Sweet Potato Biscuits
Mashed sweet potato worked into the dough for a tender, faintly sweet, deep gold biscuit.
Makes 12 biscuits · Prep 20 min · Bake 15 min
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup Cold butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup Sweet potato purée, cooled — cooked and mashed smooth, not tinned pie filling
- 1/3 cup Buttermilk, cold
Instructions
Prep
- Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking sheet.
Dough
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together, then cut in the cold butter until it looks like coarse crumbs.
- Whisk the cooled sweet potato purée and buttermilk together, then stir into the flour mixture just until it comes together. (Tip: The purée must be fully cooled — warm purée will melt the cold butter you just worked in, and this dough depends on that butter staying solid.)
Shape
- Turn onto a floured surface, pat to 3/4 inch thick, and cut rounds, pressing straight down without twisting.
Bake
- Arrange on the sheet and bake until golden — check a couple of minutes early, since the sugar in the sweet potato browns faster than a plain biscuit.
Tips
- Roasting beats boiling: Roasting a sweet potato whole until soft, then scooping and mashing the flesh, gives a drier, more concentrated purée than boiling does — boiled sweet potato takes on extra water that can throw off this dough's balance.
- Biscuits browned too fast: That's the sweet potato's natural sugars at work. Tent loosely with foil for the last few minutes if the tops are colouring before the inside is done.