Bohemian Christmas Crunch Cookie

Source: Roberta Brisson This recipe comes from my girlfriends
mother-in-law. This is a very old recipe and requires more work than most
other cookies, but they are worth every bite!

1. Freeze the grinder and the chocolate chips before using.

2. Using the medium blade of an old-fashioned meat grinder, grind nuts and
chocolate chips together. To make grinding easier, put some nuts in first,
then the chocolate chips. Repeat this process, until all the nuts and
chocolate chips are ground. Buy putting the nuts in the grinder first, they
help oil the meat grinder, making the chocolate chips grind with a little
less effort. Refrigerate this mixture.

3. In a separate bowl, cut the softened butter and confectioners sugar
until it looks like pie dough. Cut in the salt, flour and vanilla. Last,
add the chocolate and nut mixture. Blend just enough with a fork. Do not
cream this mixture and do not over mix this dough. You should be able to
see tiny ground up lumps of butter, chocolate and pecans.

4. Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, fill-up a scoop of dough and drop it onto a
cookie sheet, and using the base of your thumb, flatten the cookie ball to
about 1/4-inch thickness. Keep the cookies about 3-inches apart on a cookie
sheet. Refrigerate the flattened cookies on the cookie sheets for at least
30 minutes before baking them.

5. Bake at 250 F. for 40 to 45 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE THESE COOKIES!
They should not be too soft and not too hard or well-browned on the bottom.
They get a certain sheen to them on the tops. Let cook, remove from cookie
sheets and store in air-tight tins. If cookies become too hard due to over
baking, place a slice of white bread in the tin. The cookies should still
have a crunch.

NOTE: I have several friends that use their food processor to grind the
pecans and chips. The cookies taste good, but their coloring becomes very
light and bland looking. They do not have the very dark and rich coloring
that comes from using the meat grinder.