These biscuits will seriously upgrade your standard bread basket. Use left over sweet potatoes to make these mildly sweet, fluffy, biscuits.
I always have left over sweet potatoes. We roast them, boil them, and grill them. I had some left over whole-roasted beauties (with the skin on) and wanted to repurpose them in a new way. I scooped out the flesh of a few left over roasted sweet potatoes, threw them in a blender with some water, and VOILA! Sweet potato puree.
The remaining ingredients are pretty standard, (flour, buttermilk, butter) but something happens when these bake. They have great volume, and almost look like scones. The texture is light and flaky, but with a hardy crust and gorgeous warm orange hue. These biscuits can be whipped up in no time, and that’s why we like them!
One of the key points in biscuit making 101 is to make sure all of your ingredients are cold. I pre-cut my butter and toss it in the freezer until I’m ready to mix it in. The acid found in buttermilk is essential in making a flaky, crumbly, dough. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to whole milk and let it sit and curdle for about 10 minutes. This mock-buttermilk will do in a jiffy and no one will ever be able to tell.
You can cut in the butter using a pastry cutter, food processor, or two knives. I always prefer to use my hands. I like to work the butter into small crumb-like pieces with my fingers until the dough is laced with coarse pea-size buttery morsels. I find using my hands is easier and you have more control. The food processor yields the most consistent sized-pieces, but I hate the clean up.
It is also very important not to over work the dough. When adding the wet ingredients, mix gently just a few times with a rubber spatula before turning over onto a lightly floured surface to shape the dough.
At this point, add a little more flour if the dough is too wet. Fold the dough onto itself a few times, and shape a 1 inch thick rectangle. Feel free to use any sized biscuit cutter you have (I always just use a knife and make rustic looking biscuits). Bake, and serve with butter, honey butter, and jam!
Original recipe slightly adapted from the queen, Martha Stewart.
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- ¾ cup sweet potato puree, chilled
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- Preheat oven 425.
- While oven is preheating, make the dough.
- In a large mixing bowl, add all of the dry ingredients. With a pastry blender (or your hands as I did) cut in the butter pieces until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some clumps of butter remaining. In a sepearte small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk. Mix the wet mixture into the dry ingredients quickly until just combined (be careful not to over mix).
- Shape Biscuits:
- Turn out dough mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Knead very gently just until the dough comes together, but is still slightly lumpy. Fold the dough onto itself about 5-6 times, I like to work clock wise. I fold the right side into the middle, take the bottom piece fold it upward, take the left side fold it into the middle, and so on. This will help create luxurious layers later on.(if dough is too sticky add a bit more flour).
- After folding the dough onto itself, gently pat down the dough to a 1-inch thick rectangle. Here you can use a biscuit cutter if desired, I just used my knife a cut it into 6 pieces and kept it simple and rustic.
- Bake on parchment paper or a Silpat for 15 minutes. Serve with butter (or honey butter if you're trying to party).
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