Maple Cookies

My attempt to rid my kitchen of the insane amount of cookies by sending some with John to work back fired as he didn't bring enough and in order to keep friends, he jokingly asked me to bake some more. I obliged. 

Last year around this time I found a recipe for Maple Cookies on www.allrecipes.com that was submitted by a guy named Craig Gund. I have no idea who Craig is but he has given me John's favorite cookie! I have made them multiple times and they keep getting better as I am fine tuning the recipe...so, due to a very popular demand here is the recipe!

1 cup butter, softened 

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup real maple syrup (the better the quality the better the cookie, also I normally add a little bit more and if you do you will just need to increase the flour accordingly- see note below on flour)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoons salt

4 cups all-purpose flour (I start with 4 cups and then slowly add flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is sticky but manageable, I have found that it normally takes another 1 1/2 cups to get to that point however sometimes it takes more depending on the maple syrup)

2 cups of granulated sugar for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare baking sheets. I use parchment paper on my baking sheets, I have made these with greased cookie sheets and they end up very flat and mushy and have found that parchment paper covered sheets yield a nicer cookie (pretty much the case with most cookies).
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg, syrup and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add to syrup mixture slowly and stir into mixture until well blended.
4. Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.
5. Place on cookies sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes and cool on wire rack.