My mom's gingerbread recipe that I use for houses and cookies

I owe people an apology I guess.  I gave all props to Alton Brown for his sugar cookie recipe as I used it for decorating a gingerbread house.  From the traffic I get here, I think people are looking for Alton Brown's recipe.  To my knowledge, he hasn't published one (though I am sure it would be great).

This is the recipe I usually make:

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of butter, left at room temperature for a few hours.  Not melted in the microwave, this changes the consistency.  My wife swears margarine is unhealthy, so I stopped using it.  But, margarine tends to make a harder cookie if you find the dough too crumby for a gingerbread house.  I definitely use butter for tree ornaments with no problem.

Beat the two together until fully combined.

For eating:

1 tsp of ground cloves

2 tsp of powdered ginger

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of salt

Mix well and fully combine again.  I just leave this mixture in the mixing bowl.

For a gingerbread house, the dough is being used for it's aroma as much as anything.  I double the ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

I use a 2cup Pyrex measuring cup for the next step.

2/3 c. hot strong coffee

2/3 c. molasses

Stir the molasses and coffee together until fully combined.  Then add this to the butter, sugar and spice mixture and mix further.

In a separate mixing bowl, combine

4-3/4c regular flour
1 tsp. soda

I like the dough better when I have sifted it.

I used to add a handful of flour at a time in the mixing bowl, then mix, then add more flour, until I had a solid dough.  I now have a wonderful power mixer with a dough hook, and it works just fine to add a little flour at a time while leaving the dough mixing.

Wrap in saran or put the dough in an airtight container, then chill it for a few hours (though I usually leave it overnight in the fridge).

When ready to bake, take a chunk of dough and knead it until it isn't as stiff and feels uniform.

Set oven to 350.   

I roll the dough out on Baker's Parchment - much easier to pick up and put on the cookie sheet.  No need to grease the sheet either.

Depending in the thickness of the dough, 17 minutes is usually enough.

Roman Sankyo

So, the picture is from a museum in Florence, Italy.  It is interesting for me because if I saw a student doing this variation of Sankyo, I would correct them for doing it "wrong."  I can expand my understanding of what Sankyo can be with this example, and that gives me some freedom.

On the other hand, no one is saying O Sensei lived 2000 years ago, or that he ever saw Rome, or that he enjoyed public nude wrestling.  There is no saying Roman soldiers taught Japanese martial artists. There is no reason to see two similar ideas and force a direct correlation.