Tender gluten free sweet potato biscuits are rich and savory with just a touch of sweetness and packed with gorgeous orange sweet potatoes in every bite. They're lovely on the Thanksgiving table or anytime.
I love adding a warm plate of sweet potato biscuits to my Thanksgiving buffet, especially with a little dish of softened, salted butter for a salty-sweet contrast! They're wonderful with all kinds of holiday main dishes, drizzled with vegetarian gravy, or served alongside steaming bowls of butternut squash soup, sweet potato and coconut soup, or a scoop of gluten free souffle.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
Cook sweet potatoes long and slow in the oven to release their natural sweetness, then mash them and tuck them into gorgeously tender biscuits. These are welcome all year round, especially during the holidays. Here's why you'll love this sweet potato biscuits recipe:
- Gluten free. Use your favorite gluten-free flour mix in this recipe to create fluffy gluten-free biscuits that everyone can eat (and enjoy!).
- Easy. The batter comes together quickly and uses simple pantry and fridge staples, and the baking time is less than 30 minutes.
- Flavorful. Sweet from the potatoes and brown sugar, the biscuits are balanced by a bit of tartness from the buttermilk.
- Pure comfort food. These biscuits are rich, buttery, decadent, and wholly delicious, especially when finished with a healthy additional pat of butter.
Ingredients Needed
Get an idea of what you'll need to make this sweet potato biscuits recipe (hint: just 7 ingredients!) below. I've included the full ingredient amounts and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Gluten free flour - My homemade gluten free flour blend worked perfectly in these biscuits. Note that it doesn't contain xanthan gum, so if you use another gluten-free flour mix you may have slightly different results.
- Brown sugar - You can use light or dark brown sugar, or omit the sugar altogether for a more savory biscuit.
- Baking powder - Make sure it's fresh so that the biscuits rise properly.
- Salt - I like to use fine sea salt and table salt works, too.
- Butter - Use unsalted butter, and keep it very cold!
- Sweet potato mash - Make your own mashed sweet potatoes on the stove or in the oven (I give instructions lower down), or use canned sweet potato puree.
- Buttermilk - If you don't have buttermilk you can use ½ cup of whole milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of buttermilk.
Variation Ideas
- Honey - For a bit of floral sweetness, substitute honey for the brown sugar.
- Butternut squash - Make these into butternut squash or pumpkin biscuits by using 1 cup of butternut squash puree or pumpkin puree instead of the sweet potatoes.
- Spices - I like to keep these biscuits more of a biscuit than a dessert, but may versions include cinnamon. If you like, try ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon or ginger in the dough.
- Vegan - Easily make vegan sweet potato biscuits by swapping your preferred non-dairy butter and making vegan buttermilk with non-dairy milk and vinegar.
How to Make Sweet Potato Biscuits
Don't take your butter out of the fridge until you are ready to add it to the dry ingredients! See how to quickly make this dough below:
- Make dry mix: Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Combine sweet potatoes and buttermilk: Whisk together the mashed sweet potatoes and the buttermilk.
- Add butter: Cut in the cold butter to the flour mix.
- Combine: Add the sweet potatoes and buttermilk to the flour mixture and stir to form a dough.
- Form: Use a biscuit cutter or your hands to form the biscuits.
- Bake: Place on a lined baking sheet and bake the biscuits at 425F for up to 25 minutes.
Biscuits Tip: Rest in the Freezer
Biscuits are akin to scones in that a short stint in the freezer before baking will result in ultra-flaky layers (see my oat flour scones recipe for more baking tips that can help here, too). The easiest way to build in the freezing time is to pop the tray of formed biscuits into the freezer while the oven heats. This will also help the gluten free flour to hydrate.
Tips & Substitution Suggestions
- How to make sweet potato puree: You can either peel and cut a large sweet potato into chunks and boil it, or roast a whole sweet potato. To use the stovetop method, boil the chunks in a pot of water until tender. Then drain, mash, and cool the potato before using. To use the oven method: Scrub a sweet potato and prick it with a fork. Bake it at 400F until soft, about 1 hour. Let the potato cool, then cut it open and scoop out the insides to mash.
- Use cold ingredients. Keep the butter and buttermilk in the fridge until you're ready to add them to the dough. This will help the biscuits be extra flaky after they've baked.
- Handle the dough gently. Gluten-free dough is a bit easier to work with than regular dough because you don't have to worry about activating the gluten in the wheat flour. But with biscuits, too much kneading of any type of flour can lead to a dense result. So gently stir and fold it together.
- Make ahead: Put together the dough and form the biscuits, then transfer the formed biscuits to an airtight container. Store the formed biscuits in the fridge for up to 2 days, or keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Make them dairy-free: To make these biscuits dairy-free, substitute your favorite non-dairy butter for the butter and use non-dairy milk for the buttermilk.
- Make them refined sugar-free: Swap the brown sugar and granulated sugar for coconut sugar to make these sweet potato biscuits refined sugar-free.
Serving Options
- Serve warm: These biscuits absolutely must be served warm! You can serve them soon after they've come out of the oven or reheat them in a low oven or microwave.
- Add butter: A generous spread of softened, salted butter is incredible on a warm biscuit.
- And honey: I also love to serve sweet potato biscuits with honey! Butter and honey on biscuits is one of life's little pleasures.
- Serve with ham: Make little sandwiches - split a sweet potato biscuit in half, spread it with mayo or butter, and add a thin slice of ham.
- Or make leftover turkey sandwiches: Sweet potato biscuits make great vehicles for leftover Thanksgiving turkey! Add turkey and cranberry sauce to halved biscuits for a light lunch.
- Or go vegetarian! If you're like me and don't eat meat, these biscuits are perfectly lovely split in half, spread with butter, and filled with a slice or two of sharp cheddar cheese.
Proper Storage
These sweet potato biscuits taste best on the day they're made, but you can keep them for a few days and rewarm them before serving. Here's how:
- Counter - Store leftover sweet potato biscuits in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days.
- Freezer - Transfer the baked sweet potato biscuits to a freezer-safe bag or airtight container and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge before reheating.
- To Reheat - To reheat, warm them gently in the microwave or in the oven on low heat.
More Gluten Free Bread Recipes
If you tried these sweet potato biscuits or any other recipe on my website, please let me know how it went in the comments below! And I always appreciate a star rating if you loved it ❤️
Sweet Potato Biscuits
Tender gluten free sweet potato biscuits are rich and savory with just a touch of sweetness, buttermilk, and butter.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups gluten free all purpose flour (210 grams)
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 1 cup sweet potato mash, or puree
- ½ cup buttermilk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the pieces of butter using a fork or pastry cutter until it forms coarse crumbs.
- In a measuring cup or bowl, whisk the sweet potato with the buttermilk. Stir into the flour mixture until the mixture is moistened and forms a soft dough.
- If your dough is very wet, you can rest it in the fridge for 10 minutes. Then, turn out the dough onto a surface floured with gluten-free flour, and knead it 4 times. Pat the dough into 1-inch thickness and use a biscuit cutter to cut out 1-inch biscuits. You can also form the dough into 12 equal-sized pieces. Place the biscuits 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Preheat the oven to 425℉ and place the whole tray of biscuits in the freezer to chill while the oven heats. Then bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Gently transfer the baked biscuits to a wire rack, and let them cool for 5-10 minutes until they are set. Serve the biscuits warm.
Notes
- How to make sweet potato puree: You can either peel and cut a large sweet potato into chunks and boil it, or roast a whole sweet potato. To use the stovetop method, boil the chunks in a pot of water until tender. Then drain, mash, and cool the potato before using. To use the oven method: Scrub a sweet potato and prick it with a fork. Bake it at 400F until soft, about 1 hour. Let the potato cool, then cut it open and scoop out the insides to mash.
- Use cold ingredients. Keep the butter and buttermilk in the fridge until you're ready to add them to the dough. This will help the biscuits be extra flaky after they've baked.
- Handle the dough gently. Gluten-free dough is a bit easier to work with than regular dough because you don't have to worry about activating the gluten in the wheat flour. But with biscuits, too much kneading of any type of flour can lead to a dense result. So gently stir and fold it together.
- Make ahead: Put together the dough and form the biscuits, then transfer the formed biscuits to an airtight container. Store the formed biscuits in the fridge for up to 2 days, or keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Make them dairy-free: To make these biscuits dairy-free, substitute your favorite non-dairy butter for the butter and use non-dairy milk for the buttermilk.
- Make them refined sugar-free: Swap the brown sugar and granulated sugar for coconut sugar to make these sweet potato biscuits refined sugar-free.
Nutrition
Calories: 154kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 2gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 221mgPotassium: 57mgFiber: 2gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 1825IUVitamin C: 0.3mgCalcium: 90mgIron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Let me know in the comments how it went!
Jill says
I've been making these a lot, and just made them for my whole family when we were snowed in last weekend near Bear Valley. They were a hit.
Since they're not so great left-over, I freeze half the dough and will even pop individual ones in the oven for dinner.
julie says
We took these to Thanksgiving dinner last night, and everyone loved them! We told them all to visit your site. Thanks for the recipe!
EB says
Why do I get the feeling that you get more done on Sunday mornings than I do the whole day?
justrun says
Mmm. I've been wanting sweet potato biscuits since I read The Secret Life of Bees. Thank you for a recipe!