Sweet Potato Biscuits
The why-did-we-wait-so-long-to-retry-this-recipe-after-the-kitchen-explosion recipe that tastes so delicious smothered with easy-to-make homemade honey butter. Original recipe by Michael McLaughlin, Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving cookbook.
Servings Prep Time
12biscuits 20minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
1 1/2hours 1 1/4hours
Servings Prep Time
12biscuits 20minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
1 1/2hours 1 1/4hours
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork. Bake directly on oven rack until very tender–about 1 1/4 hours. Let cool completely.
  2. Peel sweet potato. Force it through a medium disk of a food mill or a large-mesh sieve into a bowl. Add buttermilk and whisk till smooth.
  3. In large bowl, add dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt). Add shortening and butter (I use butter only and sub butter for shortening.). Cut in butter by hand or use hand or stand mixer to incorporate until the mixture resembles dry cornbread. Add buttermilk and stir until a dry, crumbly dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, kneading 8-10 times until it just holds together.
  4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out dough into a 6×12″ rectangle. Using a knife, cut into squares. Transfer cut biscuits to a cookie sheet. Bake until doubled in size and lightly browned–about 12-14 minutes.
  5. While biscuits are baking, make honey butter: In mixing bowl, by hand or with a mixer, cream the butter and honey together until incorporated.
Recipe Notes

This delectable original recipe is by Michael McLaughlin, Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving cookbook.

Earlier I referenced the kitchen disaster. The explosion.

You may be wondering what explosion?

It was somewhere around Thanksgiving 2003. My MIL, SILs, and I hummed and buzzed around the kitchen, prepping our Thanksgiving feast. I was excited to try these Sweet Potato biscuits. My dough was in the making when the timer went off Beep! Beep-ing.

Of course I knew not to do this . . .

but we had run out of counter space,

my hands felt increasing heat through the hot pad,

and I had forgotten something . . .

Pop! Shatter. Clatter. Splatter.

That #OoopsMoment when you remember (too late) that the electric burner was still hot from cooking green beans and you set down a glass dish upon it.

Boy did that glass dish Pop! Shatter. Clatter. Splatter . . . everywhere . . . and INTO the Sweet Potato Biscuit batter. Glass-ridden Sweet Potato Biscuit dough that we had to throw away while we tackled the kitchen cleanup.

Of course messes clean up, but that took time. With two young boys to corral at the time, my window of opportunity to make Sweet Potato Biscuits had expired. As reality would have it, our family would not eat Sweet Potato Biscuits that Thanksgiving.

Would you believe I didn’t retry this recipe for a decade? But when I did, I thought to myself Why didn’t I make these sooner? These Sweet Potato Biscuits are delicious! And Mr. Mixer makes making Homemade Honey Butter so fast and easy.

So there you go. Now you know the back story re: the kitchen explosion and these Sweet Potato Biscuits.

My Cheats:

  • I used unbleached all-purpose flour.
  • I didn’t sift the flour.
  • I used Mr. Mixer to mix my biscuits.
  • I used butter only (no shortening, replacing 2/3 C shortening with 2/3 C butter).
  • I skipped the kneading step and turned my biscuit dough directly onto the baking pan. I scored it with a knife, making square biscuits on the baking sheet before baking.

Gluten-free option: sub gluten-free flour for gluten-full flour. I’ve tried this. The biscuits still taste pretty good, but the texture is different. The biscuits do not rise quite like gluten-full biscuits. I would still make them again. And really–any biscuit slathered with honey butter tastes delicious, doesn’t it?

Make Ahead Tips:

  1. Bake the sweet potato one day before you plan to make the biscuits. Keep it at room temperature.
  2. Prep the dry and wet mixtures several hours in advance, but wait to combine until assembling full recipe.
  3. Homemade Honey Butter can be prepped several days in advance of serving.

 

Looking for another recipe that uses sweet potatoes?

Mimi’s Sweet Potato Casserole

Need a Homemade Pie Crust recipe?

My FAV Pie Crust