Note: these are “biscuits” in the Southern USA meaning of the word, not cookies.  For my lovely British friends who want some vegan cookies and other desserts, try armadillo balls or vegan mud pie cake For US Southerners looking for quick no butter biscuits, proceed:

This is another of those great easy breads you can whip up at a moment’s notice (note: if you don’t have milk and you’re looking for a quick bread recipe, try Pizza Bianca). I think this was originally in Joy of Cooking, but I’ve memorized it and made it my own. My mom and grandma also made something similar (but with butter, which they cut in). My mom’s recipe is something like: fill THIS bowl to about here (if you ever lose THIS bowl, you can’t make the biscuits). Put in a few handfuls of flour, a pinch of this, a palm full of that, stir it until it feels good. I do that now, but I had to get exact measurements to start me out.

2 cups flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Stir together oil and milk in a smaller bowl.
4. Add the wet into the dry, and stir gently until just mixed and pulling away from the side of the bowl. The secret to biscuits of any kind is to stop stirring when the dough pulls together. Any more, and you’ll have tough biscuits.
5. Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet, or use a cake pan. You can put them close to each other.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, or until browned on the bottom.

These don’t rise terribly high, so they’re not the fluffy, flaky biscuits you get with butter and rolling. The thing is that they’re quick and don’t require rolling and cutting in butter. A few improvements for better tasting biscuits:

-Use yogurt or buttermilk instead of milk
-Add in cheese, ham, bacon, and/or garlic, herbs, sauteed chopped onion, etc.
-Use olive oil instead of canola oil