Heritage Biscuits

A Houstonian's choice of food is beckoned siren-like to many a culinary compass point. There's really no telling which way a Houstonian will go. Mexican food, asian food, southern comfort food, cajun food, gulf coast seafood, BBQ and others, all these choices propel Houstonians in different culinary directions. This recipe takes us in the direction of southern comfort food.

Also, this recipe offered me an emotional plug-in for which I traveled back into my memories of college-aged friendships. Around Christmastime one year our friend Steve, a bonified country boy, brought to our group to a Boone County dry-cured ham. This created quite a stir amongst a group of endlessly hungry 21 year olds. Knowing the ham to be locally produced added greatly to its intrigue; it had country boy cachet. After scoring the ham with a cross hatch and plugging it with cloves along with other forgotten spices, it was cooked for several hours. It was strikingly beautiful and was the most memorable feast of my college days.

So, as a fellow with some southern boy heritage, I try to have some southern comfort food ability. This recipe focuses on one such a food, the ubiquitous biscuit. This particular biscuit is infused with yams. Once cooked, split the biscuit open and place a piece of dry-cured ham between the two halves, top with mustard and honey. The magazine, bon appetit, provided much of the recipe idea.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 3/4-pound red-skinned yam, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch
cubes and boiled in salted water for 8 minutes, then
drained and mashed

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch cayenne pepper

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick) chilled unsalted
butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus 2 tablespoons
butter, melted

1/3 cup chilled buttermilk

Also:

Hot mustard
6 ounces thinly sliced country ham
Honey

Preparations:


Whisk flour and all the other dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the cubed butter to the flour mixture, toss to coat and rub in with finger tips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3/4 cup of mashed sweet potato and the buttermilk toss with fork. Gather the mixture in the bowl, kneading until the dough comes together. Turn the dough onto floured work surface and pat into 1-inch thick rectangle (proportionate 2 x 1). With a floured knife blade cut(press through) the dough rectangle crosswise and lengthwise reflouring the blade after each cut. You should end up with 12 to 15 biscuits, maybe 18.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch cake pan, then place the biscuits into it. They will be pretty close together most likely touching one another and that's just fine. Now, brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter. Place the pan in the bottom 1/3 of a 425 degree preheated oven, bake for about 22 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan then turn out and gently pull the biscuits away from one another.

Final Prep:

Cut each biscuit in half crosswise. Spread the bottom half of each biscuit with mustard, then top each with sliced ham. Cap it with the second half of the biscuit. Serve with honey.

Confessions: The recipe calls for using an 1-1/2 inch round biscuit cutter, I just used a large knife cutting the biscuits into squares rather than rounds.

Comments: Nice biscuits, the tops should end up crumbly crisp. Economical to make. We thought the biscuits tasted saltier than necessary, next time out I'll use less. Another recipe that starts with a stick of butter. This negative makes it less useful in our daily lives. I relate this type of food to special treat restaurant fare rather than everyday type meals.

Caveats: Work biscuit dough as briefly as you can. Overworking the dough quickly diminishes the quality of the biscuit.