Purple Sweet Potato Biscuits
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped herbs like sage, rosemary and oregano
- 2 cups parmesan cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup very cold butter*
- 1 cup mashed purple sweet potato (about 1 large sweet potato)*
- 1 cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing*
- Flaky sea salt, for topping
Instructions:
- Make your mashed sweet potato ahead of time as it will need to be completely cooled before using in the recipe. To cook, peel and cut the sweet potato into large cubes, about 2 inches. Place in a large pot and add enough cold water to completely cover. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook 6-7 minutes until very tender when pierced with a fork. Transfer to a bowl and use a mixer or a blender or food processor to mix until smooth. Store in the fridge until cold to use in the recipe.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, herbs and 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese. Transfer the whole bowl to the freezer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Use the largest side of a cheese grater to grate the cold butter. Take the bowl of dry ingredients out of the freezer and add the grated butter. Use your hands or a fork to quickly toss the butter in with the flour mixture to coat it.
- Add the mashed purple sweet potato and buttermilk, stirring just until combined to form a shaggy, sticky dough.
- Sprinkle a clean surface with flour and dump the dough out of the bowl onto the floured surface.
- Pat the dough into a large rectangle, about 1 inch thick. Fold the dough in thirds like a letter, lengthwise. So you will take the left side and fold it over into the middle and then fold the right side on top of that. It will be sticky and messy so you can use a floured spatula or bench scraper or just flour your hands really well.
- Turn the dough 180 degrees, pat into another large rectangle and repeat the folds. Do this at least 4 times and up to 6. This creates the flaky layers, but you don't want to do more than 6 or the dough will be over worked and turn out dry and crumbly.
- Pat or roll the final, folded dough out to form a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Use a round cookie or biscuit cutter or just a floured glass to cut out 9 biscuits. If you can't get 9, you can cut what you can and then re-roll the dough to get the rest. Just know that those extra ones won't be perfect since the layers you created will be a little off. They will still taste good though so don't waste that extra dough! Makes sure you press straight down on the cutter. Any twisting will seal the edges and prevent the layers from rising.
- Place the cut biscuits onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet a couple of inches apart. Brush the tops with a bit of buttermilk, sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese and a bit of flaky sea salt. Transfer the whole baking sheet to the freezer for 15 minutes while you heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- When the oven is ready, remove the baking sheet from the freezer and transfer right to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top.