Instructions: Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat well. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the milk.

On low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula and beating only until thoroughly mixed.

Divide the dough in two and wrap each half separately in wax paper or aluminum foil. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 3 hours or longer if you wish. (Chilling the dough in the freezer makes it too hard to roll.)

Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 400 F. Place one piece of the dough on a lightly floured pastry cloth. Turn it over to flour all sides and form it into a ball. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to the desired thickness: For very large cookies roll to a generous 1/4 inch. Cut the cookies as you wish. If you want very large cookies, cut with a plain round 4-inch cookie cutter. With a wide metal spatula transfer the cookies to unbuttered cookie sheets. If the cookies are large and thick, place them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. They may be closer if they are small and thin.

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies generously with granulated sugar. Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, reversing the position of the sheets top to bottom and front to back as necesssary during baking to insure even browning. Large, thick cookies will need to bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

With a wide metal spatula transfer the cookies to racks to cool.

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