Sweet Potato and Marshmallow Biscuits

Step 1: The day before or a couple hours in advance, cook the sweet potatoes: Preheat oven to 400°F. Place sweet potato on a tray and roast until soft, about 1 hour. Let cool completely in its skin, then peel. Either run potato flesh through a potato ricer or mash it until very smooth. You’re looking for 3/4 cup (191 grams) mashed sweet potato (a one pound sweet potato generally yields about 1 1/3 cups total.) Step 2: You’ll probably have turned your oven off by now, so if you're looking to cook these biscuits preheat it to 350°F. I say "If you're looking to cook these biscuits" because they are also perfect for freezing. Anyway, if you're cooking them, prepare a cookie sheet for baking either with aluminum foil, Silpat, or greasing. Whisk 3/4 cup reserved sweet potato puree with buttermilk until smoothly combined. In a separate large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, spices, and salt together. If you have a pastry blender, add the cold butter in chunks and use the blender to cut the butter into the flour mixture until the biggest pieces are the size of small peas. If you don’t have a pastry blender, cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Your objective is not to get the dough too warm, so no over-mixing! (This is also why you are completely cooling the sweet potato before making this.) Next, add the sweet potato mixture to the flour mixture. If you're using a mixer, mix at the lowest setting. If you're using a spoon, stir and break it up until the mixture is in big, soft chunks. Get your hands in the bowl and gently knead the dough into an even mass, using as few motions as possible (and thus, warming the dough as little as possible.). Roll the dough out on a floured counter to a 1/2-inch thickness and divide evenly in half. Arrange marshmallows loosely over half of dough. If using large marshmallows, cut each marshmallow into quarters and place over half of dough. Place the second half on top of the marshmallows and use rolling pin to gently press the sides together, keeping the final dough thickness at a full inch. Dip a 2-inch biscuit cutter (or cup, or glass) in flour then form biscuits by cutting straight down and not twisting — this will help give your biscuits the maximum rise. Bake biscuits on prepared sheet for 13 to 15 minutes, until puffed and slightly golden on top. Cool on rack and enjoy as soon as possible. If you don't plan on eating them all at once, I suggest freezing as these biscuits really are best a couple of minutes out of the oven. To freeze, put the freshly made biscuits on a cookie sheet or tray lined with wax or parchment paper. Make sure the sheet will fit in your freezer. Put the sheet of biscuits in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but longer if you can. Once frozen, transfer the biscuits to a freezer bag until needed. Bake at same temperature straight from freezer; biscuits will take about 2 minutes longer (15-17 minutes) to bake. Enjoy!