Cake Flour...Mom's Chocolate Frosted Cookies

I made these cookies for my birthday treat this month...I'd rather have a few of these than cake!  When I was little, these were my very favorite cookies that our mom, a prolific baker, made.
This recipe is from the 1946 Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.  It doesn't appear in later versions of their iconic cookbooks just like this.

Mom's 1946
Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook

Both Myrna and I remember shelling black walnuts from our trees for these – a thankless job, except that I, for one, loved these cookies.  

I made one recipe of these with English walnuts and the second batch with pecans.  I love them both.  Do put a whole nut half on top.
The original recipe calls for cake flour, and I usually use it.  However, all-purpose flour works just fine too.
I like the frosting made with the coffee, as the recipe suggests, it's just the right touch.

Mom's Chocolate Frosted Cookies

  1        large  egg -- well beaten

  1        cup  Brown Sugar -- 8 ounces

  1        teaspoon  Vanilla Extract

  1/4     cup  butter -- 2 ounces

  1/4     cup  shortening -- 1 3/4 ounces

  2         Baking Chocolate Squares -- melted with butter and shortening

  1 2/3  cups  Cake Flour - 8 ounces or all-purpose flour

  1/2     teaspoon  salt

  1/2     teaspoon  soda

  1/2     cup  milk -- sweet or sour (I used buttermilk I had on hand)

  1/2     cup  Walnuts, Broken (2 ounces) Or pecans

Melt the chocolate squares with the shortening and butter.  Let cool.   Beat egg and sugar until light; add vanilla extract, then shortening and butter, (melted with chocolate and cooled); blend well.

 Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk; add nut meats.  The dough will be very soft, almost like very thick cake batter.  (Use a spoon or whisk for this step so your cookies don't get tough from overmixing.)  They also benefit from chilling the dough.  Be sure you don't use a warm cookie sheet.

Drop from teaspoon two inches apart onto greased cooky sheet.  (I used a size 100 scoop on parchment paper).  Bake in 350° oven 10 to 12 minutes.

Frost with Mocha frosting and top with a walnut or pecan half.  Makes 3 dozen.

Mocha Frosting

3 tbsp cocoa

1-2 tbsp hot coffee or milk or cream

3 tbsp butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

36 walnut halves or pecans