Sweet Potato Sage Skillet Biscuits
Drop biscuits with sweet potato and sage, baked in a covered skillet over coals.
- calories
- 230
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 105
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 180 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Self-rising flour | 2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet potato flakes or powder | 1/3 cup | the instant kind, sold for mashing |
| Buttermilk powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Dried rubbed sage | 1 tsp | |
| Shortening or ghee | 1/3 cup | both hold at ambient temperature |
| Cold water | 3/4 cup | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame.
- In the pot, cut the shortening into the dry mix with a spoon or your fingers until it looks like coarse gravel. Leave lumps. They are the layers.
- Add water a splash at a time and stir until it just comes together. Stop while it still looks shaggy.
- Wipe the dutch oven with a little shortening. Drop the dough in twelve rough lumps, not touching.
- Lid on. Set the oven on a bed of coals and shovel more coals onto the lid, roughly twice as many on top as below.
- Bake 18 to 20 minutes. Lift the lid once at fifteen to check. They are done when the tops are set and dry.
Sweet potato does two things in a biscuit: it adds sugar that browns, and it adds moisture that keeps the crumb soft. Fresh mashed sweet potato is not a trail ingredient, so this uses the instant flakes and rehydrates them inside the dough with the water. Buttermilk powder replaces the fresh buttermilk and reacts with the leavening in the self-rising flour the same way.
The original folds chilled butter into a sheet of dough eight times for flaky layers. That does not work over a fire with warm shortening and no counter, so these are drop biscuits. Cutting the fat in coarsely and stopping the mixing early gets most of the lift back. Coals on the lid matter more than coals underneath, or the bottoms burn before the tops set.
Packing
Flour, sweet potato flakes, buttermilk powder, sage, and salt go into one bag at home. Shortening travels in a small screw-top jar.
Variations
- Stir in a handful of shelf-stable bacon bits for a side that eats like a meal.
- Split leftovers and fill them with jam for the next day's trail food.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/sweet-potato-and-sage-biscuits