Sweet Potato Biscuits

Last week I was looking for a vegan recipe for sweet potato pie and even though I used  ‘vegan’ as a key search word, I keep getting recipes that had egg in them?  [Sweet potatoes were priced real cheap last week so I bought a few pounds thinking about making a vegan sweet potato pie.]  I asked my friends for one but so far no one turned up a vegan recipe for sweet potato pie so I started looking at muffins and biscuits and found this recipe:

Pumpkin Patch Biscuits Recipe http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Pumpkin-Patch-Biscuits

I tried the recipe by replacing the milk with coconut milk and used extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.  Turned out real good but they did burn on the bottom – either my barbecue oven is too hot or the recipe was not right.   Re-made this recipe again today with great success and with a lot of modifications!  I think my recipe is much healthier too.

This recipe makes 6 biscuits perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon – they could be served as dessert!  Keep in mind the less you handle this dough, the better they will turn out.  And the sooner you get this in the oven after the dry ingredients have been mixed with the wet ingredients, the better they will be.  Why?  This recipe uses baking soda; as soon as the baking soda gets wet, it starts working as a leavening.  The baking powder does not start its leavening power until it’s heated.  Using both makes the biscuits fluffier and light.  Be sure to do this recipe in the order as listed here for a light and yummy biscuit.  

Do this first: Turn your oven on to 375 degrees

* Prepare a cutting board:
1/8 cup            unbleached bread flour

* Spread the flour over a cutting board or pastry sheet and set aside

* Prepare the baking sheet:

½ teaspoon     olive oil to spread on the baking sheet (use a brush)

3 tablespoons cornmeal – Sprinkle the cornmeal on the baking sheet and set aside.

Brush both sides of a long non-serrated knife with olive oil and set aside.  

Mix these wet ingredients in a bowl and set aside:

¾ cup              steamed sweet potato, peeled and smashed up (using leftovers is fine)

¼ cup              molasses

1/3 cup            coconut milk  

Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl:

1 & 1/3 cup     flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

½ teaspoon     sea salt

2 tablespoons protein powder

1 tablespoon   nutritional yeast

¼ cup              oatmeal (uncooked)

1/8 teaspoon   ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon   ground nutmeg

1/16 teaspoon ground mace

1/16 teaspoon ground allspice

optional: a pinch or two of ground cloves and or cardamom  

ADD to the Dry Ingredients:

¼ cup              olive oil by slowly drizzling the oil over the bowl of dry ingredients and mixing with a pastry wire mixer or pastry knife until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients by placing scoops of the wet ingredients gently in the flour and turn mixture over with a large mixing spoon.  Do NOT whip them or stir vigorously.  Stop mixing when all the ingredients are incorporated and become one mass – should look like sticky drop cookie batter.

Place the entire mass of dough onto the floured cutting board and shape gently with a large spoon to form a rectangle you can cut into six pieces.  The dough should not be less than ¾ inch thick.  Use the oiled non-serrated knife to cut the biscuits into squares to make only 6 biscuits.  Wiggle the knife in place for a moment or two to help separate the biscuits from each other.  Gently lift each biscuit onto the baking sheet that is covered with cornmeal and place into the pre-heated oven.  Depending on how thick or thin they are, they should be done in 18-20 minutes – start checking them at about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Vegan Sweet Potato Biscuits made from scratch!

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