Sweet potato biscuits are tender and delicious, can be sweet or savory, and are a southern favorite at weddings, football games, wedding and baby showers, and holiday gatherings.
Sweet potato biscuits are one of my favorite things to make for a football tailgate or when loading a friend up with some ministry meals.
These biscuits are easy to make, are super versatile, and everyone loves them! Make savory sweet potato biscuits by stuffing them with salty sausage or slather them with a sweet cinnamon honey butter to make for an incredibly sweet treat.
Either way you choose to groove, once you learn how to make these sweet southern treats, I can guarantee you'll be making them every chance you get.
How to Make Homemade Biscuits
There are many different sweet potato biscuit recipes, but the main rules for all southern biscuit making still apply:
- Keep your ingredients ice cold: The small pockets of ice cold butter that swim throughout the biscuit dough will melt in the oven, therby helping to create those delicious flaky biscuit layers everyone loves. My mama and grandmama always kept their flour in the fridge and popped the butter in the freezer for 5-10 minutes right before making biscuits, just to ensure all of the ingredients would stay niiiiiice and cold.
- Don't overwork your dough: Once the liquid hits the flour, try to mix your sweet potato biscuits as little as possible. If worked too much, the gluten will release from the flour, and your sweet potato biscuits will become like little orange hockey pucks. Nobody likes that, ammirite?!?
- Don't twist the Biscuit Cutter: Don't twist the biscuit cutter when making biscuits!!! When cutting out the biscuits, firmly press the cutter down into the dough, but do not twist to release the biscuit! Doing so will seal the edges of the biscuit and will prevent them from rising.
Sweet Potato Biscuits Recipe
These sweet potato biscuits are thick and fluffy, silky smooth, and downright delicious. Sweetened with a hint of cinnamon and a touch of maple syrup, these beauties are an absolute must for your recipe repertoire.
You only need a few ingredients to make these biscuits over the top!
- Sweet Potatoes
- Unsalted Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Milk
- Maple Syrup (optional)
- Flour (can use self rising)
- Baking Powder
- Cinnamon
- Pumpkin Pie Spice (optional)
- Salt
A couple of things to note here:
- I like to add brown sugar to my recipe because I believe it pairs better w/ the sweet potato and produces a better flavor than standard sugar.
- You can also use self-rising flour however if you do, make sure to leave out the baking powder and salt. I've also found self-rising flour doesn't make sky high biscuits.
- I add two optional ingredients to my biscuits. These can be left out, but I don't recommend it. I believe these two ingredients are what makes this recipe different than all others and what takes it over the top.
Serve Homemade Biscuits With...
Garlic Roasted Pork Loin
Sheet Pan Brown Sugar Pork Chops w/ Apples & Green Beans
Mixed Berry Cobb Salad
Butternut Squash Chicken Tortilla Soup
Autumn Harvest Soup w/ Candied Cranberries
Slow Cooker Brisket Chili
Southern Sweet Potato Biscuits
Equipment
- Biscuit Cutter
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potato Biscuits:
- 1 large or two medium sweet potatoes cooked, cooled, & skin removed, enough for 1 cup
- 2 tablespoon pure maple syrup or more milk
- 2-3 tablespoon milk of choice
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for sprinkling
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter frozen
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet w/ parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mash together the sweet potato, maple syrup, and 3 tablespoons of the milk until well combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and brown sugar and whisk until well incorporated. Using a box grater, grate the butter into the flour mixture then, using clean hands, gently blend the butter bits into the flour until it's the size of small peas.
- Add the sweet potato mixture to the flour mixture and gently mix until combined. Drizzle in the additional milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough is just moistened and holds together. You may need some of it, all of it, or none of it at all.
- Sprinkle countertop or work surface with flour and dump out the dough. Knead the dough 2-3 times until it comes together. Roll the dough into a 8" circle. Fold in half and then fold in half again. Lightly roll the dough into another 8" circle. Fold in half and then fold in half again. Lightly roll out the dough one last time to ½" to ¾" thickness
- Using a 2" round biscuit cutter or a lightly floured glass, cut out biscuits by pressing down into the dough and pulling straight up. Do not twist the cutter at all. Reform leftover dough to cut the remaining biscuits.
- Add the biscuits to the prepared baking sheet, a few inches apart, and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly golden and the biscuits are firm and cooked through.
Julia says
I like everything simple! I loved your photo on FoodGawker, so I clicked over to your site.
amber says
Thanks so much!
Mia says
I've never had sweet potato biscuits, but I love both sweet potatoes and biscuits - so looks like a win. I suck at making biscuits (as we've previously discussed), but its my goal to get better before the end of the year. My favorite super simple recipe? The family potato salad recipe. Kraft sandwich spread instead of mayo or mustard; very tasty, super simple.
amber says
I actually thought about you when I made these!!! They are amazingly delish and amazingly easy to make. Let me know if you make them!
Joy says
So sad that these did not work for me. They look so good.
Mine were so flat - in fact 1/2 inch.
Is it possible that the baking powder was left off recipe?
amber says
Hey, Joy. Thanks for your comment! The original recipe calls for self rising flour which already has baking powder and salt in it. Did you use self-rising flour? If not, try again and see if that works, and if you don't have self-rising flour, use 2 cups COLD all purpose flour, 3 tsp baking powder, & 1 tsp salt. Another reason why they were flat may be because your ingredients weren't cold enough, especially the butter. I keep my flour in the fridge and even put my butter in the freezer for a few minutes before I plan to make biscuits. From my understanding, the cold butter reacts to the heat and the other ingredients which causes air pockets to form thereby causing the biscuits to rise. Also, the butter can get too warm from your hands during kneading, so you want to make sure that it is ice, ice cold. This little tidbit is common knowledge for me b/c I've been making biscuits all my life, but I need readers like you to help point out my mistakes when I don't stress important facts like that. Lastly, your biscuits may not have risen because I botched the recipe I posted somehow. I'm going to try to replicate the recipe tomorrow and make sure I get the same results as I have in the past. Thank you so much for your comments. I truly appreciate you letting me know that there is a potential issue. Please let me know if the tweaks I mentioned above don't work, and I will go back to the drawing board and find out what the problem is! Thanks so much!
GG says
These were outstanding biscuits! I used self-rising flour and added a 1/2 tsp of bkg soda and a tsp baking powder (I never fully trust self-rising flours) and these biscuits rose a mile high! I didn't have to add any extra liquid when kneading. I think this is due your brilliant idea of adding milk and maple syrup to the sweet potato mash. This results in the perfect dough. I also cooked them longer than 14 minutes as they were a bit doughy at 14 mins. Perhaps my oven was off but, at 20 mins, they were perfectly light and fluffy with a nice crust on top. I brushed them with a melted butter, maple syrup and cinnamon mix once out of the oven but that was my call as the spices listed are flavorful enough. I do want to note that step #4 says to drizzle in additional milk but additional milk is not listed in the ingredients. Should this be flour and not milk as flour for sprinkling is listed in the ingredients? Thanks for sharing this really great recipe!
Kristin says
What would you do to make them savory vs sweet?
Amber says
Leave out the brown sugar and stir in some bacon bits!
Victoria says
I tried making these & mine turned into little orange hockey pucks just like you mentioned. Do you still recommend AP flour? I read some of your comments about self rising and wasn't sure would be the best option. I know I overworked the dough my first time, but even after freezing these, they just wouldn't rise. I loved the flavor profile, but really need to get a better rise out of them, help!
Amber says
Overworking the dough will *absolutely* cause biscuits not to rise properly and can cause them to become hockey pucks; however, different altitudes can play a part too. Where are you located? I’m in the SC Lowcountry. Give the self-rising flour a go and an extra 1/2 tsp of baking siding and a tsp of baking powder. Also, don’t roll them out too thin, and make sure when you cut them out, you don’t twist the cutter. Just press down and up. Twisting can seal the edges and cause them not to rise. see if that works better for you and report back please!