Why is it that the recipe for Sugar Cookies in The Joy of Cooking has totally failed me, these last two years, whereas when I was younger, yea! even when I was making Hamster and Musketeer cookies to take to the Millenium Philcon/Worldcon back in 2001, I had no trouble at all? I follow the recipe exactly, with special attention to the  quantities of the varied ingredients (especially flour), I chill the dough for the length of time suggested in the recipe, but when I attempt to roll out the dough between sheets of waxed paper, all I get is a sticky mess that cannot be cut with the cookie cutters and cannot be moved onto the baking sheet?

In the end, I threw in another half to 3/4 cup or more of flour and remixed it with my new Kitchen Aid mixer until the dough was stiff enough to work with.  But I cannot believe that The Joy would steer me wrong -- where am I going astray?  It does nothing to lower my stress as I try to make large batches of Christmas Cookies to give as gifts and to take to tomorrow's Office Party.