Thomas Jeffersons Sweet Potato Biscuits Food

THOMAS JEFFERSON'S SWEET POTATO BISCUITS 1774

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Combine the dry ingredients. Add butter with fork, food processor or pastry cutter until the texture is small crumbs.
• Combine milk and sweet potatoes. Add to flour mixture. Add pecans.
• Knead dough with your hands until it is a smooth mass. Roll out on a floured surface to 1/2" thickness and cut with a 2" biscuit cutter.
• Place on a greased baking sheet 2" apart.
• Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

SWEET POTATO BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place a large cast-iron skillet in the oven to preheat.
• Combine the self-rising flour, salt and apple pie spice in a food processor with several pulses. Drop in 1 cup cold butter cubes and pulse until pea-sized crumbs are formed in the flour. Dump this flour mixture into a large bowl. Process the sweet potato flesh in the same food processor bowl until mashed. Pour in 1 cup of the buttermilk and pulse until a smooth puree is formed. Scrape the potato mixture into the mixing bowl. Use your hands to gently pull the flour into the potato mixture, adding more buttermilk as needed to reach a moist dough. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and press into a 1-inch-thick square. Cut out 16 square biscuits with a bench scraper, re-rolling scraps as necessary.
• Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small bowl in the microwave.
• Remove the skillet from the oven and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Carefully place the biscuits in the skillet (it's okay if they touch). Brush the tops of the biscuits with the melted butter. Place the skillet back in the oven.
• Bake the biscuits until fluffy and lightly golden on top, 16 to 18 minutes. Serve warm with butter and honey.

VINTAGE SWEET POTATO BISCUITS WITH HONEY BUTTER

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
• Make the biscuits: Place the sweet potatoes, milk and melted butter in a large bowl and stir until thoroughly combined.
• Set a sifter or fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl. Resift the 1 1/4 cups flour into the bowl, then sift in the remaining dry ingredients and whisk together. Transfer the dry ingredients to the sweet potato mixture and stir just until a soft dough forms (it'll be pretty sticky).
• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and toss until smooth. Roll out the dough 1/2 inch thick, then stamp out as many biscuits as you can (about 15) with a 1- to 1 1/2-inch floured biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until just golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the honey butter: Simply whisk together the butter, salt and honey in a small bowl until smooth.
• Serve the sweet potato biscuits warm with the honey butter.