Start by preheating your oven to 350°F and preparing your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. While the oven heats, measure out all your ingredients and place them near your mixing station—this ensures you won't scramble mid-recipe. Make sure your butter and egg are at room temperature, as this helps them incorporate smoothly and creates a lighter, fluffier dough. Pour the 1/2 cup of sugar for rolling into a small shallow bowl and set it aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisking is important here because it aerates the flour and distributes the leavening agents evenly throughout, which helps your cookies rise consistently. Set this dry mixture aside—you'll add it to the wet ingredients in the next step.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and 1/2 cup sugar together for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is pale, fluffy, and noticeably lighter in color. This creaming process incorporates air into the dough, which creates tender cookies with a better texture. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

Add the room-temperature egg and vanilla extract to your creamed butter and sugar mixture. Beat on medium speed for about 1 minute until the egg is fully incorporated and the mixture looks smooth and well-combined. I find that room-temperature eggs emulsify better with the butter, creating a smoother, creamier base than cold eggs would. Scrape down the bowl to catch any bits of unmixed butter on the sides.

Add the dry ingredient mixture from Step 2 to the wet mixture from Step 4. Mix on low speed just until the dry ingredients disappear and the dough comes together—this should take only 30-45 seconds. Overmixing develops gluten, which makes cookies tough instead of tender, so stop mixing as soon as you no longer see streaks of flour. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky but still manageable.

Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough at a time and gently roll it between your palms into a ball. Immediately roll each ball in the sugar for rolling from Step 1, coating it on all sides, then place it on your prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. I like to roll the dough in sugar right away because it helps create that pretty sparkly exterior and a nice crispy-chewy texture. Space them well because they'll spread slightly during baking.

Bake the cookies for 8 minutes at 350°F—they should look set but still slightly soft in the centers and barely golden at the edges. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and immediately press one Hershey's Kiss into the center of each warm cookie, pressing gently until it sinks slightly into the dough. The residual heat will soften the chocolate just enough to create that perfect melded appearance. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.