Chocolate Wows

This morning my husband was flipping through one of my cookbooks looking for inspiration and happened upon this recipe.  He asked me to make it, and since it meant I could do my two favorite things, namely bake cookies and eat chocolate, I gladly agreed.  The cookies are rich and chocolaty, with a good amount of cocoa flavor and the little bit of nuts to give it crunch and heft.  The outside is nicely crisp and the interior is fudgy like a good brownie.  In a word, Wow!

Chocolate Wows
Recipe by Good Housekeeping

Ingredients:
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups pecans, chopped
6 oz (or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F and grease three cookie sheets.
In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
In a heavy 2-qt saucepan, melt chopped chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth.  Remove from heat and cool in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat eggs and sugar until light and lemon-colored, about 2 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and add melted chocolate mixture, vanilla, and cocoa/flour mixture.  Beat until blended, then increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes.  Stir in pecans and chocolate chips.

The finished dough is very soft, more like cake batter than cookie dough.  Drop a rounded spoonful of the batter onto a cookie sheet, then using the back of the spoon spread it into a 2-inch circle.  Repeat with remaining batter, keeping cookies 2 inches apart. 
Bake cookies at 325F for 15 minutes.  When cooked, the tops should be shiny and cracked.  Cool 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.