When pictures of these rich sweet potato biscuits were first posted to my social media sites, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Fans were promised the story and recipe would publish in a few days. I’m now writing this in the last days of December in the super early hours of the morning because of a sleepless night. One wonders just how crazy I was to make a promise during the week of Thanksgiving holiday and during the launch of this year’s KwanzaaCulinarians.com.
KwanzaaCulinarians.com is a group of food bloggers, chefs and other creative-thinking writers sharing food stories and recipes about Kwanzaa. It was launched last year, and it only publishes stories in December. In addition to balancing MyLifeRunsOnFood.com, working a full-time job, helping a boyfriend with his personal project (now pushed back to January 2013), and maintaining my household (Kudos to people with kids), please forgive me for failing to publish these Sweet Potato Biscuits as promised during the week of Thanksgiving.
Here’s to the recipe that made people excited in my social media circles. Like most ‘hot’ online stories, the excitement caused when people first saw the pictures of this recipe has since quieted down. Right now everyone is enjoying their holiday and the memory of seeing pictures of sweet potato biscuits are long lost. Perhaps this late story will freshen their memory. Remember… good food comes to those who wait. Perhaps, it’s better these delicious Sweet Potato Biscuits are served with a New Year’s Day meal.
Sweet Potato Biscuits
Recipe adapted by Martha Steward
Ingredients
- 3/4-cup cold, sweet potato puree
- 1/3-cup buttermilk; shaken well
- 1-3/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar; more or less, the amount depends on a preference for sweetness
- 2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 6 to 8 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into ½ in. pieces
- 1/8-cup melted unsalted butter for greasing baking dish and biscuit dough
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease an 8 to 9 inch baking dish or a black skillet.
- Whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process for about 5 to 10 seconds.
- Add cold butter pieces and pulse on and off for about 10 seconds. The mixture should be crumbly with pea-sized pieces of butter.
- Add sweet potato-buttermilk mixture to the food processor. Process until the dough is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX. The dough will still be shaggy texture.
- Place dough on a lightly floured surface. Lightly knead the dough about 5 or 6 times. The dough will still be slightly sticky, but if it’s too sticky add a little more flour.
- Shape dough into a roughly shaped disk. Quickly flatten dough with a floured rolling pin into 1-inch thickness. Using a 2 inch round cookie cutter or the top of a glass, cut out dough and place in the greased baking dish or black skillet. Repeat this step with leftover scraps.
- Bake biscuits for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly brown.
- Serve biscuits hot with your favorite jam.
What a lovely blog and I do like the sound of this recipe. Nice photography too.
Thank you, Anika! And, I see you’ve finally started a blog, too! Looking forward to your articles and ideas!
Hi, Marisa! Thanks for visiting MyLifeRunsOnFood.com! Any jam will taste good! I love concord grape, orange marmalade and apricot jam.
Gosh, these look good! I have never had sweet potato biscuits. What jam do you recommend?
Hey Sanura! These biscuits look great. I just might have to try them. I discovered your Kwanzaa Culinarians site last month and wanted to tell you that I LOVE the idea. Will definitely be checking it out for our Kwanzaa celebration next year.