chocolate turtle cookies (eggless)

last month my sister went back home, I had been contemplating on what to send to India for my family...my mom had asked for some of my baked goodies, and I thought why don't I make something for my entire family...it would be special and I have always longed to share what I make in USA with folks back in India. So then began a quest of what to send, should I send something I have made a few times and am expert in, or something new....should I make a cake or banana bread or some cupcakes...after a lot of thinking, I was like, lets try to make a cookie as that would be easy to make in bulk and easy to pack...of course I wanted to make something fancy as this was the first time my entire family was going to actually sample something I had baked...After some research I found this awesome chocolate turtle recipe on Sally's Baking addiction...it looked like something out of a fancy candy store....I decided to halve the recipe as I was a little nervous, I had never made cookies from scratch and my one try at making from cookie dough had failed miserably...Also, I wanted try making it eggless, so I substituted egg with water- corn starch solution..I found egg substitutes for different types of baked goods on "Chef in you".....this recipe doesn't double, I tried doing it and the dough turned out to be very messy....I refrigerated it for couple of hours, before baking.....the cookies turned out to be great so no worries on that front...just that they did spread a lot even after refrigeration and the dough was sticky and difficult to handle...I just told myself it would have been easier and quicker to knead the dough twice to make twice the number of cookies instead of doubling up the ingredients.

Ingredients: (makes 8- 10 cookies)

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1tbsp corn starch+2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1/4 cup chocolate chip cookies
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

• Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, set aside.
• Beat the softened butter for a minute until it is creamy
• add sugar and mix it
• add the water corn- starch solution and mix it..
• add the dry ingredients mixture and knead it like a dough...the mixture is extremely easy to knead, just like you knead the dough for chapatis..the dough is soft and pliant and doesn't stick to the bowl or fingers....add chocolate chips into the dough while kneading it...
• chill it in the refrigerator for half an hour
  
• make small balls of dough and roll in the walnuts...press the walnuts in if they don't stick to the dough
• preheat the oven at 350 deg F...place the cookie dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper..bake for 8 to 10 min
• the cookies will seem not cooked but they are, remove them in time so they are soft and fudgy..
• ENJOY!!!!
  

The cookies turned out AWESOME and everyone back home was super impressed..Mission accomplished :D

Printable version: Chocolate turtle cookie