Judy Shoaf made these cookies for the 2006 CLAS cookie exchange.

For 2 dozen (I successfully quadrupled this)

1/4 cup shortening (I used butter)
2 squares (oz.) unsweetened chocolate*
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup nuts

powdered sugar

Melt the shortening and chocolate gently together. Mix these well with
the sugar, and add vanilla. Add the flour and nuts and mix well again.

Chill the dough for several hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350. For each cookie, make a ball about the size of a
walnut. Roll it in powdered sugar and place it on the cookie
sheet. Bake cookies about 10-12 minutes.

*After I had made the 8 dozen, I found that some were mushy and some
were burned and generally I was short 1-2 dozen, so I made another,
smaller batch. For this one I used Baker's German Sweet chocolate and
reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup. They were not as good but still pretty
good.