Sweet Potato Biscuits @lucyburdette @onceuponachef

LUCY BURDETTE: When I saw this recipe go through in my email, from Once Upon a Chef, I knew I had to try it. Jennifer Segal, the chef behind that website, adapted it from Paula Deen and I adapted it from her! You can cube and mash the sweet potatoes to get the one cup needed, but since we were having baked sweet potatoes the night before, my preference was to roast an extra potato, then peel, mash, and measure. I added the half teaspoon of cayenne pepper and thought a little more might have been even better...

Ingredients for the biscuits

1 cup mashed sweet potato

1/2 cup whole milk

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch.

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder.

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

In bowl, mash the sweet potato with the milk and set aside.

Measure the flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cayenne into a food processor or a second bowl.

Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture with the food processor or by hand with a pastry cutter.

Stir the potato milk mixture gently into the batter. Form the batter into one mass, and then pat it into a rectangle on a floured surface. Cut the rectangle in thirds, and stack them one atop another. Pat it into a rectangle a second time and repeat. (I gather that this helps with flaky layers—think croissants.)

Cut the rectangle into 12 sections and place on a baking pan covered with parchment paper.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes at 425 until golden. Serve hot with more butter if you need it! Jennifer notes that these are best hot out of the oven, and we agreed. However we did warm leftovers in our toaster oven and they were good too!

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including USA Today bestselling A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. You can order that wherever books are sold. If you’re all caught up, try Lucy’s first women’s fiction title, THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS. (Now out in paperback.)

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