1cupsugarplus an additional ½ cup sugar for coating cookies
1tablespoonbrown sugar
1eggat room temperature
1 ½teaspoonspure vanilla extract
Instructions
Adjust rack to center position of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to whip butter until smooth. Beat in 1 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar at medium speed. Scrape bowl, increase speed to medium-high, and beat for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and vanilla until well incorporated. Turn mixer to low and slowly stir in flour mixture, scraping bowl as necessary, mixing until just combined, and taking care not to overmix.
Pour the remaining ½ cup sugar in a shallow bowl. Fill another bowl with cold water. Moisten hands with water, pinch off a heaping tablespoon of dough, and roll into a 1 ½-inch ball (damp hands will keep the dough from sticking). Drop the ball into the sugar, turn and roll to coat, and place it on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing cookies 2 to 3 inches apart.
Bake cookie until just the edges are golden brown and the centers look set, 12 to 18 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
Notes
I have the most success with this recipe when I weigh my flour, rather than just using measuring cups. If you use measuring cups and your dough seems too sticky to press into the pan, add a tad bit more flour.
Fitting 12 cookies on my 12x18-inch sheet pan resulted in cookies that slightly touched after spreading. Fitting 8 cookies on my sheet pan meant that they didn't touch.
If your dough seems overly soft and warm, you might consider refrigerating it for 20 minutes or so. If you do chill your dough, you may want to slightly flatten the tops of your dough balls so that they spread adequately. Dough that hasn't been refrigerated probably doesn't need to be flattened.