Bake and Slice Chocolate Swirls

June 27, 2020

These Bake and Slice Chocolate Swirls have been a favorite in our family for over 40 years!

My Mom made these cookies all the time when we were growing up. Most often, she made them during the holidays and included them in our Christmas cookie collection! I’m sure she clipped the recipe from a little Pillsbury recipe booklet or something like that. We looked forward to them every year. I love them when I was little and I love them now too. They’re a chocolate swirled cookie with a buttery shortbread crust.

Nowadays, my Mom is gluten-free, so when I’m baking them for her, I use Cup4Cup gluten-free flour and they turn out just as delicious!

How to make Bake and Slice Chocolate Swirls:

There’s a simple chocolate filling you’ll make. It’s a combo of chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and shortening. Once those are all melted together, you’ll set the chocolate filling mixture aside while you make the cookie dough. It’s a delicate dough to roll out and assemble. Really follow the tips provided and you’ll do fine. Work a little milk into the dough if it seems too crumbly.

After you make the cookie dough, the dough is divided into thirds. Each third is rolled out onto a floured surface. I have always found it helpful to roll the dough onto a floured dishtowel– those very thin white towels work best. The chocolate filling is divided into thirds and spread on top of the rolled out dough. This is where the towel comes in handy. You can use the towel to help you roll the dough into a log. It doesn’t have to be “round,” as you can tell by the photos. It will be more of a flat log. The dough can be delicate and crumbly and the chocolate will peek out in places, but don’t fret… the towel will help you roll the log and everything will be okay!

Once the logs are rolled, use a large, flat metal spatula to help you transfer the logs to a baking sheet. You’ll bake the logs whole. You won’t cut them into cookies until AFTER baking.

After baking, give them a little sprinkle of powdered sugar and let them cool.

After cooling, you can transfer them to a cutting board.

Can these cookies be made ahead?

Yes! The great thing about this cookie recipe is that they can be made ahead. Go ahead and bake the logs, and then you can wrap each log in plastic wrap and then again in foil and put them in the freezer. When you’re ready to serve your cookies, just take out a log and let it defrost. Then you can cut slices for serving.

This is what they look like when you cut into the bars.

Cut them into 1-inch slices as you want to eat them. You don’t have to cut up the whole log right away.

I promise you that they are buttery and chocolatey and totally addicting. It’s hard to stop eating these Bake and Slice Chocolate Swirls! I’m not gonna lie… making these cookies can be a little tricky. But follow the instructions and you will get the hang of it and enjoy these cookies as much as my family does.

Here are a few more holiday cookie recipes you might enjoy: