Folklife Friday: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Y'all know how I love sweet potatoes. Autumn wouldn't be near as nice without sweet potato pie and baked sweet potatoes.

We live about fifty miles from an Amish community where we travel every fall to buy sweet potatoes. If I use them sparingly, they will last until after Christmas. Sweet potato casserole is as much a part of our Christmas as the tree and tinsel. It's back to the canned ones after that. Canned ones are not bad but require just a little more butter than the fresh ones.

Last weekend was spent at a retreat in the North Georgia mountains with some of my besties. After the teaching was done, we played and shopped and ate. At one of the restaurants, we were served a plate of sweet potato biscuits while we were waiting for our food. They were so good, I could have eaten the whole plate by myself!

How hard would it be, I wondered, to make my own? Not long after I got back home, I looked through my cookbooks, knowing one would jump out out me. And, of course, it was Paula Deen's! If anyone can be trusted with cooking sweet potatoes, its Miss Paula.

Are you ready? Here we go!

You need 3/4 cup mashed sweet potatoes. A normal person would peel one large or two small sweet potatoes, chop them in small pieces, and boil, covered in water, until done.



I have never claimed to be normal. I hate peeling sweet potatoes. So I boil them whole in their skins until they are tender.



You can peel the skin off with your fingers at this point.


Mash them with a potato masher, or you could use your mixer here.


After the sweet potatoes are completely mashed, add the butter and some milk.


Now, ain't that purty??!



Add your flour, sugar, other dry ingredients to the sweet potato mix (Recipe below). I couldn't make a photo here because I had flour on my hands. The mixture will be stiff; put on a board and knead just until the dough is smooth. Pat it out with your hands until it is about 1/2 inch thick.



Cut them out. Save all the scraps, mash them together, and shape into another biscuit or two.



Here they are--a dozen biscuits in the oven. I love this iron baker, because the biscuits will slip off right side up.


They were yummy! I made up some honey cinnamon butter just in case the biscuits didn't have my daily required calories. Thank you, Miss Paula!




Sweet Potato Biscuits from The Lady & Sons, Too! by Paula H. Deen


3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes


1/4 cup milk


1/4 cup butter (room temp)


1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour


4 teaspoons baking powder


2 heaping tablespoons sugar


1/2 teaspoon salt



Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the potatoes, milk, and butter. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the potato mixture and combine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and toss lightly until the outside of the dough looks smooth. Roll the dough out to one-half inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased pan and bake for about 15 minutes.



Enjoy!