me, it's just a way to mix it up a little.
But for people who grew up in the South, sweet potatoes are a thing of family tradition! Folks go on and on about sitting down to platesful of biscuits, dripping with butter and syrup. My kinda tradition, yours too?!





Just updated. First published way back in 2005!

RECIPE for SWEET POTATO BISCUITS

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 30 minutes
Makes 12 large biscuits

8 tablespoons (1 stick/4oz/112g) salted butter
1 cup (200g) cooked and mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup milk
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 310g
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg or a blend
3/4 teaspoon table salt
another 1/2 cup milk

Set oven to 400F/200C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

With a cheese grater, grate the butter on the large holes onto a plate or sheet of wax paper. Slip the plate or paper into the freezer to freeze while continuing.

In a bowl, whisk together the sweet potato and 1/2 cup milk.

In a mixing bowl large enough to hold the biscuit dough, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. With a large fork, toss the grated butter into the flour mixture until the butter is evenly distributed. With a wooden spoon or spatula stir in the sweet-potato milk mixture, just until mixed, then the remaining milk; don't overwork the dough.

Dust a clean workspace with flour. Bring the dough together in your hands and knead the dough two or three times on the flour; again, don't overwork the dough. With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1/2-inch thick. For round biscuits, use a biscuit cutter, cutting straight down without turning the cutter, one right next to the other; collect the scraps and press together to create a new, combined dough, then cut again. For square biscuits, just cut the dough with a long knive, cutting straight down.

BAKE Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet leaving about 1" space between and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the bottoms and tops are both golden and crisp.

LEFTOVERS The biscuits stay fresh for several days. Cut in half and rewarm in a toaster or even easier, brush the cut side with a little oil and "toast" in a hot skillet just like Fried Bread.

TO FREEZE Freeze the biscuits before baking, then bake as many as wanted at a time, no need to thaw though the baking time will be a little longer.

VARIATIONS No sweet potato? Use canned pumpkin, cooked butternut squash or even cooked mashed potato.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
HOW TO COOK THE SWEET POTATOES Any of these ways will work, microwave, oven or slow cooker. Even these Trader Joe's Mashed Sweet Potatoes would work!
If you're cooking the sweet potatoes special, it takes about 1-1/2 large sweet potatoes to yield 1 cup of cooked sweet potato.




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Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

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