Ginger Sweetie Pie Biscuits

Quick Breads, Sides, Vegetarian, Veggies — By Jessie on November 20, 2009 at 9:24 pm

Oh my, sweetie pie: These are just so yummy.

These biscuits are a versatile companion for almost any cold-weather meal. Made with mashed sweet potato, they’re moist and fragrant with ginger.

Serve them instead of bread with herb-roasted chicken and roasted root vegetables flecked with crispy bacon. Or gobble them up for dessert with a little vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of honey after a hearty dinner on a chilly night.

They’ll do just fine either way.

For breakfast, you could crumble in a little fried bacon and a spoonful of fresh rosemary—then serve them piping hot with lots of cold butter.

To make them a little more elegant, you could brush the biscuits with an egg wash, then sprinkle them with a few tablespoons of sesame seeds right before they go into the oven.

A note on biscuit poof

I know: Biscuit poof sounds like it could be related to my aforementioned case of fat pants, also referred to as “cookie pants” by one brilliant reader. (Sounds much better, I know.)

The mashed sweet potato makes these biscuits a little more dense than regular biscuits. This means that they won’t poof up as dramatically as regular biscuits.

No matter. They’re still ultra tender, and are dotted with bits of sumptuous sweet potato.

How to cook your sweet potato

For the sweet potato, you want to find a nice, plump potato. Aim for about 12 ounces or so, if you’re a weights-and-measures type.

I poke a bunch of holes in mine, then zap it in the microwave for about 10 minutes or so on high until it’s cooked through. (Be sure to poke holes in your potato if you cook it this way, lest it explode in the microwave.)

Now, I know a lot of folks who don’t like to nuke veggies. If that includes you, you can also boil, steam, or roast them. The goal is to wind up with about 1 cup of mashed sweet potato.

Cook yours with the skin on. When it’s done, split it open just like you would for a baked potato.

Let it cool ’til it won’t melt your skin off, then scrape out the insides with a fork.

Spread it out to help it cool faster while you put together the dough.

Ginger Sweetie Pie Biscuits

1 2/3 cups flour
1 Tbls. brown sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground ginger
6 Tbls. butter, softened
1 cup sweet potato, cooked, skinned & mashed
1/2 cup heavy cream

Yields 9-12 biscuits, depending on how big you cut them

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Ginger Sweetie Pie Biscuits: Make the dough

Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and ground ginger in the bowl of your mixer. (You can also just as easily make these the old-fashioned way: with a little elbow grease and a pastry cutter.)

Mix briefly to combine these dry ingredients. (I always just do this using the beater attachment as a spoon.)

Cut your butter up into small-ish squares (so it breaks up easier + faster).

Add the butter to the dry ingredients and mix until it’s evenly distributed.

You’re aiming for the consistency of little pebbles. Pieces of butter are OK. They’ll release moisture as the biscuits bake, which will help them rise.

Grab all that glorious mashed sweet potato and toss it into the bowl.

Add the heavy cream.

Mix quickly on high until the dough *just* comes together. Don’t overmix the dough, or else your biscuits will be heavy.

Ginger Sweetie Pie Biscuits: Shape your biscuits

Round the dough up (if there are floury crumbs in the bottom of the bowl, just smoosh them into the dough). Set it on a lightly floured board. Pat it down with your hand so it’s relatively flat.

You’re aiming for maybe just about a half an inch thick. I’m not usually a fan of rulers in the kitchen, so here’s a regular dinner fork for scale.

Shape the dough into a rough square.

Whack it into 9 pieces, like this, with a bencher or large butcher’s knife.

Ginger Sweetie Pie Biscuits: Bake and inhale

Separate the squares and set them on your prepared pan. Space them out so they’re not touching.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 15-17 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and firm to the touch.

Yank the pan out of the oven. Transfer the biscuits to a rack to cool. They should be brown on the bottom, like this:

If they last, they’ll keep for about two days, tightly sealed.

Enjoy!

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Tags: biscuit, sweet potato