"Les Patates Douces" Go South

When we first moved to France, you couldn’t buy a sweet potato for nothing. The French call them patates douces. But a couple of decades have passed since then, and now most grocery stores will have a few tucked away somewhere.

I figured the French grocery stores carry them for the Brits, as my French friends have never served them to us, but when I googled some French recettes lately, I found that adventurous French cooks are doing all sorts of interesting things with them: stuffing them with jambon cru and mozzarella, roasting them with honey and hazlenuts and feta, slicing them into a gratin with ginger, garlic, and cream, with a dusting of grated gruyère. They have, it seems, embraced the patate douce. 

 

Then, while back in Charleston, I saw a recipe that grabbed me. Sweet Potato Biscuits! Now how had I missed out on that deliciousness? And just in time for Thanksgiving.

 

I’ve made them twice now,  and they are pretty wonderful. They are even better the second day, if you split them and butter them and slide them under the broiler.

 

Got to run, I’m off to make these and introduce them to our French friends!

 

RECIPE: Southern Biscuits with Les Patates Douces

 

Be sure to throw a sweet potato in the microwave in advance, for the mash.

•  2 cups  flour (I used part whole wheat)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• ½ cup cooked, mashed sweet potato, (1 medium sweet potato), chilled if you have time
• 3/4 cups whole milk
• Heavy cream or egg wash for topping

Preheat the oven to 425°F (210C)

In a food processor, add dry ingredients and pulse about 8 times. Add the butter and distribute dollops of the sweet potatoes around the top. Pulse until you have a coarse meal, 8 to 10 one second pulses. Small lumps of butter are okay.

Turn out into a bowl, make a well in the center of the mixture, and add the milk all at once. Mix together with a fork just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix or knead—you are not looking for a cohesive, smooth dough.

Dump the dough out onto a well floured work surface and use your  (floured) hands to pat it roughly into a rectangle  about an inch thick (it's a bit stickier than regular biscuit dough). Dip a knife in flour and cut into squares. Use a floury spatula to lift biscuits onto a baking sheet. Put them close together, not quite touching. 

Brush the tops with heavy cream or an egg wash (an egg beaten with a splash of water).  Sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar and a bit of cinnamon or pie spice. Plain white or brown cane sugar will work too). Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Serve with butter, or with honey butter or maple butter if you want to get fancy. 

If this recipe gets you on a biscuit binge, try these peach pie biscuits.

 

In the COMMENTS: Thanks for checking out Aryn's moulin project, so many of you were interested, and we are quite fascinated by it as well! We look forward to seeing her progress, and sharing it with you. It was fun to hear from those of you who have made the leap to France, as well as those who long to. And Paula, we know all about the pull of those grandkids (but ,sigh, we also know kids can move away unexpectedly, so following them can be tricky!).

Favorite READS:  If you haven't done so already, please take a detour and congratulate Kristi Espinasse on 20 years of blogging at French-Word-A-Day. She has been a great inspiration to me, and I'm sure to many of you too. And since many of you are avid readers, I think you will love reading Book Lovers, a very funny novel by Emily Henry, which has me staying up late these days since I can't put it down.