Flaky Sweet Potato Biscuits

This post has been sponsored by Vermont Creamery, but all opinions are my own.

I just checked and the temperature on my phone’s weather app is in single digits. The soup season is officially here. I have a big pot of vegetable beef soup simmering on the stove as I write this. I don’t know about you, but for me what I serve with soup is just as important as the soup itself.

For years, I served my soups with either my cornbread muffins, almond flour biscuits, or whole wheat biscuits. While I still love and make those recipes, lately I have also been making these sweet potato biscuits. They are soft, fluffy, and subtly sweet all at the same time. The addition of sweet potatoes into the biscuit batter provides a surprising flavor and makes them deliciously moist.

With only six ingredients, this easy sweet potato biscuits recipe comes together in one bowl and requires no mixer. You can make them ahead and freeze to bake later. Serve them with soups, stews, chilis and even as a side dish for your holiday dinners. 

Intrigued? Let’s make them together.

Ingredients

First things first. Let’s gather the ingredients for our sweet potato flour biscuits recipe. As I mentioned earlier, you only need 6 ingredients to make it:

1. All-Purpose Flour: This recipe uses 2 cups of all-purpose flour
2. Baking Powder: We use 4 teaspoons of baking powder to increase the volume and lighten the texture of the biscuits. I know it sounds like it is a lot, but trust me you need it for deliciously thick sweet potato biscuits.
3. Kosher Salt: Only ½ teaspoon of salt to balance the sweetness.
4. Unsalted Butter: I think we can all agree that butter makes everything delicious. And this recipe is no different. I used 6 tablespoons of my favorite, Vermont Creamery’s unsalted butter. They recently started selling their European style butter in sticks.
   If you are not familiar, European style butter has more fat than regular butter. If you have never tried butter with high content, I cannot recommend it enough. It is the secret to having delicious and flaky sweet potato biscuits. Make sure that your butter is very cold. 
5. Mashed fluffy sweet potatoes: This recipe uses a cup of cooked and mashed sweet potato (I used one large sweet potato.) I recommend roasting one in advance and keep it in the fridge in an airtight container so that it will be nice and cold when you are ready to make your biscuit batter.
6. Buttermilk: You can’t make Southern-style old fashioned sweet potato biscuits without buttermilk. We use buttermilk for its additional fat and liquid content as well as its acidity. When used in conjunction with leaveners, the acidity in buttermilk helps the dough rise.

How to make It From Scratch

The process of making this homemade sweet potato buttermilk biscuits has four folds. 

First, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt in a large bowl. 

Second, cut the butter into small pieces and add them to the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender (or the back of a fork), work the butter into the flour mixture until butter pieces are as small as peas. Fold in the mashed sweet potato and buttermilk with a wooden spoon. 

Third, turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a 1 ¼  to 1 ½ inch thick rectangular. Using a round biscuit or cookie cutter (I used a 2-inch round biscuit cutter) cut rounds and place them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Gather the remaining scraps and repeat until all the dough is used.

If you have time, I highly recommend popping the sweet biscuits into the fridge for 30 minutes so that they can get really cold. You can do this before or after shaping them. 

Why? The following is from an article called “The Secret That Makes Your Biscuits Much Better” published on Mashed.com. It explains it best:

Cold ingredients, particularly the butter, is key to making better biscuits because it’s what makes gives them that flaky texture you’re aiming for. During the baking process, the intact bits of cold butter that are suspended in the flour are what create the layers of dough.

Alternatively, you can make prep the biscuits a day in advance, cover them tightly with stretch film, and keep in the fridge until you are ready to bake.

What Temperature To Bake Biscuits

Finally, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the buttermilk sweet potato biscuits for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown. Take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes before serving.

That’s it. Just like Grandma’s sweet potato biscuits made from scratch in less than an hour!

How Long Will Biscuits Keep

I’ll be honest, these biscuits are best when they just come out of the oven. However, if you keep them in an airtight container, they will last for 1 to 2 days at room temperature or up to 5-6 days in the fridge. 

Can I Freeze These Biscuits

Yes, you can. I recommend freezing them before baking as I think it will produce the freshest sweet potato biscuits in the end. To do so, freeze the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet first. Then once they are solid hard, place them into a freezer bag and get as much air out as possible. 

I love freezing them because you can bake one or more as you need them and have the most delicious warm sweet potato biscuits to serve with dinner whenever you want. Though be aware that they will need a few extra minutes (2-3 minutes max) of bake time. 

You can freeze them after baking as well. To do so, bring them to room temperature, place in a freezer bag, get the air out of the bag as much as you can, and place in the freezer. When ready to serve, reheat them in a 300 F degree oven for 10 minutes or until warmed thoroughly.

Other Sweet Potato Recipes You Might Like:

• Sweet Potato Souffle
• Sweet Potato Noodles Recipe
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes
• Easy Vegan Sweet Potato Soup Recipe
• Mashed Sweet Potato Recipe
• Need more inspiration? Check out all our bread recipes.