TWD Late: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Well, folks, I did make the Tuesdays with Dorie selection for October 20th, but I made it a bit late and am posting it even later. Erin of Prudence Pennywise choose Sweet Potato Biscuits from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." (Love Erin's blog, especially the music! Check out this link for the recipe, or this one from NPR (you'll have to scroll down a bit).


Aren't they pretty? I hate having to re-roll the scraps, so I usually cut my biscuits into squares or triangles. That leaves only a few trimmings from around the edges to make up those last, few, sad and ugly biscuits.


This was not one of the sad biscuits. What a lovely color! Great spread with butter. Neither of us is that crazy about sweet potatoes, but these were delicious! We both agreed we'd like them even better as breakfast scones, with some raisins and nuts inside and a sprinkle of natural sugar crystals on top.

I baked my sweet potatoes (while Jim was baking a casserole dish full of his wonderful jambalaya), then mashed them. The recipe calls for 3/4 to 1 cup of puree, but I only had 1/2 cup and it was really dry. So I added in 1/2 cup of buttermilk and went ahead with the recipe. This was not enough liquid. I ended up with a really dry, crumbly dough:


Here's a hint that applies to both pie pastry and biscuit dough -- regard the amount of liquid in the recipe as merely a guideline. Even if you weigh out all the ingredients with great precision, you'll never need exactly the same amount of liquid twice. Go by the consistency of the dough instead. For pie pastry, it should be soft and hold together, but not be too moist or too sticky. For biscuits, on the other hand, the moister the dough, the lighter and fluffier the biscuits. Or so all the biscuit experts say, and my experience bears them out.

So, I added a few more tablespoons of milk to the dough until it was moist and sticky, then patted it out on a floured counter to a rough rectangle and cut it into triangles. Onto the baking sheet and into the very hot oven (another key feature for light, fluffy biscuits) and in a short time they were done.

These were better after cooling down just a bit. Biscuits really are best fresh, but they re-heat pretty well when wrapped in aluminum foil and put into an oven or toaster oven. The microwave tends to toughen them a bit.

So, try some sweet potato biscuits -- you might find you like them!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Apple-Cheddar Scones

This week's recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was Apple-Cheddar Scones, chosen by Karina of The Floured Apron. Thank you, Karina, for a delicious choice!


I stayed close to the recipe on this one. I made the apple juice from concentrate and made it extra-strong by adding just one can of water instead of three, for extra flavor. I thought my dried apples were a bit too dry, so I soaked them in a generous bath of apple juice. Bad idea -- they soaked up the juice like little sponges and were soon far too wet! I had to drain them and press them between towels to keep them from being utterly soggy. Note to self, next time just sprinkle dried apples lightly if they need moistening.

The dough was indeed very moist and sticky. I spread it out on a well-floured cutting board using a spatula, not my fingers, then patted it gently into final shape with floured hands. Then I cut it with a floured dough scraper (a wonderful tool for scones).


These were extremely tasty! They came out a little flatter than I would have liked, next time I will make them smaller and thicker. Both the apple and cheddar flavors were subtle and went well together. The cornmeal added a lovely "crunch." The texture was nice and light.

However, Jim and I are more "big bold flavors" people, so we may try increasing both the apples and the cheddar next time. Not to mention that I want to try some apple-ginger scones, and some apple-pecan scones, and some cheddar-herb savory scones, and....