November is rounding third base, and December is running quickly behind it. The final months of the calendar year are an interesting time for a garden. For some, late fall and winter are a rest period. For us, it is still a very active time. Middle Georgia has a relatively mild winter, leaving both the garden and gardeners outside to brave the elements and soak up each and every daylight hour.
While our kitchens are already starting to benefit from what was planted this fall, this time of year is also good for dipping into some of the "storage vegetables" of summer, like sweet potatoes and winter squash. Because both of these items often grace the Thanksgiving table, some people think of them as being in the ground now. The truth of the matter is that they were harvested months before. Once harvested these vegetables, particularly sweet potatoes, have to be set out to cure. The curing process is when they take on their characteristically sweet flavor. Without being cured, you might think something was amiss.
So, without further ado, we're sharing some of our recent kitchen experiments: Sweet Potato and Rosemary Drop Biscuits. I find I like their texture better if they're dropped by the spoonful into a greased mini-muffin pan instead of rolled out and shaped with biscuit cutters, but to each his own.
Rosemary and Sweet Potato Biscuits (adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
- 2 tbsp light-brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 6 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter and more for pan
- 3/4 cup Sweet Potato Puree, chilled
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- A splash of whole milk
- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree, sour cream, and milk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).
- Shape the biscuits: Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).
- Bake the biscuits: Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.
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