With the oven rack placed in the middle position, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.

Whisk together the dry ingredients until well-combined.

Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium until smooth.

Add the 1 ¾ cups sugar, continue beating on medium until fluffy and lighter in color, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg and vanilla, beat until incorporated.

Add the mixture of dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined.

Using a ⅓ cup measure, form the cookies into 3 ounce (85 g) balls of dough. For smaller cookies, use a small ice cream scoop or cut dough balls in half with a dough scraper. Place the remaining 1 cup sugar in a bowl and roll each dough ball in the sugar. (Alternatively, place the sugar in a gallon size Ziploc, place 8-10 dough balls in the bag, seal and shake to quickly coat the cookies).

If baking 3-ounce cookies, place only 6 balls of dough on a sheet. Any more and your cookies will bake unevenly (some will spread out and some will puff up). Bake one sheet at a time for 11-14 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers begin to crackle.

If baking 1.5-ounce cookies, place 12 balls of dough on a sheet and bake 9-10 minutes, until edges are set and centers begin to crackle.