If you’ve got extra sweet potatoes hanging around the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, make these sweet potato biscuits, inspired by Budget Bytes and watch them disappear faster than the turkey.
Light and flaky, these scrumptious homemade sweet potato biscuits come to the holiday table flaunting a fluffy high-rise of golden layers and an enticing rosemary aroma. Your holiday guests will be grabbing for their share before you even set the biscuit basket on the table.
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Worried that adding sweet potato puree to biscuit mix will result in a leaden puck of bread? Put your concerns aside. As long as you use cold ingredients and treat the dough quickly and gently, these sweet potato biscuits will be the best biscuits you’ve ever made.
Cold ingredients matter. When it comes to biscuits, flaky is a good thing. To achieve a lofty stack of flaky layers, you need to use cold fats and liquids. The dry ingredients coat the bits of butter, which will melt during the baking, keeping the layers separate. If the butter melts before baking, it will create a homogenous dough that leads to dense biscuits. For this recipe, we freeze the stick of butter and use a grater to grate the butter bits into the dry ingredients. Be sure your sweet potato puree and milk are chilled before adding them to the mix.
Be gentle and quick with the biscuit dough. The best biscuits are made with a light hand. Mix ingredients just until combined then dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Work in just enough flour to keep your hands from sticking to form a free-form ball. Don’t overwork the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to about 3/4-inch thickness.
Use a sturdy sharp-edged cutter for lofty symmetrical biscuits. A sharp cutter will efficiently slice through the biscuit dough without compressing the layers unevenly. There is no need to twist the cutter as you cut out the dough. Twisting it will seal the sides of the biscuit dough and hinder its ability to rise in the oven.
Mix the dry ingredients and cut in butter
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Grate the frozen butter stick into the flour mixture. Gently toss the flour mixture to coat the bits of butter.
Combine the sweet potato puree and milk
Place the sweet potato puree in a bowl and blend in the milk until smooth.
Add the sweet potato mixture and rosemary to the dry ingredients
Add the sweet potato mixture to the flour mixture and sprinkle with rosemary. Working quickly, stir the ingredients together until moistened and no flour remains at the bottom of the bowl.
Make dough and cut out the biscuits
Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and incorporate just enough flour to keep your hands from sticking. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 3/4-inch thickness. To cut the biscuits, use a sharp biscuit cutter and press the cutter straight down into the dough, without twisting. Make 8 biscuits, then gently reroll scraps to cut additional rounds.
Bake the biscuits
Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 F for 15 to 20 minutes or until the biscuits have risen high and are golden in color.
Serve warm with softened butter
Make a compound butter by whipping softened butter with honey or maple syrup to give your holiday guests a real treat.
A special twist on your typical biscuit
So flaky and tender!
Just out of the oven
Pure comfort food!
Sweet potato biscuits
Yield 8 servings
Ingredients
- 2 to 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, frozen, grated
- 1 cup sweet potato (approximately 2 medium), cooked, pureed in a food processor, cold
- 3/4 cup whole milk, cold
- 1 teaspoon finely minced fresh rosemary
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt together.
- Grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture. Stir just until the butter is coated with the flour mixture.
- Place sweet potato puree in a large bowl. Add milk and blend until relatively smooth.
- Add the sweet potato mixture to the flour mixture. Sprinkle with the rosemary. Stir until the ingredients are mixed well and no dry flour is left at the bottom of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and work in just enough extra flour so it doesn’t stick to your hands. Be careful not to overwork the dough.
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 3/4-inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter, cut the dough into 8 rounds. Reuse the extra scrapes and gently re-roll the dough to make additional biscuits.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the biscuits on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly golden brown on top.
- Serve the biscuits warm with softened butter.
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