Sweetpotato Biscuits

I love sweetpotato; boiled, mashed, or roasted. So why not biscuits?

I found a recipe in the Culinary Arts Institute cookbook that I thought would be interesting to try and it didn't have a lot of ingredients either. Might I add that I still need to figure out the lighting in my place, but I'm a bit lazy – sorry :)

I gathered up all the ingredients, boiled and mashed the sweetpotatoes and set them aside to cool. 

I mixed up the flour, salt, and baking powder and set the oven to preheat. I 'cut' in the shortening using the tips of my fingers until it looked like coarse corn meal. For some reason I find this very satisfying and I like the feel of the flour and shortening at this stage, it makes me want to run my fingers through it. Sadly, it will melt the shortening or butter if I give in to that temptation :)

I mixed the milk with the mashed potatoes and was rightfully skeptical, it's a wee (by wee I mean A LOT) gloppy - that's my technical term for goopy runny mess.

I added the orange goop to the flour mixture and stirred quickly as the directions indicated. With the baking powder it became airy, but very sticky.  I think the recipe really needs more flour. I scraped it out onto the counter with a lot of flour. I think I must of added at least another 1/2 a cup or more. before I could pat it out enough to cut and not have it stick to everything. Kneading wasn't really a priority or feasible.

I used a cute little cup that I had purchased at Ikea years ago to cut the dough. I think it was a kids cup and came in a package of three. I loved them because of the little round bubbles encircling the bottom. I never use them really, they sit in my cupboard until I need something like this. I drink out of coffee cups all the time instead of glasses, go figure?! A few times when I've needed tea candle holders I have used the little cups and they worked great. So they weren't a total waste of money, Ha ha ha!

 I think the recipe as written needs some adjusting. I checked online and similar recipes start off with 2 cups of flour and the same amount of milk and sweetpotato, so I think this one just slipped by without product testing. 

They look pretty sad getting ready to go in the oven. :(

But...they baked up better than I hoped and puffed up slightly. Taste wise, hrmmm.. I think the batter would go amazingly well as dumplings cooked on the top of a stew, but they are nothing special as a biscuit.

90 - 95  calories / 5 grams of fat each - give or take :)



Sweetpotato Biscuits
Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook - 1950 (pg 158)

 INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour 
• 2 Tbsp baking powder 
• 3/4 tsp salt 
• 1/2 cup shortening (cold) 
• 1.5 cups sweet potato (mashed)
• 1 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together
2. Cut in shortening.
3. Combine milk and sweetpotatoes.
4. Add to first mixture and stir quickly.
5. Knead lightly, using as little flour as possible on board.
6. Roll out to 1/2" thickness, cut with floured cutter.
7. Place on greased baking sheet and bake in hot oven (425 F) for 12-15 minutes

Makes 25 biscuits.