Spiced Sweet Potato Buttermilk Biscuits
Incredibly delicious, pillowy soft and tender, and beaming with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom flavor; these sweet potato buttermilk biscuits are such an absolute treat any time of day!

If you ask me, biscuits truly do make the world go ’round. I love biscuits, y’all. Whether they’re plain buttermilk biscuits or savory biscuits like these cheddar scallion biscuits…just gimme all the biscuits. They’re also the perfect accompaniment to almost every Southern or soul food meal and great to sop up delicious gravy or the collard greens pot liquor/likker, yumm. Biscuits, to me, are more than just flour, butter, and buttermilk- they’re love. The history of biscuit-making as it relates to Black culture, especially, is what I love most. Such simple and widely accessible ingredients help make this cherished staple.
Sweet Potato Biscuits Ingredients
- white lily self-rising flour
- baking powder
- kosher salt
- unsalted butter
- whole buttermilk
- dark brown sugar
- mashed sweet potato
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- cardamom
Let’s Talk About Flour
When it comes to biscuits, I am a huge fan of the White Lily brand. I use this particular flour almost exclusively whenever I want the best biscuits. Their flour is milled from soft winter wheat that is finer in texture; which produces a light, airy, super tender crumb in baked goods. Additionally, this is a brand that is found more regionally in Southern states. However, you may be able to find this specific flour online too.
My sweet potato biscuits recipe calls for self-rising flour. This type of flour has a leavening agent and salt already built in. In addition to that, I find that still adding in baking powder helps produce more volume and lighter textured biscuits. While I highly recommend making this recipe as written, you can surely still make these sweet potato biscuits using standard all-purpose flour as well.
The Best Sweet Potato Biscuits
Seriously, what makes these sweet potato buttermilk biscuits so amazing? They’re spiced and full of flavor! All of the signature warm and inviting spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom give these biscuits some oomph and depth. Dark brown sugar adds a touch of sweetness and a beautiful molasses vibe that takes them up a notch! And the main star, mashed sweet potato, y’all! I recommend finding you some garnet yams, specifically. Don’t let the name fool you; garnet yams are still sweet potatoes but have more of a richer orange interior than standard sweet potatoes. And of course, those are also still okay to use too.
Biscuit-Making 101
- Make sure the butter and buttermilk are super cold.
- Work quickly and efficiently.
- Try not to overwork biscuit dough.
- Don’t overthink it- making biscuits is easy!
Yup, that’s it. A lot of folks see making homemade biscuits as this huge task but they really are easy to make. The butter needs to be solid cold when grated into mixture so that when it enters the hot oven; it creates butter pockets within the biscuits. Working super efficiently and quickly so as to not let ingredients get too warm, helps a ton. Overworking the biscuit dough will yield tough and super dense biscuits, so be mindful when kneading the dough. All in all, making these sweet potato biscuits (or any biscuits) is not to be feared!
How To Enjoy These Sweet Potato Biscuits
I’ve particularly enjoyed these biscuits on the weekends with some salty country ham and scrambled eggs, pure heaven. Although, don’t let that fool you- these sweet potato biscuits can surely accommodate other hearty fixin’s like fried chicken, bacon, and pork chops. For example, making a sandwich situation out of them is also an option. Alternatively, you can just enjoy them as is and slathered with butter and/or jelly. No matter what adventure you choose with these biscuits, they’re sure to give you a damn good time.
How To Cook Sweet Potatoes
- Boil: Peel off skin and cut sweet potatoes into quarters. In a large pot/dutch oven over medium heat, bring enough water to cover sweet potatoes to a boil. Let cook until sweet potatoes are fork tender; a fork should be able to cleanly pierce through sweet potato flesh, about 20 minutes. Then drain and mash together the sweet potatoes. Allow flesh to cool down completely before using.
- Roast: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil and drizzle a little olive oil. Take a fork and prick the sweet potatoes all over a few times. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until fork is easily inserted into the flesh. Then scoop out sweet potato flesh, mash together, and discard the skins. Allow flesh to cool down completely before using.
Other Great Recipes To Try
- Skillet Peach Cobbler
- Chicken and Waffles
- Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls
- Brown Stew Chicken
- Southern-Style Chicken Salad
- Cajun Salmon With Parmesan Risotto
- Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese
- Blueberry Streusel Muffins
REMEMBER TO LEAVE A ⭐️STAR RATING⭐️AND TAG ME ON THE ‘GRAM IF YOU MAKE ANY OF MY RECIPES! I ALWAYS LOVE TO SEE IT WHEN YOU DO!
UNTIL NEXT TIME…LOVE AND BUTTER,
Q.
PrintSpiced Sweet Potato Buttermilk Biscuits
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Brunch
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American, Southern
Description
Incredibly delicious, pillowy soft and tender, and beaming with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom flavor; these sweet potato buttermilk biscuits are such an absolute treat any time of day!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potato, garnet yams preferred
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 1/2 cups whole buttermilk
- 4 1/2 cups White Lily self-rising flour, plus more for work surface
- 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, grated- plus more for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl; combine mashed sweet potato, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon salt together. Stir mixture together until fully combined. Then pour in buttermilk and stir again until well combined and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix well to break up any larger sugar pieces. Use a box grater to grate butter directly into flour mixture. Then use your fingers to work butter into flour mixture by pinching your fingers into mixture creating pea-sized bits of butter throughout.
- Pour sweet potato mixture into flour mixture and use a rubber spatula to mix until just combined.
- Empty dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Coat your hands in a little flour to handle dough and gently knead dough together. Fold dough onto itself about 2-3 times and then use a rolling pin to roll out dough into a rough rectangle (about 2 inches thick). Add a touch more flour to rolling pin to prevent sticking, only if necessary.
- Use a medium-sized biscuit cutter (or a glass cup) to stamp out biscuits but DO NOT twist cutter/glass when stamping dough. Simply stamp out biscuits (punching down and out) and place onto prepared baking sheet. Make sure biscuits are touching as it helps them to rise tall when placed together. Re-roll any remaining dough scraps to make more biscuits.
- Bake biscuits for 15 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown in color.
- Immediately brush biscuits with more melted butter and enjoy warm.
Notes
- Biscuits will keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Keywords: sweet potato, biscuits, buttermilk, breakfast, brunch
17 Comments on “Spiced Sweet Potato Buttermilk Biscuits”
Delicious and easy to prepare Biscuit.
★★★★★
So good! I couldn’t get enough of these. I made a second batch just to freeze.
★★★★★
These turned out so well! I was a little confused by adding shredded butter, but I followed the instructions and. they came out great! It was my first time making biscuits that didn’t come out of a can! They taste great!
★★★★★
These biscuits are out of this world and the perfect addition for brunch! I made them for my family and everyone asked for the recipe! Instructions were easy to follow and they turned out fluffy, sweet, and flaky. Delicious with just a little butter and my morning tea.
★★★★★
Making biscuits from scratch has always intimidated me, but I cannot believe how great these turned out for my first time! I used regular flour I had on had making the recipe for Easter. Will definitely hold on to this recipe!
★★★★★
The best I’ve ever made!
★★★★★
Hey Quinn!!!! My friend and I just made our sweet potato biscuits.. They where a hit!! Love love them. We will be making them again before the holidays. Thanks agin for responding to your ig friends😊🍠🍠🍠
★★★★★
Hey Juanita! Nice, I’m so happy to hear that y’all enjoyed the biscuits 🙂
WHOA.
This recipe is the bomb DOT com. First time biscuit maker over here and this recipe of yours has me fooling my visting crowd of election working co-workers. And that crowd included some seasoned church lady bakers. I impressed them and my self! These biscuits were SO good even without jelly. From now on this recipe will be my go to holiday meal contribution cause these biscuits put the ‘S’ in Southern.
★★★★★
Hi there- Wowww, this comment made my day! I’m so happy that you enjoyed these biscuits, they’re one of my faves. Thank you for taking the time to leave these words 🙂
I made the biscuits and put sweet potatoes filled in one and put one on top and made small pie thank you for the recipe
Question: can these be frozen after step 6, before baking?
They look delicious! I’m making the sweet potato rosemary rolls this week.
Hi there- yes, you can freeze unbaked biscuits (thaw before baking)…hope you enjoy! 🙂
These biscuits were PHENOMENAL! I put the butter in the freezer and then grated it into the mixture to make sure it was easy to grate. I was nervous about messing up the dough, but it was very easy. The biscuits are soft, flakey, and delicious.
★★★★★
Delicious biscuits! I froze them cut and uncooked for 4 hours so I can have them when I’d like. I baked them frozen at 425F for 18 mins and they turned out great.
★★★★★
Wonderful! I loved the spices in this. I made something similar at the B&B I was innkeeper for a few years ago. I served them as little ham sliders. Add ham, mustard. Yum, yum. these ones turned out fabulous! Moist, tender, slightly sweet. Good stuff. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Hi Linda- Love how you served up these biscuits, sounds deeelicious! 🙂