Sweet Potato Biscuits with Bacon and Thyme Recipe

Before last night, I had never even tasted a sweet potato biscuit. But they’ve been on my list of new foods to try for a few months now. I’ve been collecting links to sweet potato biscuit recipes and have noticed that there is a pretty wide range of recipes.

Some people make a very sweet biscuit, using lots of mashed sweet potato and sugar.  My husband, who has a major sweet tooth, would love this version from Pots on the Stove. While others seem to prefer just a slightly sweet, buttery version, like these from Orangette.

It wasn’t until last night that I decided which version I was going to try.  The bacon version!  Ok, I hadn’t actually seen or heard of a bacon version, but, like my friend Curt said this morning on twitter, “Everything is better with bacon!”

The inspiration actually struck when I was relaxing in the bath yesterday.  Yes, I know, that’s kind of weird.  But it’s true.  I was laying there, trying to soak away the last of the lingering tension left over from what we all have to admit was a pretty stressful election year, and all of a sudden the idea popped into my head.  Sweet potatoes, fresh herbs, and bacon!  In a biscuit!

Although at first it seemed to just magically appear out nowhere, I quickly realized where I got the inspiration.  My friend Amanda has been experimenting with prosciutto and herb-wrapped baby sweet potatoes and I was lucky enough to taste them a couple weeks back. That woman is a genius! And this photo of her latest version made me start thinking of them again.  And looking at that photo again last night, I almost threw some crumbled blue cheese in the biscuits.

Maybe next time.

Now this is one of those recipes that is pretty much fool-proof.  You can toss the bacon and herbs into any sweet potato recipe you like, but I went the easy route.  I decided to make them using Bisquick, because it’s always nice to have a few Bisquick recipes!

You should know that I do make the majority of my biscuits from scratch now.  In fact, the post about biscuits is the most popular on this site by far. But there will always be a place in my kitchen and my heart for a box of baking mix.  I have fond memories of making Bisquick drop biscuits for myself as an after-school snack when I was a kid.  Mmmmm…honey butter…

I decided to use only a small amount of sweet potato in these. I just wanted that little something extra while still somewhat maintaining the texture of a regular biscuit.  I also only added a touch of sugar.  I wanted to enhance the natural sweetness of the potato without actually making the biscuits sweet.  Does that even make sense?

They turned out to be just the way I wanted.  A tiny bit sweet, slightly salty and smoky from the bacon, and the fresh thyme adds that extra dimension to set these apart from anything you would expect to come from a yellow cardboard box.

I love them! And I can’t wait for one of you to try this recipe. I’m home alone for a few days so I haven’t even had feedback from my husband yet.  Although I am driving up to my sister’s house today to deliver the leftovers to my brother-in-law.  I’m pretty sure these will be right up his alley.

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Bacon and Thyme

2 C. Bisquick baking mix
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 heaping teaspoon fresh chopped thyme leaves
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
1 T. brown sugar
all purpose flour for dusting counter

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dust a  counter top lightly with flour.
2. In a medium bowl, combine baking mix, bacon, and chopped thyme. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sweet potato, milk, and brown sugar.
3. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Dump mixture out onto a floured counter and knead a few times just to finish mixing the dough.
5. Pat out into a circle about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut biscuits and arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes until just lightly browned on top.
7. Enjoy warm with a little butter.

Yield: 8-10 small biscuits

Recipe notes: To make 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes, I just peeled one smallish sweet potato, cut it into chunks, and boiled it for about 15 minutes until it was fork tender.  I put the potato through a food mill, but you can mash it however you like.  Just make sure that it’s tender enough not to leave little chunks in your biscuits!  You could also mash a leftover baked sweet potato.

In a separate bowl, combine sweet potato, milk, and brown sugar.

Whisk together the sweet potato, milk, and brown sugar.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Stir until the dough just barely comes together.

Dump the dough out onto the floured counter.

Knead the dough just a few times until it’s completely combined. Don’t overwork the dough!

With your hands, gently pat the dough out into a circle, about 1/2 inch thick.

Cut biscuits with biscuit cutter. Mine is 2 1/2 inches wide.

Combine scraps of dough to cut an extra biscuit or two. The final scraps can be shaped to form an extra tiny biscuit.

Place biscuits on parchment-lined baking sheet. You can see my tiny scrappy biscuit on the right!

Remove the biscuits from oven when they are just barely starting to brown on top.

And finally, enjoy a biscuit warm from the oven with a bit of butter!

For those of you just tuning in this month, I’m happy to say that I’m participating in the National Blog Posting Month challenge. For this year’s edition of NaBloPoMo, I’ve pledged to post a new recipe every single day for the month of November. If you don’t want to miss a recipe, sign up to receive my recipes by e-mail. You’ll only receive an e-mail when I write a new blog post, and your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose. Interested? Sign up now!

Related Recipes:

• Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
• Herbed Cheese Biscuits
• Sour Cream Cheddar and Chive Biscuits

Around the Web:

• Sweet Potato Biscuits from CHOW
• Sweet Potato Biscuits from Pots on the Stove
• Sweet Potato Biscuits from Orangette
• Sweet Potato Biscuits from A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen
• Sweet Potato Biscuits from A Veggie Venture