Run run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!

I decided this year that I wanted to try a new kind of cookie to go with my 4 holiday staples (more about that later).  I searched around online at allrecipes.com, marthastewart.com, and a few others and settled on these:

Molasses-Gingerbread Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen town houses, 4 dozen deer or trees, or 6 dozen men. I cut this recipe in half.

• 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses
• Royal Icing

Directions

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.
2. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 3 portions, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a generously floured piece of parchment, roll dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Brush off excess flour. Slide dough and parchment onto baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.
4. Cut out desired shapes. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.
5. Bake cookies for 6 minutes. Remove sheets from oven, and tap them firmly on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, rotating sheets, and bake until crisp but not darkened, 6 to 8 minutes more. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
6. Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain round tip (such as Ateco #0 or #1). Pipe designs on cookies. Let cookies stand at room temperature until set, at least 2 hours (preferably overnight). Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers for up to 1 week.

The whole time I was making these little devils all I could think was "who in their right mind enjoys making these? They better be worth it."  They are SO.MUCH.WORK. Between the refrigerating, the rolling, the freezing, the rolling, the cutting, the freezing, the baking. I did not enjoy making these in the slightest.

So here is how they turned out:

First, during step 2 I thought there was no way this could be right, I must have done this wrong. I mean, how can this turn into a delicious cookie?

Then, these little fellas popped out of my oven and I thought OK, these are pretty cute.

And then, I went to get the last batch and after all that work...

A moment of silence for these fallen soldiers. I'm not sure what happened, maybe I didn't freeze them long enough, or perhaps I left them on the pan too long or took them off too soon?  What a disaster.  Since it was 10:30pm I decided to wait on frosting their little faces until today.  Maybe I will update my post with the finished product or maybe I won't, we'll see how they turn out.

Update: I frosted their little faces and they turned out just OK. They taste fine I guess. Not delicious enough to go through this escapade again...