These Simple Biscuits Will Change the Way You Think About Sweet Potatoes

Trader Joes Thanksgiving
Cole Saladino/Thrillist
Cole Saladino/Thrillist

The humble sweet potato takes many shapes during Thanksgiving. It can be made into pie. It can be baked in a dish covered in marshmallows. It can be stuffed into a sock and wielded as a makeshift nunchuck when the cousin you don't actually like overstays his welcome.

Here, though, it takes the form of biscuits. That sounds like a tough recipe, but this one is as simple as your dumbass cousin, and it's made even simpler in that you can get all the ingredients -- including pre-roasted sweet potatoes and all-purpose baking mix -- at Trader Joe's. To get extra fancy, pair it up with homemade maple butter, which is basically like a Canadian cousin to honey butter… a cousin that's way cooler than your aunt's idiot son.  

INGREDIENTS:
  • For the Biscuits:
  • 1 package (11.5 ounces) TJ's roasted sweet potato wedges
  • 6 tablespoons vegetable oil  
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 ½ cups TJ's Buttermilk Pancake & All-Purpose Baking Mix
  • ½ cup milk
 
  • For the Maple Butter:
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
DIRECTIONS:
  • Mash defrosted sweet potatoes in a large bowl until blended and soft. Add nutmeg, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne pepper (you can taste the mixture and adjust seasoning to your liking).
  • Add baking mix and blend well. Next, add oil and milk to the mixture, stirring until soft dough forms. If dough is too sticky, add more baking mix a little at a time until it's still soft, but no longer sticky.
(If any of the following sounds complicated, rest assured that you can just roll these suckers into little biscuit balls with your hands. But if you want to go for shape consistency, sprinkle counter with baking mix or plain flour and roll out dough into ¾-inch-thick rectangle. Dust again with baking mix, fold the dough over onto itself, and roll again into a ¾-inch-thick rectangle, fold and repeat three times (like you're summoning Beetlejuice!). Dust under and on top of the dough if needed, and roll the dough into a
½-inch-thick rectangle. Using a round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough, placing on lined baking sheet about ½ inch apart.)
  • Bake on center rack of oven at 425°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 3 minutes before serving.
  • For that maple butter, take about 1 ½ sticks of unsalted, room-temperature butter and mix it thoroughly with 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup (use a stand mixer if you have it, though a hand mixer or vigorous stirring with a wooden spoon will do the trick too). If you want it sweeter, add more syrup and repeat.

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Melissa Locker is a writer in New York and only eats marshmallow peeps. Follow her on Twitter @woolyknickers but don't follow her in real life.