Message Boards

I have my grandma's Betty Crocker Cookie book (copyright 1963) and there is a Mary's Sugar Cookies with confectioners' sugar... (It's right beside the Ethel's Sugar cookies)

Is this it?

Mary's Sugar Cookies

From Mary Herman... made with confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 cups of sifted confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

2 1/2 cups of Gold Medal Flour

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

Mix sugar and butter. Add egg and flavorings;mix thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method or by sifting. Stir in dry ingredients together and blend in. Refridgerate 2 to 3 hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half and foll 3/16" thick on lightly floured pastry cloth. Cut with cooky cutter; sprinkle with sugar. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 7-8 min., or until delicately golden. Makes 5 doz. 2 to 2 1/2 cookies.

Note if you use gold Medal Self-Rising Flour, omit soda and cream of tartar.

Thank you so much.  I was given a Betty Crocker cookbook with this recipe in 1969 but am in the process of moving and don't know which box I put it in.  In fact, my screen name on this site is the lady who gave me the cookbook for my wedding shower (now you have an idea of my age). These sugar cookies are wonderful!  This is why I was looking for this recipe for Thanksgiving; my grown boys would not understand not having the cookies over the holidays.  Worth the touble!

Again, thank you!  Linda in Surry, Virginia

I'm so glad you posted this recipe.  I've been searching for my old red binder Betty Crocker cookbook that I've relied on for years and it is lost in a box somewhere in the garage due to a recent partial remodel of the house.

so ty, ty ty ... I've got a son coming home on leave from the Marines for an entire week at Christmas and I just have to make some of these cookies for him ... as others have said before me "it's a family tradition."

Too bad those of us looking couldn't find it on the Betty Crocker site directly.

But Thanks again and God Bless.  Merry Christmas.

Sandy Jayne Brown

No problem lucygreen and Sandy_Brown. Happy to help!

Happy Holidays! Sincerely, Cate

I just made a batch with the P.S. yesterday and they are in the fridge right now, ready to be cut into bunnies, chicks and other Easter shapes. The only other sugar cookies I really like are the sugar cookies made with "hirschhorn salz", also known as hartzon or hartshorn. The chemical name is ammoniated carbonate, used as a leavening before BS, BP, etc., the German translation is deer horn, which was literally grated into a powder, for leavening. This leavening does evaporate, so it needs to be used quickly.  As a kid, Mom bought the white rock at the drug store and I got to grate it into a powder. My eyes watered and it opened the sinuses. Those cookies have a unique flavor, puff up during baking, then settle down into a long lasting, man sized, coffee dunking cookie. Each Easter, enough frosted and decorated cookies were made to fill a 5 gal. tin. The recipes I have are well over 150 years old. These days, if one would go to the drug store and ask for it, they would look at you as if you had 2 heads.

Well, so much for "old stuff". My granddaughter, age 11 tells me that I need to write down some of this "old stuff". I have, as notes in my 1st edition 1950, of Betty Crockers Picture Cookbook. Greatest cookbook ever published. The facsimile is right here on BC's bookstore. Cheap too with free shipping. Check it out.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup Butter; softened
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups Flour; sifted
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Salt
Sugar; for dusting (optional)

Thoroughly mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, and flavoring of choice. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into the butter mixture. Chill for at least 1 hour. Roll out to 1/8-inch thickness. cut into desired shapes with cookie cutter dipped in flour. Re-roll the scraps and continue cutting until all of the dough is used. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired. Bake in a moderate/hot (400F) oven until delicately golden, about 6 to 8 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen 3-inch cookies.

VARIATIONS:
Lemon Sugar Cookies: Follow the basic recipe above, except use 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in place of the flavoring.

Filled Sugar Cookies: Follow the basic recipe above except put together in pairs before baking with 1 tablespoon filling of your choice or a solid chocolate mint wafer between. Press the edges of the cookies together with the tines of a fork.

Nut Sugar Cookies: Follow the basic recipe above except mix 1 cup of finely chopped nuts into the dough.

I am so grateful to find this recipe.  My son is absolutely devastated without these cookies for Christmas -- it has been a tradition always, and he is 40 years old!  I don't have my old, old cook book anymore, and I am lost without it.  It isn't the same using the cookie mix packets, is it!

Thanks, Judith Vidal, Palm Bay, Florida

Hi,

I just stumbled in here because I want to know the difference between sugar cookies made with granulated sugar and cookies made with confectioner's.

I saw that you were looking for Mary's and Ethel's sugar cookie recipes.  I have them both in the Betty Crocker Cookie book which I bought 37 years ago when my daughter was in second grade.  Is it legal for me to print them in here, I wonder.  Also, hopefully I can get back into this site again if I have to.

I've only used the Ethel's recipe in all these years and before I wasted ingredients on Mary's that we might not enjoy as much, I came in here to find out what the difference in texture is between the two cookies.

Here goes nothing; I hope I don't get arrested.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies (Straight from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, copyright 1963 by General Mills)

400 degrees F., ungreased baking sheet, 6-8 minutes or until delicate golden color, about 4 dozen cookies

3/4 cup shortening (part butter or margerine)2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar1 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. lemon flavoring or 1 tsp. vanilla

If you use self-rising flour, omit the baking powder and salt.

In my own words, I'm sure you know how these go together. Mix the wet ingreds thoroughly.  Stir the dry ingreds together (use dipping method to measure flour), then blend with wet ingreds. Chill at least 1 hr.

Roll to 1/8" thick on lightly floured board

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary's Sugar Cookies (Also same Betty Crocker Cooky Book)

375 degrees, lightly greased baking sheet, 7-8 minutes or until delicately golden, about 5 dozen 2 to 21/2" cookies

1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar1/2 tsp. almond flavoring

1 cup butter or margarine2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. vanilla1 tsp. cream of tartar

Again, if you use selfl-rising flour, etc., etc.

Mix sugar and butter. Add egg and flavorings, mix thoroughly. Use dipping method to measure flour. Stir dry ingreds. together then blend in. Regrigerate 2-3 hours.

Divide dough in half, roll to 3/16" on lightly floured pastry cloth. Cut with cookie cutter, sprinkle with sugar. Place on lightly greased pan.

After all that, please, if someone has already sent you these recipes, don't tell me.

My book is falling apart but I know if I buy a new one, it won't have the same recipes.

zinmac, I've read several food blogs that compared the two recipes and they all said that Ethel's recipe is best - some even said "far superior."  They stated that Ethel's recipe was more like shortbread and the cookies had a better texture and were more substantial than Mary's.

And don't worry, the recipe police will not arrest you. LOL