Cooky #5 - Ethel's Sugar Cookies

I had promised my boys on Valentine's Day that we would make cookies.  It never happened.  I think I promised them at least three more times during the days following Valentine's Day that we would make cookies.  It never happened.  Between family visiting, trying to get things ready for the Preschool Fundraiser (which, by the way, was postponed until May, UGH), I just didn't have time for cookies.  However, in order to keep my word to three little boys, once things slowed down a bit I found some time to made these cookies over the weekend.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies (p.18).  I made them into bar cookies, since that is my new cheater shortcut way to make sugar cookies, so technically, I suppose I can't judge this recipe as I would for regular, roll-out sugar cookies.

However, I can say that I prefer my usual sugar cookie recipe to this one. These were dry (however, I very possibly over baked them.)  And I think I just like the flavor of my usual sugar cookies better. 

I also frosted these with the Butter Icing recipe in the back of the book (pg. 150).  As with the chocolate icing recipe I used on the chocolate drop cookies, I had major issues with this recipe.  First of all, I had to double the recipe that was listed in the book.  The amount of the written recipe was so skimpy, even though it claims to be enough to frost 4 dozen cookies.  Even doubled I had my doubts that it would frost 4 dozen cookies.  The doubled batch barely covered a regular-sized cookie sheet pan of bar cookies.

Now, while I am making these recipes, I have to remind myself sometimes that these are the recipes as they were written back in 1963.  The way people ate was most definitely different back then.  Maybe in 1963 a scraping of frosting over a cookie was sufficient.  But that is not how we roll in this house.  I love frosting, especially on Sugar Cookies, and I need it to be very generous, which this recipe, even doubled, was not. 

So, to summarize, I didn't love these, and won't be making them again.  However, there are a few more basic cut-out recipes in the cook book that I want to try, one being a sour cream cut-out dough.  I have much higher hopes for that one.