Chocolate Walnut Slices

Yield: 40 Cookies
Source: Cookies Unlimited

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 salt
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 ea egg
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz coarsely chooped walnut pieces

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking sode and salt, stir well to mix.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on the medium speed until well mixed, about a minute.
3. Beat in the egg until it is well incorporated and mixture is smooth, then beat in the chocolate and vanilla. Scrape the bowl and beater well and beat in the flour mixture followed immediately by the walnuts
4. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape and squeeze it into two rough cylinders, about 10 inch long and 2 inches in diameter.
5. Roll a piece of parchment or wax paper around each piece of dough and tighten the paper by pressing it in with the side if a cookie sheet or piece of stiff cardboard. Chill the dough until firm. Or at this stage, it can be double wrapped in plastic, frozen and kept for up to several weeks.
6. When you are ready to bake the cookies, set the rack in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheated to 350 degrees.
7. Slice the cookies 1/4 inch thick. Make sure to rotate the roll of dough often so it doesn't become squashed from the weight of the knife.
8. Arrage the cookies on thr prepared pans about an inch apart in all directions. Brush the surface of each cook with the egg whits, then sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of sugar. Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, until they haave spread slightly and are a very pale golden color. Slide the papers from the pans to racks.
9. After the cookies have cooled, store them btween sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.