Paula Deen's Sweet Potato Biscuits with Rosemary

The sweet potato biscuit is all Paula Deen. The addition of the rosemary is mine. They are wonderful!  The smell of rosemary as they bake is delicious and the taste is perfect together between the sweet of the potato and the fragrance of the herb, they can't be beat.  My Gene is a pretty basic beef and potatoes man who thinks of fresh basil as either a garnish to be forked aside or my idea of a cute way to poison him for the life insurance money, but not only did he love these biscuits, he even asked me to make them again but asked me to "make them a little sweeter" so he didn't have to put butter and honey on top. I'm thinking of adding sorghum. My point isn't to make Gene sound like a picky man or a rube. He isn't. He can tip a maitre-d' without anyone knowing it and he knows food and how to eat it. We've traveled a bit and eaten in everything from blue plate diners to acclaimed restaurants with real chefs.  He'll try anything once and his tastes are pretty sophisticated when we're eating out.  Gene just knows himself.  He's a plain-spoken man with simple, heart of America food tastes when we're at home. So when I make statements like the above, what I'm trying to say is if he loved them and asked me to make them again, you know they're really good.

One of the things I personally liked best about the recipe, aside from the yum factor, is that by adding the sweet potato you cut out most of the fat, which is the big no-no about eating biscuits. They're usually stuff full of transfats because most recipes call for shortening or saturated fats because of a high butter content. This is a nice low fat recipe for biscuits.

However, I do have one bit of advice. If you look closely at the photo you'll see that I obviously left out one key ingredient.  Yes, be SURE to include the baking powder. I had a head scratching moment of wonder of why they weren't rising. Well, duh. That tends to happen when you leave out the leavening, eh?

Weekend Herb Blogging = Rosemary!

Coolest of the cool Sher over at What Did You Eat? is hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week. Check out all of the delicious herby dishes that were prepared this week.

Paula Deen's Sweet Potato Biscuits (with Rosemary)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup all purpose white flour, and 1/4 cup coarse cornmeal)
2 heaping tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
2 to 4 tablespoons milk (depending on the moisture of the potatoes)

1 Tsp fresh rosemary leaves, minced

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate, large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes, rosemary, and butter. Add the flour mixture to the potato mixture and mix to make a soft dough. Then add milk a tablespoon at a time to mixture and continue to cut in. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and toss lightly until the outside of the dough looks smooth. Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased pan and coat tops with melted butter. Bake for about 15 minutes. (Watch your oven: If the biscuits are browning too fast, lower the temperature.)

Makes approx. 6-8  3" diameter biscuits.

Comments

[Jeff]

Look's great YA'LL!! hehe...needs tons of butter on top to be from PD

[Kalyn]

Yum. I know someone who is nuts for sweet potatoes. Bet he'd love this. Maybe I will try it with 100% whole wheat pastry flour. What do you think? I'm going to start experimenting with baking a bit more but I don't want to use white flour. I love the sound of sweet potatoes with rosemary.

[Ivonne]

You just reminded me that I don't eat enough sweet potato! Gorgeous biscuits!

[Glenna]

Jeff--I KNOW! I was so surprised when it didn't have a stick of butter in it but the sweet potato really takes up for the fat. I was very impressed.

Kalyn--Go for it. I'll be making them again. You don't taste the sweet potato exactly but it really leaves a nice pleasantness, especially with the rosemary

Ivonee--thanks so much!

[coffeepot]

Glenna those look great. I have been wanting to try SP biscuits and now you have given me incentive! Low Fat! Thanks.

[JMom]

I just love WHB, I always come across interesting blogs and recipes. I had been planning on making either sweet potato muffins or sweet potato biscuits. So now I guess the choice has been made, biscuits it is! I love the idea of adding rosemary, btw.

[Glenna]

JMom--let me know when you make them. We really liked them and will definitely be adding them in to our normal meal round up. You know, I don't care if some people don't consider Paula Deen a "real" chef. Everything of hers I've ever made is a big hit at my house!