TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

So I haven't yet been officially added as a Tuesdays With Dorie participant, but I am so amped to do it, I'm gonna go ahead and to the post this week.  I hope I'm not gonna get blackballed!

The Tuesdays with Dorie challenge is simple:  it's a group of bloggers who all own the same cookbook, Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  Each week, someone chooses a recipe from the book that everyone is to try, and they blog about their adventures in pastry on Tuesday.  I've had this cookbook for about 2 years now, and though I use it very regularly (those of you who know me have probably eaten something from it at some point) there are still tons of recipes in there that I have not tried.

This week's selection,  is Sweet Potato Biscuits.  I love a good sweet potato biscuit, especially with ham.  However, despite my Southern origins, I have no aptitude for biscuit making, like, AT ALL.  None.  I can make scones, but not biscuits.  Muffins?  Sure.  Shortcake?  You betcha.  Yeast cinnamon rolls?  No problem.  Biscuits, though, give me fits.

I had everything on hand except the potatoes.  The recipe calls for canned sweet potatoes.  Um...really? What?

I have a very faint, very long-ago recollection of such an item, but my southern mind thinks "why?  why on this green earth would anyone need sweet potatoes to be in a can?  They're everywhere, and they are cheap!"  But then I went to my local grocery store and found to my surprise that sweet potatoes are apparently not that common (read: not abundant, not appealing, and not cheap) in my new Northeastern location, even in October.  (Also noted:  canned white potatoes are VERY popular.  The store was about clean out of them, and they weren't even on sale!  What do you do with those?) Well well.  So canned potatoes it is.  I still don't trust 'em, though. hmph.

The recipe's pretty straightforward biscuity madness.  Mix up dry stuff.  I used BOTH cinnamon and nutmeg. I'm boss like that.

Cut in butter.

I used Dorie's method of doing it by hand--literally.  Though I HATE having butter and flour all over my fingers (so unseemly), it works.

I stuck the bowl in the fridge while I drained and mashed the taters.  Into the flour and butter they go
and on to be cut.  The dough was pretty, all yellow with orange bits of potato.

I think I used a smaller cutter than intended, but whatever, they look cute!

Most of them are going to be frozen for later use.  Dorie's scones freeze beautifully, so I expected these would too.  They did.

I baked a few straight from the freezer.  They puffed and rounded a bit, but didn't really rise much.  No matter.  They're quite tasty.  Very sweet potatoey but not cloyingly sweet, nice and tender.   FABULOUS with bacon.  And so easy and fast!  Definitely adding to the rotation. They'll be great with ham for the next potluck I go to. Inhabitants of Northeastern Town: consider yourself warned.