This heirloom recipe from my mom’s collection can make a soft, velvety chocolate cookie with brownie aspirations if you leave out the nuts like I did. Adding nuts will give them a little crunch if you prefer that.

The recipe suggests rolling the cookie dough into marble-sized balls (maybe 1/2-inch thick) and baking for 20-25 minutes, which seemed very miniscule in proportion to the baking time. The cookie dough without nuts is very soft, so maybe nuts would help it hold together in a ball shape rather than melt into misshapen lumps, though I still think ten minutes was plenty of time when I made these with a 1.5-inch scoop. The cookies still melted into some..(ahem) interesting shapes in the oven. But it’s chocolate, so who cares?

These aren’t overwhelmingly sweet, even with a dusting of powdered sugar.

1 1/4 c. butter
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp. vanilla
2 c. sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cocoa
2 c. chopped nuts (optional)
1 c. powdered sugar

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa, then add to the wet mix. If you add the nuts, form into marble-sized balls. If not, use a 1.5-inch cookie dough scoop.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. (If you get ball shapes after baking, just roll them in the sugar.)