Christmas Cooking - Sweet Potato Biscuits

A perennial fall/winter favorite and popular everywhere I take them.  The biscuits themselves are great but then you make it into a true appetizer and/or breakfast treat. I got the idea of this from a caterer I worked with. He serves sweet potato biscuits with turkey and cranberry sauce that was sweet and hot. My twist, is probably not original, but very popular. Fill the sweet potato biscuits with salty ham and a horseradish mayo. It's fabulous.


Sweet Potato Biscuits
original from Emeril Lagasse


2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 Tbs unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 cup mashed sweet potato
1 cup pecans, finely ground
1/3+ cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Mix the flour, baking powder , baking soda and salt together. Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingers or in a food processor, until the mixture looks like wet sand. Add sweet
potatoes and pecans. Add cream until a dough forms. Flour the working surface and press dough out until it's about 1/2 inch thick. Using any size biscuit cutter and cut biscuits. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or so.


Sweet Potato Biscuit w/ham and horseradish mayo


One batch of sweet potato biscuits
1/3 pound deli ham, any type, thinly sliced
2 Tbs horseradish
2 Tbs mayonnaise

Split the sweet potato biscuit, add desired about of ham on bottom of biscuit, In a small bowl, mix horseradish and mayonnaise, adjusting the taste to your liking. Spoon the horseradish/mayo mixture on top half of biscuit.Replace the top of the biscuit. Serve warm or room temperature.

Bench Notes: make sure baking powder is fresh. You can either bake or boil the potatoes. Boiling seems fast and I do that skin oon and peel after they have cooled. It's pretty easy. You can sub half and half for heavy cream, but I wouldn't. I use a smaller (two bite) size biscuit cutter for appetizers, and a larger one for breakfast biscuits.