Sugar Cookies

Minnesotans call these "Snickerdoodles", which I think is a really silly name for a cookie.  When I was growing up, we called them "Sugar Cookies", thus ruining all other sugar cookies for me.  These are so much better than the thin, crispy things you get from the bakery, shaped according to the holiday du jour and topped with some sort of sugary confection.  They are thick, moist, and cinnamony.  They are small enough so that you can pop in a few of them without feeling guilty about it.  They are the best sugar cookies ever (if you don't mind calling them sugar cookies in the first place).

Sugar Cookies
From A World of Baking, by Dolores Casella (out of print)

1 cup butter
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla

topping
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

(In my own words) Preheat oven to 350.  Mix butter and sugar until smooth.  Add eggs and milk.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture.  Lastly add the vanilla.  If it seems too dry, add a little more milk.  The mixture should roll easily into stiff balls. 

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Roll the dough into 1 inch balls.  Roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar.  Place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.