This is another of those "unwritten" recipes that have been around in my family for ages, although no one's made it in like-forever! My mom thinks she got it from a friend, but to me it's always been my mom's recipe. When I was recently looking through my recipe box for recipes that time has buried, I came upon it and decided to perform a resurrection. These are large, slightly chewy chocolate discs with a hint of nuttiness--that must be the reason that everyone is stark raving made for them!

Truth be told, these are not my favorite cookies-not by a long shot. In fact, when I made them recently I was at home alone and I thought, "Darn it, I can't use these for the blog!" But the day after I made these, we were having a big extended family dinner, so I put them out along with the other desserts, because I can't stand wasting food, and in a matter of moments, the plate was devoured and there were oohs and aahs and what are these? Just goes to show you, there's no accounting for taste--mine! So here goes:

You start by grinding up a cup of walnuts

And then by melting 3 oz. of unsweetened chocolate

Then it's just a simple matter of mixing together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, melted chocolate and finally the flour and ground walnuts, till you have a nice smooth batter.

You can bake these on greased or parchment lined cookie sheets but I used ungreased ones since that's what the original recipe from the Dark Ages, B.P (before parchment paper) called for and I wanted to see what would happen. You make fairly large scoops of dough-about 2 tablespoons worth (I fit about 8 to a tray because they do spread quite a bit).

And in about 10 minutes or so you get these big guys. Just be sure to leave them on the trays for a minute or two because they firm up as they cool and if you don't wait, they will fall apart as you remove them (I know by experience!)

Not only did people love them, but they asked me for the recipe...twice! Sheesh! So without further ado...

Chocolate Walnut Jumbos

Makes about 20 fairly large cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes;  Bake Time: 10 minutes; Total Time:  25 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 cup sifted flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup walnuts, finely ground

The Recipe

1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF.  If cookie trays are non-stick, you don't need to grease them. Otherwise grease them or line with parchment paper.

2.  In a small bowl, whisk sifted flour, baking powder, salt together and set aside.

3.  Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla on medium speed till nice and smooth. Add in melted chocolate and beat until incorporated.  On low speed, add in flour mixture until just combined, scraping the bowl down. Do not overbeat. Stir in the ground walnuts by hand with a spatula.

4.  Drop scoops onto cookie sheets--I did about 2 Tablespoons for each scoop.

5. Bake two trays at a time for about 10 minutes, reversing front to back and top to bottom to ensure even baking. Cookies will spread and flatten as they bake. Don't overbake as these continue to cook a little more on the trays after they are removed from the oven. Cool on the cookie sheet on a rack for 1-2 minutes and then transfer, using a wide metal spatula to the trays to finish cooling. Continue with the rest of the batter.

6.  Cookies keep in an airtight container for at least 2 days.

Enjoy!