Vanilla Dreams

(Original recipe from King Arthur Flour)

These can be made w/out baker's ammonia: substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder for the baker's ammonia, but the texture won't be the same.

Dough
1 1/4 cups (9 ounces) sugar
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon baker's ammonia

Coating
coarse or granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla. Add the flour and baker's ammonia, and beat until the dough almost comes together, scraping the bowl once; Eventually it'll clump up. This could take up to 5 minutes. Squeeze the dough together, gather it into a ball, and break off pieces about the size of a shelled chestnut (about 3/4 ounce). Roll the pieces into balls, and roll them in coarse or granulated sugar. Put them on the prepared baking sheets, and use the bottom of a glass, dipped in sugar if necessary to prevent sticking, to flatten the balls to about 1/4-inch thick.

Bake the cookies in a preheated 300°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're a very light golden brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool. Yield: 34 cookies.