Sweet Potato Biscuits

Hubby loves biscuits. He is usually the one making them while I am asleep for most of the morning. But this past week I was in the grocery store and saw sweet potatoes. Hubby loves him some sweet potato biscuits. He also loves country ham. So I picked up some Virginia country ham as well - Smithfield to be exact.

I did a food blog search to find a good recipe for sweet potato biscuits and came across this Martha Stewart recicpe on the blog Orangette. I'm a big Martha fan, and that combined with Orangette's review sold me.

This recipe is somewhat time consuming, but making biscuits from scratch usually is - especially if they aren't the drop kind.

But, the result is probably the best sweet potato biscuit I have ever - seriously, ever, put in my mouth. These turned out to be so moist and buttery. Little puffs of pure heaven. Hubby loved these. I will definitely be adding this recipe to my permanent rotation of favorites.

Sweet Potato Biscuits
slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
7 tablespoons chilled butter, divided
3/4 cup chilled Sweet Potato Puree (sweet potatoes peeled, boiled and then pureed) (2 large sweet potatoes gave me about 2 1/2 cups)
1/3 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.With a pastry blender or two knives (I used the pastry blender attachment on my stand mixer), cut in 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-size lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup chilled Sweet Potato Purée and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness.With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter (I used the top of a glass), cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes (I pulled them out at 18 minutes and they were perfect).