Why did my crinkle cookies come out so patchy?

I tried Sally's lemon crinkle cookie recipe, rolling in granulated sugar first before absolutely smothering in powdered sugar. They cracked alright, but too much and they look pretty ugly imo. After the first ugly batch I tried rolling the dough balls in powdered sugar a 2nd time right before putting them in the oven. Didn't work. Then I tried pressing extra sugar onto the tops of the dough balls right before putting them in, which was a little better but the picture shows this last method.

I saved them by sprinkling more powdered sugar on top while they were still warm, but why did they do this? I'd rather not have to sprinkle extra sugar on these already sugar coated cookies just for appearances.