The Story Behind Our Signature Sweet Potato & Country Ham Biscuits

If you read our blog, you know that we love organic gardening with heirloom seeds. You also probably figured out that we serve our guests delectable treats made from scratch daily using local ingredients. Our guests rave about our signature biscuits, and so today, we are revealing the story behind them and our recipe!

Our fluffy Sweet Potato Biscuit recipe has a fascinating history that actually starts with Thomas Jefferson! In 1774, his sweet potato biscuits were served at the first meeting of the First Continental Congress at City Tavern in Philadelphia, and they are still served there today.

Thomas Jefferson enjoyed gardening, and one of his favorite vegetables to grow was the sweet potato. In fact, on September 17, 1787, he wrote a letter to Nicholas Lewis in Paris and requested “seeds of the common sweet potato [I mean the real seeds and not the root which cannot be brought here without rotting].”

Now, our recipe does have a twist to his original version, and we’d like to share a funny story with you. The first few times we made these biscuits, they tasted wonderful, but they didn’t look so appealing. In fact, they looked like they were filled with hair! It was quite alarming, and that was when we learned that we must puree the sweet potatoes prior to baking due to their fibrous nature. Can you imagine serving hairy-looking biscuits to our guests?

Want to make some of your own? Here’s our recipe—let us know how they turn out!

Bay Haven Inn’s Sweet Potato Biscuits

Created by Jim Holloway, Innkeeper

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Virginia sweet potatoes (cooked and mashed)
• 9 Tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 2 cups of sifted flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 tsp baking powder
• Thinly shaved Virginia Country Ham (optional)

Directions:

1. Add melted butter to sweet potato, next add milk and sugar
2. Combine dry ingredients together (flour, salt, baking powder)
3. Fold the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and do not over mix, just enough to hold together.
4. Dust a pastry board. Divide the dough in half and work with one ½ at a time. Spread the dough to ½ inches thick and flip it over to dust it with flour again.
5. Take a 2-inch biscuit cutter, dip it in flour and cut the first biscuit. Repeat the process, making sure to dip it in flour each time.
6. Bake at 450º F for 15-20 minutes, and watch closely based on the oven.

Makes 48 biscuits

Watch Innkeeper Jim Make Sweet Potato Biscuits

Sweet potatoes grow very well in our loamy soil on the shore. Take a journey through the photos as you watch Innkeeper and Jim the Biscuit Man work his breakfast magic.

The dough has been prepared and rolled out, and Jim is carefully cutting the biscuits.

Next, the biscuits are baked and brushed with butter.

Biscuits are topped with homemade Ginger Fig Jam and slices of Virginia Edwards Ham. 

When you arrive for breakfast, you can expect our signature biscuits, served with the Bay Haven Inn of Cape Charles Eastern Shore Coastal Roast coffee and plenty of other garden-to-table goodies!

We serve with a thinly shaved Edwards, Virginia, country ham and add a light layer of apricot or ginger/fig jam to create the perfect bite.

*I am not sure where adding the country ham came into the picture, but it is definitely the perfect mate to the sweet potato biscuit. Add our homemade ginger fig or peach pepper jam, and you have created the perfect, most memorable bite!

Recipe derived from Thomas Jefferson’s original Sweet Potato Biscuits served at City Tavern and Susie H. Mapp, Eastern Shore homemaker.