Sugar Cookies

Lately I've been craving sugar cookies. It's taken many years to finally find a good recipe, but now that I have, I would like to share it with you. These cookies turn out soft and if stored in an airtight container, will take on a slight crispness after a day or two. I have also included a variation to make Lemon-Poppy Seed Sugar Cookies, if that's more to your liking. As for my preference? I made a batch of both to share with family and friends.

Ingredients for Sugar Cookies:

1 ½ cups granulated sugar + about a ½ cup for rolling*

14 tablespoons (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 ½ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

*Note: I used fancy sugar for the rolling but if you don't have this on hand, plain granulated sugar will work just fine.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pour the ½ cup of sugar for rolling into a shallow dish and set aside. Using either a stand mixer or a hand-held mixer, beat together the remaining sugar and softened butter on medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes. In the meantime, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Once the butter/sugar mixture is light and fluffy, add the vanilla. Next add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Reduce the speed of the mixer down to low and slowly add the dry ingredients until combined. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and then roll them in the sugar to coat. Place the balls on a cookie sheet at least 1 ½ inches apart. Flatten the dough balls slightly with the bottom of a drinking glass.

Bake the cookies until the edges are just starting to hint at turning brown but the centers are still puffy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Variation: Lemon-Poppy Seed Sugar Cookies

Whisk 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds into the flour mixture and add 1 tablespoon of grated, fresh lemon zest to the dough at the same time as the vanilla.

I found this recipe in the America's Test Kitchen: Best Baking Recipes, on display until July 8, 2013