Brownie Cookies

Yield: 48 servings. Melt the chocolate over hot water. Sift the flour, baking soda, and baking powder together. Set aside. In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugar slowly and continue to beat. Add the vanilla, then the eggs 1 at a time. Add the chocolate and stir to blend. Stir in the dry ingredients and the milk by hand. When just blended, mix in the walnuts. Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes before rolling. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. To form the cookies, scoop out a portion of dough and roll out on a well-floured surface. When dough is 1/4 inch thick, cut it into rounds or other desired shapes. Re-roll scraps and cut again. Place on cookie sheet (leave room for expansion) and bake for 6 to 8 minutes. Watch for any hot spots in the oven and don't let these cookies overbrown. VARIATION: For the Brownie Cookie Crust, make 1 recipe of Brownie Cookies and chill the dough briefly. Lightly grease the back side of a large baking sheet. Roll the dough out onto the baking sheet as thinly as possible so that the baked product will crumble easily. Bake crust at 375 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes. Let crust harden, then slide the cookie from the sheet and cool completely. Roll over the cookie with a rolling pin until it is crushed to a fine crumb. (There should be about 2 1/4 cups of crumbs.) Melt 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Mix it into the crumbs and pack the mixture over the bottom and up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Freeze for 30 minutes before filling in order to set the crust. Note: When I made this, I made individual cookie crumb crusts filled with Chocolate Mousse by using a large muffin pan. Line each cup with waxed paper for easy removal.