These irresistible double chocolate chip swirl cookies combine soft chocolate chip cookies and inside out chocolate chip cookies in one. They’re chewy, chocolatey, and baked to swirled perfection. You’ll never realize how simple these are to make!
I was inspired to make today’s double chocolate chip swirl cookies because I love my peanut butter version. I wanted a swirled cookie that was all chocolate—this recipe is just like my peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies, but we use classic chocolate chip cookie recipes instead of a peanut butter dough.
Two Cookies in One
We’re combining two reader favorite cookie recipes into one to create today’s double chocolate chip swirl cookies:
- Rich and buttery soft chocolate chip cookies.
- Indulgent chocolate white chocolate cookies. (This dough is my inside out chocolate chip cookies recipe, which is the same dough I use for double chocolate chip cookies.)
Best of Both Cookie Worlds:
- No need to choose a favorite—classic chocolate chip cookies and chocolate white chocolate cookies in one
- Melty chocolate chips and white chocolate chips
- Super chewy and extra buttery
- Each cookie has a beautiful, unique swirl
- Soft-baked to perfection
- Lots of chocolate in every bite!
How to Make Swirl Cookies
These swirl cookies might look a little complicated to make, but they couldn’t be easier. We’re simply making two cookie doughs, rolling them together, and baking. Let’s quickly review the steps so you understand the process before you begin:
- Make the chocolate white chocolate cookie dough.
- Make the chocolate chip cookie dough.
- Chill the cookie doughs. We’ll combine them next, so refrigerate them separately. I recommend chilling the dough for at least 3-4 hours for thicker cookies (as pictured).
- Roll each cookie dough into balls. Use about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough for each (this medium cookie scoop is a handy tool). Combine 1 chocolate white chocolate cookie dough ball with 1 chocolate chip cookie dough ball—roll these two together with your hands into 1 large cookie dough ball (about 3 Tablespoons of dough total).
- Bake. I always recommend baking cookies until the edges appear set. These should take at least 13 minutes.
Chilling Cookie Dough is Imperative
Chilling the cookie dough is a must for this recipe. Why? It helps prevent spreading.
For these double chocolate chip swirl cookies, I recommend chilling the cookie dough for at least 3-4 hours. Chilling cookie dough helps prevent excess spreading. The colder the dough, the less the cookies will over-spread into greasy puddles. Chilling cookie dough not only ensures less spreading, but heightened flavor as well. All of the flavors in your cookie recipe will mingle with one another during the chill time. It’s glorious!
If you’re interested, here are my 10 tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading.
You could even use these baked and cooled cookies for cookie ice cream sandwiches using your favorite ice cream flavor.
More Chocolate-Filled Cookie Recipes
- S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- Brownie Walnut Chunk Cookies
Double Chocolate Chip Swirl Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These irresistible double chocolate chip swirl cookies combine soft chocolate chip cookies and chocolate white chocolate cookies in one. Make sure you chill the cookie doughs as instructed. See recipe notes for freezing instructions.
Ingredients
Chocolate White Chocolate Cookie Dough
- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2/3 cup (55g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk (any kind, dairy or non)
- 1 cup (180g) white chocolate chips, plus a few more for optional topping
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (aka cornflour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus a few more for optional topping
Instructions
- Make the chocolate cookie dough: Cream the butter and sugars together with a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom as needed. Beat in the egg and vanilla on high speed until combined, scraping down the sides as needed. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly beat it into the wet ingredients on low speed. The dough will be thick. Again on low speed, beat in the milk and then the white chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky.
- Make the chocolate chip cookie dough: Cream the butter and sugars together with a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom as needed. Beat in the egg and vanilla on high speed until combined, scraping down the sides as needed. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Slowly mix it into the wet ingredients on low speed and then beat in the chocolate chips. The dough will be thick.
- Cover both cookie doughs tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours or up to 3 days. It’s imperative that both doughs are chilled otherwise the cookies won’t hold shape.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Measure 1.5 Tablespoons of chocolate cookie dough (I like using this medium cookie scoop). Roll into a ball. Measure 1.5 Tablespoons of chocolate chip cookie dough. Roll into a ball. Press the two balls together between your hands and roll them into 1 large ball. Repeat for each cookie. The chocolate cookie dough is particularly sticky and will stick to your hands, so wash/wipe them after you roll each.
- Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more white chocolate chips + semi-sweet chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie doughs and chill them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- The chocolate cookies are my inside-out chocolate chip cookies and the chocolate chip cookies are my soft chocolate chip cookies. My chewy chocolate chip cookies would work as well!
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
If you love swirled cookies, bake my peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies next! Made with chocolate cookie dough + the dough from my favorite peanut butter cookies. ↓ ↓
Made as instructed and they came out perfectly. I can see these being easy to customize in the future.
Hi Sally! Can I use bittersweet chocolate chips for this recipe? Also is it okay to refrigerate the dough for longer than 24 hours? This recipe looks great. Thanks!
Yes, you can use bittersweet chips and you can refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
I’m not much of a white chocolate girl but was given a lot of white chocolate chips, so I decided to try this recipe out. And… I can’t stop eating these! What a brilliant recipe.
Hi Sally. Made these last year with my kids and we loved the flavors. But after baking and cooling, they started to fall apart. By the time Christmas came, I had a box of delicious cookie halves. Where did we go wrong and what do you suggest we do differently to make sure the cookies halves stay together this time? Kids have requested a repeat this year since the flavors were AMAZING!
Hi Dona! So happy to hear that these cookies were a hit! Dry cookies are usually caused by over-baking (an easy fix for next time!) or the dry to wet ratio of ingredients being off. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
i made these last year and we enjoyed them so much that i just randomly googled the recipe again. it was hard to find. but its so good i am back at it!!!
Hi Sally. I would like to know what type of milk you use for this recipe?
Hi Shae, any dairy or nondairy milk works – we usually use 2% milk.
These are great
I made these last night and the entire family loved them. I baked some last night and some today. They turned out amazing. Love the fudginess of the chocolate cookie. I will be making these again for sure.
Note: I did use Bob’s Mill 1:1 Gluten Free flour instead of regular flour. Otherwise, I followed the recipe and they were delicious.
These are delicious! Very soft and chocolatey. Needed a fun activity for my son and I one afternoon this weekend and making two cookies into 1 was perfect for us.
I have made these many times for a number of years there DELICIOUS! Everytime I pick up white chips the boyfriend asks if I’m making my yin yang cookies.
These were wonderful-I followed the instructions and had great results! ONE QUESTION: can I make these smaller? (They made huge cookies!) What should the bake time be for the smaller cookies?
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Melissa! You can certainly make them smaller – try one TBS of each dough instead of 1.5. The bake time will be slightly shorter – you will know they are done when the edges just start to brown and the center still looks soft.
Wonderful! Thank you, Sally!
They are divine. Kinda fiddly and the dark choc batter is much stickier than the plain so u get filthy but totally worth the fuss. They look amazing when cooked they were a huge success!
Hey Sally
Can I halve this recipe?
Don’t have enough chocolate chips.
Sure can!
I made these and my chocolate chip cookie dough, dough is super crumbly. Every time I attempt to roll it into a ball it just crumbles What did I do wrong?
Omg… These were so delicious and beyond fun to make! I was getting bored of just the classic choco chip cookie so this was definitely the best of both worlds. One helpful tip is to remember to take caution in reading the separate cookie recipes carefully as to not mix them up.
I got so many compliments on these and I can literally not stop eating them! Yum!!!
When made your cake batter chocolate chip cookies (they were AMAZING) I made the dough on a Saturday night and baked the cookies the following day. Your notes said that if you chilled the dough for longer than two hours I needed to roll the dough into balls at the two hour mark. Does that apply to this recipe as well? Thanks! 🙂
Hi Sally! I made these cookies today for a family dinner and they were a hit. Everyone loved them and asked where I found the recipe. I of course told them that I found them here. These cookies were absolutely amazing and I honestly can’t get enough. I will definitely be making them for numerous occasions to come. I was just wondering, my batch was really soft and fell apart if I picked it up on only one part of the cookie, but I was afraid that if I put them in for longer that they might burn and become really crunchy. Is there any way that I can avoid this for future batches to come?
Veronica– so glad these were a huge hit! I’m not surprised. If you bake the cookies for 1-2 minutes more– they won’t be crunchy. These are such soft cookies already that a little more time won’t ruin the texture BUT will help them stay intact.
I made this recipe for a work bake sale (raising money for a local charity), and while every other baked good took the full week to sell, these sold out within 24 hours! Everyone loved them. The recipe says to chill at least 2 hours, but listen to Sally and chill for at LEAST 4 hours. The chocolate dough is the one that really needs the chilling; I’ve waited the 2 hours and had the chocolate side of the cookie end up too flat, which looked awkward with the thicker regular dough attached to it. It is worth the extra time to chill! Delicious recipe, Sally. Your recipes are the only ones I don’t read the comments for to make sure it will turn out well!
Hi Sally!
I love all how creative your recipes are! I just made the cookie dough for the yin-yang cookies of yours! But in a rush i forgot to put corn starch in the white cookie dough. I noticed it was not an ingredient in the dark cookie dough. How important is it? What effect will it have on the cookies? Because my dough is already in the fridge to be chilled and so i cannot add the corn starch! Hope they turn out okay! 🙁
The cornstarch just gives them that extra soft texture. The chocolate dough is already quite soft. Your cookies should be just fine though.
You are certainly right about the importance of chilling the doughs!!! My two boys and I made these in a little bit of a rush and had a huge (still delicious) chocolatey mess! We’re going to try them again next week and will be making the doughs the night day before 😉
I made these but substituted the regular chocolate chip cookies with your peanut butter cookie recipe. OMG soooo good!!! This is my new favorite site! I have yet to try a recipe on here that I haven’t liked!
I’ve got to say these are the best cookies I’ve ever made and I’ve made hundreds of cookies! Thank you so much for this recipe! Followed directions exactly and they turned out perfect! Now I can’t stop eating them 🙂
So I made these yesterday and today. I messed up by adding milk to the regular choc chip dough and didn’t add enough butter, BUT they still turned out great!!! Can’t wait to give these to my family/friends! Thank you!
Just wanted to write a comment and say that I made these last night and YUM!! They turned out exactly how they look and what you said. I made the dough and chilled it for a little over 2 hrs. I followed the directs exactly (minus the room temp eggs because I completely forgot..only human). These are delicious and a huge hit at work with all the cookie critic co-workers. This is going into my “keep” recipe box!! Thanks!! YUM!
Hi Sally! I wanted to say I love all your recipes but I really need your help… I’m making the double chocolate chip swirl cookie again but this time the chocolate cookie dough is too soft or wet this time for some reason. I measured exactly and made sure I didn’t over pour on the flour too… Is there anything I can do or add to thicken up the dough?
Jenn
Hi Jenn, I suggest chilling the chocolate dough for a little longer so it becomes firmer.
Hi! I really want to try this recipe but quick question can I use salted butter instead of unsalted? Thanks!
PS: Your cookie recipes are AMAZING 🙂
I suggest decreasing salt by 1/4 teaspoon in both doughs if using salted butter.
Quick! Advice needed urgently. I just made the chocolate chip batch. Was about the start on the next one and realised I forgot the brown sugar 🙁 🙁 are they ruined?? Do I have to start again!! And if by a lovely chance they’re not ruined… Should I put the brown sugar in the next batch or leave it out of that one too. Grr I’m so annoying!
Hi Tania, the cookies will not be sweet enough and their texture will be off. I suggest you start again. I always lay out all of the ingredients I need before beginning. Helps me to not forget anything. Enjoy!
Hey Sally!! No yellow cake mix around the house tonight so birthday cake cookies for another day… so late tonight I’m trying this recipe! New House, New Stove….Convection available…. when to use it? I like soft chewy cookies and I do not EVER bake crispy cookies…. so to use or not to use and if so… temp and time variations? Thanks!
Hi Christina, for convection – I suggest lowering oven temperature by 25 degrees and baking for a minute or two less.
I made the dough for these last night, but I’m going to have to wait until tomorrow night to bake them! I was surprised by how wet and sticky the doughs were compared to typical chocolate chip cookies, but now that they’ve been in the fridge overnight, they’re pretty solid. Hope they look half as pretty as yours when they’re done!
Made the first tray of them, and they turned out perfectly! I have two suggestions: 1) Make the chocolate chip dough first, then the white chocolate chip dough. This allows you to avoid cleaning the mixer between batches. If you do it the way it’s listed, your chocolate chip dough will get dirty looking. 2) Roll all the half-balls of chocolate chip dough and then all the half-balls of the white chocolate chip dough. You won’t have to wash your hands between them. Then re-refrigerate. If you work fast, you can roll together a bunch of the halves before your hands get dirty, and then you can just wipe them on a towel and keep going. I would never have the patience to wash them each time.