2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup milk
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Measure the liquids in the same cup and pour over the dry ingredients all at once. Stir together with a fork until just combined. Turn out on a floured surface and gently knead together one or two to times. Roll to just shy of 1/2″. Cut into rounds (my mom uses a small tomato paste can) and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet in a 425 degree F oven for about 20 minutes.
Now that is the standard recipe… but you can use buttermilk instead of sweet milk. Or soymilk, even. You can use self-rising flour as well, just leave out the baking powder. Any kind of veg oil works, I prefer canola. You can also add about 2 tablespoons of sugar and some orange zest and have great shortcakes to spoon strawberries over. The secret is to handle the dough as little as possible..
