Down Home Sweet Potato Biscuits with Country Gravy ~ these tender biscuits are made impossibly light and fluffy with sweet potato, and they make the perfect base for a classic Southern country gravy!
I’ve been craving biscuits ever since I brought home a big jar of Smokey Mountain honey from North Carolina last month. These are made extra special because I used the flesh of a pale yellow sweet potato to lighten up the dough. I could have just enjoyed them hot from the oven with a pat of butter and a glug of that honey, but it occurred to me that biscuits are a Southern breakfast tradition, especially when slathered with Country Gravy. Both are simple to make and really delicious.
Here’s a mini lesson on yams and sweet potatoes. I finally figured this out and I thought you might like to know. Virtually all of the so called yams you will find in the US are actually sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes range from white or yellow, like mine, to light and dark orange. Yams are another thing altogether, not even related to sweet potatoes. They come from Africa and are generally not available here except maybe in an international market. They don’t even really look like sweet potatoes, except for the shape—they’re white inside! This video does a good job of explaining the confusion. Now you can impress your friends and family with the facts on the sweet potatoes you’ll be serving up for the holidays.
I love the lemony color of this one, but you can use any variety you like, and it will tint your biscuit accordingly.
This is the same method I used for the HOMEMADE GNOCCHI that I made a couple of weeks ago. I love how simple it is. All you have to do is prick the potato and throw it in a 375 degree oven. In about an hour or so it will be soft and you can cut it in half and scrape out the flesh with a fork. No peeling, boiling, or pureeing necessary, and the flesh will blend right into the dough.
If you read this blog you might know that I believe in making biscuits as a main component of a meal, not a side dish or side bread. For that reason I make them large, and there’s no guilt involved because they become at least half of the meal when I make SOUP or CHILI. My biscuits are super moist and fluffy because I pat out the dough thickly, and make fewer per batch. These biscuits are truly luxurious.
A short stint in the freezer before baking insures that they rise up tall in the hot oven, and they get that great crack in the middle that just begs you to split them open.
Slather them with an easy country gravy and you’ve got one heck of a breakfast!
You could also make your own gourmet breakfast sandwich with these biscuits, and I bet they’d be wonderful with my HOMEMADE CHICKEN APPLE SAUSAGE.
Down Home Sweet Potato Biscuits with Country Gravy
Ingredients
BISCUITS
GRAVY
Instructions
Make it your own ~
- You could add a touch more sugar and a little cinnamon and nutmeg for a sweet biscuit.
16 Comments
Shannon
January 7, 2014 at 8:04 amI apparently haven’t been following your blog long enough. Thank goodness for facebook – I’m literally drooling now – can’t wait to make these for dinner soon. It’s 6 degrees outside, this sounds just about perfect for cuddling up and hiding from the wind chill!
Sue
June 10, 2020 at 5:03 amEnjoy!
grace
September 13, 2012 at 9:05 pmthis is the breakfast of my dreams. your biscuits look amazingly fluffy, and the amount of sausage in your gravy is CRAZY! i like it when cooks don’t skimp on the meat. 🙂
SavoringTime in the Kitchen
September 13, 2012 at 3:25 pmWith fall in the air today, I am craving these biscuits! I’ve never made them with sweet potatoes and I’m dying to try them.
Bites from life with the barking lot
September 13, 2012 at 2:33 pmthere’s nothing like a nice fat biscuit. I’m always confused with sweet potatoes and yams and which is which… will definitely make and soon. Beautiful photographs.
Eileen
September 12, 2012 at 6:47 pmSweet potato biscuits, you say? What a totally perfect plan! Now I just need to make some thick, hearty soup to go with them–maybe black bean or a corn bisque. Hooray!
Mary
September 12, 2012 at 10:52 pmI have never heard of putting biscuits in the freezer before baking! I am going to try that next time. Your biscuits are gorgeous. I need a plate of this deliciousness soon.
curiouscuisiniere
September 12, 2012 at 8:34 pmThese look lovely! Now I’m craving biscuits and gravy. I wonder why a short chilling makes them spring in the oven?
Tricia @ saving room for dessert
September 12, 2012 at 7:20 pmBiscuits and gravy cannot be beat. And I am so surprised at the lovely color of your sweet tater – how interesting! Dang – now I won’t rest until I have some buttery biscuits smothered in gravy. You rock Sue!
Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez
September 12, 2012 at 6:44 pmBiscuits ARE the best – and these look like some of the best of the best! I love sweet potato biscuits, but I’ve never seen beautiful yellow ones like this – I must find some.
Averie @ Averie Cooks
September 12, 2012 at 5:39 pmI made sweet potato ‘french toast’ sticks about 9 mos or so ago and researched extensively the whole yam vs. sweet potato debate and thanks for the refresher that yes, what we get are sweet potatoes, and not yams.
What’s frustrating is signs in the grocery store that say ‘Golden Yams’, i.e. big orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, which just confuses me and everyone I think.
The other thing that I wish I knew was from the outside of them, how to tell if the flesh is going to be light/pale golden yellow or a really vibrant orange? I wish I knew b/c I’ve been tripped up by that before!
Long comment, sorry! Your biscuits look beautiful & my hubs would go nuts for them!
From the Kitchen
September 12, 2012 at 4:41 pmOriginally from the south, I’m a biscuit purist. However, now in the midwest, I’m sorely tempted by your delicious looking recipes. I’ve been thinking biscuits and sausage gravy lately.
Best,
Bonnie
Sue/the view from great island
September 12, 2012 at 5:24 pmThanks Bonnie—I don’t know what it is exactly about biscuits that’s got me so jazzed lately, but the funny thing is, plain biscuits don’t thrill me that much. Go figure! But I’d love to read about your ideal classic biscuit, I’ll go check your blog for it…
Mary
September 12, 2012 at 4:21 pmYour biscuits belong on the cover of a magazine Wow! They look delicious and your instructions are spot on. I’ve just finished breakfast and you’ve succeeded in making me hungry again. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
Sue/the view from great island
September 12, 2012 at 5:18 pmSo nice of you to say, Mary, since I’ve decided Country Gravy is the #1 most un-photogenic food in existence— it was delicious, though!
Mary
September 12, 2012 at 10:54 pmoh, I don’t know about that, Sue. I’m pretty sure that tikka masala rivals gravy in unattractiveness. 😛 I totally want that last plate all to myself, so not unattractive at all in my book!