Best Sweet Potato Biscuits
Best Sweet Potato Biscuits ever! Fluffy, flaky, moist, and flavorful. These babies need to be on your Thanksgiving table this year.
Eight days away from Thanksgiving… Are you ready?
Don’t worry. I’ve got more awe-inspiring and easy recipes to share in the next week, so don’t sweat it.
I’ve got you covered.
After the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pie you’ll serve this Thanksgiving, what are we missing?
That’s right, the bread!
Soft fluffy bread is a MUST at a classic Thanksgiving dinner. It needs to be warm and fragrant to stand up to the rest of the heavy-hitters on the table.
Well, I think today’s Sweet Potato Biscuits are more than adequate to step up to the plate.
These babies are moist and tender with a delicate sweet potato essence weaved throughout.
The secret to light airy biscuits that rise in tall flaky layers, is to make sure your wet ingredients are cold (and stay cold) until the biscuits make it into the oven.
That means you need to work fast!
Bake a few sweet potatoes, then place them in the fridge to chill. Believe it or not, it helps to freeze your butter so you can shave it with a cheese grater into little bitty pieces.
That’s not cheese you see in the image above, that’s butter!
When it’s time to make the sweet potato biscuits, mix the dry ingredients, then quickly incorporate the cold wet ingredients.
Fold and roll the dough several times to create layers, then cut out the biscuits and pop them in the oven COLD.
Have I made it clear that the dough needs to be cold?
Good. Just checking. *wink*
See the rise on these beauties?
They are much easier to make than they appear.
…and certainly worth the few minutes of rush to get them in the oven cold.
These Sweet Potato Biscuits come out of the oven piping-hot, smelling sensational, and ready for butter.
Best Sweet Potato Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour + extra for rolling
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups mashed chilled sweet potato from 2 large baked sweet potatoes
- 12 tablespoons frozen shaved butter + 1 tablespoon melted
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
Instructions
- Bake 2-3 sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for about an hour, until very soft. Place in the fridge to chill. (I often do this a day ahead, or save a few baked sweet potatoes from a meal earlier in the week.)
- Place 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of butter in the freezer and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment papers and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir to blend. Then peel and mash the sweet potatoes, and measure out 1 1/2 cups to add to the dry mixture. Keep cold until ready to use.
- Using a cheese grater, shred the butter onto a piece of wax paper and put the butter back into the freezer until ready to use.
- When ready to mix the wet and dry ingredients, WORK FAST, and keep your hands off the dough as much as possible... it must stay cold until it goes in the oven to create light flaky biscuits. Add the mashed sweet potato to the dry mix and stir to combine. Then add the buttermilk and frozen shaved butter and stir to combine.
- Dump the dough out on a floured work surface. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out into a 1-inch thick rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds. Roll again and repeat. Fold in thirds and roll out one more time. Add flour as needed. Use a 3 inch biscuit cutter (or a drinking glass) to cut out the sweet potato biscuits. Flour the glass as needed, and cut the biscuits very close together. Cut all 16 biscuits out the first time if possible. If not, gather and roll the dough and cut again.
- Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheets. Brush the tops with melted butter and place in the oven while they are still cold. Bake for 8-10 minutes until tall and golden. (If the dough is not cold, it's best to pop the baking sheets in the fridge for a few minutes before baking.
Nutrition
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Can I use almond flour?
Hi Dee,
I wouldn’t use just almond flour, but a gluten-free 1-to-1 baking mix would work!
Loved this!
My family loved these biscuits! Incorporating the grated butter is so much better than using the pastry cutter or the food processor because those methods warm the butter faster. I also “seasoned” my potatoes with cinnamon and allspice before adding to the flour mixture. When I was a little girl, my Grandmother would take the leftover scraps of biscuit dough and fry it like a donut. She would then shake it in a paper bag filled with powdered sugar. I do this for my children now and they can’t wait to eat scrap donuts from this dough. Thank you for sharing!
I want to make these for a brunch party but don’t want to make the dough the morning of. Ideally, I want to make the dough night before and bake day if. Could I make the dough, cut the dough as you advise, and either refrigerate or freeze it, and pull out when time to bake? Will it make for a tougher biscuit though? Pls advise if I can even do this and if so, if you’d freeze or refrigerate and in doing so, if temperature and baking time should be adjusted. Thanks!
Hi Sam,
As long as you don’t handle the dough much, you can refrigerate and bake these, without any issue, up to a couple days later. Happy Baking!
Thank you so much for this recipe! Seriously ONE OF THE BEST, if not THE BEST biscuits I’ve ever made/tasted in my life! I couldn’t really taste the sweet potato, but barely noticed because I was busy drooling over the texture! So tall, fluffy and buttery! Divine!
Bellissimi!
These biscuits sound SO GOOD! I love this!
These are great! I love that the recipe is easy but the biscuits are special enough for Thanksgiving dinner!!!
So, let me get this straight – are you saying they have to stay cold? ;)
Awesome tutorial, Sommer!! I think we need these with our turkey soup tonight. xo
Those are perfect. I think I just found what bread I’m making for Thanksgiving!
These look so flakey and puffy! I would love this at my Thanksgiving table!
These are awesome! I just slathered with butter and drowning in honey!
WOW these look incredible!! I wish I could reach in and grab one right now…
I will never say no to a delicious biscuit, especially when there’s sweet potato involved!
Mmmmm! These biscuits look scrumptious Sommer!
oh yes….. so good!
Welllll buttah my biscuit – these look perfect for Thanksgiving – so flaky!
Sommer!! Girlfriend! Yes these are everything a biscuit should be!
These look perfect, Sommer!
I’m loving the flavor of these biscuits.
Oooo, these look so good Sommer!!
They look perfect!
That’s so ironic, I just posted a sweet potato biscuit recipe too! Yours looks way better than mine though. They look so fluffy and delish and what a great tip about keeping them cold. So trying it!