Buttery, flaky and slightly sweet, these sweet potato biscuits are perfect for breakfast or with dinner. Based on a Martha Stewart recipe, it never disappoints.
The sweet potato puree can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator in a sealed container, making this biscuit recipe super fast.
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Jump to:
- ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
- 🔪 Recommended Equipment
- 📝 Instructions Overview
- ⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- 👩🍳 Preparation Tips
- 💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- 🥖 Bread Bakers Group
- Sweet Potato Biscuits
- 🌱 Sign up for my emails, and get my 5 tips for easy vegetarian meals!
Potatoes, whether they're white potatoes or sweet potatoes, add so much to breads. These Potato Rolls with Chives, for example are super soft. And so is this yeasted Sweet Potato Bread with Honey and this yeasted Sweet Potato Biscuits Recipe with coconut oil.
So why make another sweet potato biscuit? These biscuits use chemical leaveners, baking soda and baking powder, instead of yeast. So the dough comes together very quickly.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- These biscuits don't use yeast, so you don't have to go through and dough rising cycles.
- The sweet potato puree can be made the day before.
- Very flexible for adding additional spices. In autumn, these are great with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of mace.
- Easy recipe to make if bread-baking is still new to you.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Sweet potato
- All-purpose flour - I prefer King Arthur flour for its consistency.
- Light brown sugar - if you don't have any on hand, make your own brown sugar (it's sooooo easy with only 2 ingredients)!
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Unsalted butter
- Buttermilk
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🔪 Recommended Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Whisk
- Food processor
- Biscuit cutter
- 10" pie plate or 8" X 8" baking dish
📝 Instructions Overview
Detailed instructions for making these sweet potato biscuits are in the recipe card below, but here's an overview!
Step 1
Make the sweet potato purée. Peel and cube the sweet potato. Simmer on the stove until tender. Drain and purée in a food processor. Stir in the buttermilk.
Step 2
Make the dough. Combine everything else in the food processor, and whirl it around a few times until the butter is size of peas. Transfer to a large bowl. Mix in the sweet potato purée.
Mold it into a disc.
Step 3
Make biscuits. Cut out biscuits with a biscuit cutter, and arrange in a buttered dish. Bake.
⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- Make the sweet potato puree in advance.
👩🍳 Preparation Tips
Mix the sweet potato puree into the flour using a rubber spatula, and dump it out onto a work space when most of the sweet potato is mashed into the flour and butter.
Gently knead the dough to incorporate all of the flour into the dough by folding the dough over itself and pressing the flour into it. Mold the dough into a disc shape. If it gets sticky, sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough, and gently rub it into the dough.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
Add spices to the biscuit dough, such as cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of mace.
🥖 Bread Bakers Group
Occasionally I post recipes with a Bread Baking group that's full of bread baking experts. This is one of those months, and the topic this month was Potato Breads. Go check out a bunch of potato breads made by bread experts, hosted this month by Stacy at Food Lust People Love. She's one of the best bakers I know!
- Bacon Potato Silver Dollar Pancakes from Food Lust People Love
- Baked Vada Pav from Cook with Renu
- Feather Rolls from A Messy Kitchen
- Loaded Baked Potato Pizza from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Okinawan Sweet Potato Pani Popo from Magical Ingredients
- Potato Bread with Roasted Apples from What Smells So Good?
- Potato Crescent Rolls from Passion Kneaded
- Potato Dinner Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Sweet Potato Biscuits from The Wimpy Vegetarian
- Turkish Stuffed Pogaca with Cheese & Potato from Sneha’s Recipe
Don't have time to run to the grocery store? Order the ingredients for this recipe using Instacart (affiliate link). Just click on the Instacart button in the recipe card below, and the ingredients will all be organized for you on their site. Plug in your zip code, choose the store you prefer, and select the ingredients you want delivered to your home.
Sweet Potato Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, or 2 small sweet potatoes (enough to make ¾ cup puréed)
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- 1 ¾ cups (7.875 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
Instructions
- Peel the sweet potato(es), and slice into 1-inch cubes. Fill a heavy bottomed pot with enough water to cover them, and add a pinch of salt.Bring to a simmer, and cook until tender. Strain and transfer to a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Purée until completely smooth. Stir in the buttermilk and chill in the refrigerator while you make the biscuits.
- Preheat the oven to 425˚ F and butter a 10-inch pie plate or 8" X 8" baking dish with some of the melted butter.
- Rinse the food processor and blade, and completely dry.
- Place the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse a few times.
- Cut the chilled butter into pats, and add them all at once to the food processor. Pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Pro tip: The best way to check is to dip a fork into the flour and then lift it up. The butter pieces will be on the fork.
- Spill the contents of the food processor into a large bowl. Add the chilled sweet potato all at once. Using a rubber spatula, mash the sweet potatoes into the flour. Once it's mostly mixed into the flour, dump it all onto a work space and knead a few times to finish mixing the sweet potato, flour and butter together. The best way to do this is to fold the dough on itself, bringing any stray flour and butter into the fold. Do this a few times. The finished dough will be a little lumpy.
- Form the dough into a round 1-inch thick disc. If it becomes too sticky, sprinkle a little more flour over the top of the disc, and lightly massage it into the dough.
- Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out 10 biscuits. A 3-inch biscuit cutter will yield 8 biscuits.Scraps can be gathered together to create more biscuits, but it's best with this dough to not do it more than once.
- Arrange the biscuits in the prepared baking dish, and baste with the remaining melted butter. They can fit together snugly. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown, turning them halfway through the baking. If you have an instant thermometer, the internal temperature of the biscuits should be around 200˚ F. (At high altitude, you may only reach 195˚ F, which is fine.)
- Serve warm.
Stacy
What a great twist on regular biscuits, Susan. My girls would LOVE these!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Stacy! I hope you all love them too!
Kelly
Oh my, these look amazingly tender and delicious! I even have some sweet potatoes sprouting that need to get used!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Wonderful!! I hope you have a chance to give these a whirl!
Wendy Klik
Wouldn't these be lovely with some fried chicken. OH MY YUM.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
My husband had these with pulled pork, like little open face sandwiches!
Karen's Kitchen Stories
What gorgeous biscuits and I love the sweet potato twist!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thank you so much!!
Sneha Datar
I would love to have these with my soup!
Sarah
THis looks amazing, I may try it with my niece soon 🙂
Radha
I was looking for a way to use the sweet potatoes I have, and these biscuits are perfect. Whipping up a batch right away. Great recipe.