The Mayor's Chocolate Cookies

Scarsdale Mayor Carolyn Stevens is an excellent baker who often offers her homemade treats at Village meetings. On Monday night 12-6, she brought in a delectable tray of chocolate cookies to fortify the Trustees and participants during back-to-back meetings on historical preservation and the proposed Scarsdale Community Center. Several people asked her for the recipe and here it is:

Flourless Chocolate-nut Cookies

• 2 1/2 cup pecan of walnut halves
• 3 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4-teaspoon salt
• 4 egg whites (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
• 1-tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roast nuts for 9 minutes...until fragrant. Cool slightly and chop finely.

Mix confectioners' sugar, cocoa and salt a bowl. Add nuts and stir. Add egg whites and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer on medium until batter is just moistened.

Drop batter by teaspoonful on to baking sheets covered with parchment paper in evenly spaced mounds.

Bake cookies until tops are lightly cracked and glossy - about 15 minutes.

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes and remove to a rack to cool.

Can be stored at room temperature in a tin for about 1 week.

Makes about 60 cookies.