Buttermilk Sweet Potato Biscuits

Makes about 16

Buttermilk Biscuits

We sometimes adapt this biscuit dough to make a crust for a potpie or a cobbler, but there's no beating it as a plain old biscuit. Light and crusty, with a glowing orange interior, it cries out for a pat of soft butter that will melt and dribble down your chin.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Coarse salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, well chilled
1 cup cold baked sweet potato, peeled
1/2-1 cup buttermilk, as needed

Heat the oven to 400 degrees

Stir the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt with a fork in a mixing bowl. Drop in the butter and toss it in the flour, then cut it into pieces. Work the butter into the flour until it resembles oatmeal.

Whip the sweet potato with a fork until it's very smooth, then add it to the bowl. Work it in lightly but thoroughly with your fingers. Add 1/2 cup of the buttermilk and stir. Add just enough additional buttermilk to make a smooth and only slightly sticky dough.

Dump the dough onto a floured surfacec and knead it two or three times. Flatten it out to 1/2 inch thick—you can dirty a rolling pin for this if you want, but your hands will do the job just fine—and cut out biscuits with a 2-1/2-inch cutter. Put the biscuits on a baking sheet. Gather the scraps together, pat it down, and cut out more biscuits.

Brush the biscuits with buttermilk and bake for about 15 minutes, until well risen and appealingly browned. Serve hot.

Buy the Book!

from:
One Potato, Two Potato
300 Recipes from Simple to Elegant—Appetizers,
Main Dishes, Side Dishes, and More
by Roy Finamore with Molly Stevens
Houghton Mifflin Books
Publication date: October, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-00714-8
Recipe reprinted by permission.