These light and flaky sweet potato biscuits are a delicious Southern treat that you’re going to love. Made with mashed sweet potatoes and buttermilk, these biscuits are still light and fluffy. To achieve the perfect texture and taste, make sure to use cold butter and handle the dough gently.
Best recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits
Adding sweet potatoes to biscuits provides a natural sweetness along with a velvety texture to a Southern classic. A unique and tasty twist to a traditional buttermilk biscuit.
These delicious biscuits are the perfect addition to any Southern meal, but they’re especially great with BBQ pork tenderloin or an Easter ham. They’re just a little sweeter than other biscuits and pair well with meat but also are delicious with a breakfast quiche.
Made from scratch Southern-style breads and biscuits are my sweet spot. Although My favorite quick buttermilk drop biscuits will always be a classic, it’s fun to switch things up every now and then. This sweet potato biscuit recipe is a great alternative to a traditional biscuit.
One of the unique things about these easy sweet potato biscuits is the addition of chopped pecans that contrast with the fluffy texture of the biscuit itself.
These are great baked in an iron skillet like fluffy angel biscuits, but you can also bake them on a baking sheet, just allow for an extra minute or two.
Make them mini to add to a brunch buffet.
Just a Few Ingredients
These are the main ingredients that go into making these biscuits. Don’t forget to check the recipe card for the full list of ingredients and measurements.
- Sweet Potatoes – you will need about 3 medium sweet potatoes to get 2 ½ cups of mashed sweet potatoes for this recipe. They need to be cold when added, so cook these in advance.
- Buttermilk – If you don’t have any handy, you can easily make your own buttermilk with ingredients in your pantry. Buttermilk reacts with the leavening agent which helps the biscuits rise.
- Pecans – Pecans are totally optional but they add a nice crunchy texture that adds so much more than you might expect.
How to make Sweet Potato Biscuits
Step 1: Get ready
Cook the sweet potatoes in the microwave or oven and mash them with a fork, then cool them in the fridge. You do not want to add warm sweet potatoes to your biscuit dough.
How to cook sweet potatoes
The easiest way to cook sweet potatoes to use for biscuits, is to microwave them. Learn all my tips for cooking sweet potatoes in the microwave.
Let them cool and the skins will just peel right off. For biscuits the sweet potatoes need to be completely cooled, so make them in advance.
Step 2: Combine ingredients
Mix the dry ingredients with cold butter in a food processor or use a pastry cutter or a fork until the flour is incorporated but you still have pea size chunks of butter.
Step 3: Get sticky
Step 4: Cut it out
Step 5: Bake!
Put them in the freezer for 10 minutes then bake until golden brown on top.
You can cook these in a cake pan or an iron skillet. They will cook faster in an iron skillet.
A Few Recipe tips
- Don’t overwork the dough – just barely combine the ingredients and try not to handle it with your hands any more than you have to.
- When cutting the biscuits, cut straight down, don’t turn the biscuit cutter.
- Seriously, chill the dough! – It can be tempting to skip this step, but it’s totally worth it. Allow the dough to chill in the fridge or freezer for best results.
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Homemade Sweet Potato Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups sweet potatoes cooked and mashed
- 3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspooon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 8 tablespoons butter one stick, cold
- ½ cup pecans chopped
- ¾ cup buttermilk cold
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
Instructions
- Cook sweet potatoes in the microwave. (Wrap in damp paper towel and microwave for 3 minutes, turn and microwave for 3 more minutes depending on the size of the potatoes) In the alternative, bake in the oven. Let cook, squeeze off the peelings and mash with a fork in a large bowl.
- Lightly grease a 10 inch iron skillet or 10 inch cake pan.
- In a food processor, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. Process to combine. Add cubes of cold butter and process until they are pea size. In the alternative, use a pastry blender or two forks to incorporate the butter.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the cooled sweet potatoes and buttermilk. Add to the dry ingredients along with the chopped pecans and mix until just combined, it should look crumbly but should be a little sticky. If too dry, add a little more buttermilk and if too wet, add more flour.
- Turn out the dough on to a floured surface and form into a rough rectangle. With a knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into 3-4 portions and stack them on top of each other. Roll out and repeat 3 times.
- Roll dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Use 2 inch biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits, going straight down, do not twist and place in the prepared pan next to each other. Roll up the scrapes one time and form into a biscuit.
- Place the skillet in the freezer for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450º. Remove from the freezer and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown on top.
- Remove from the oven and immediately brush with melted butter.
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- Cook the sweet potatoes in advance so they have time to cool, you don’t want to add warm sweet potatoes to the biscuit dough.
- Try not to handle the dough with your hands any more than you have to, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough.
- Don’t leave out cooling the dough before baking, that will firm up the butter and help them rise.
- If using a cake pan, they will take longer to cook then an iron skillet.
Nutrition
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