Moms Swirl Squares

I'm not sure if I've ever had these before, I mean I think I have, but I don't think I've had this particular recipe or even had Swirl Squares that my mom might have made, but... she has it handwritten down in her scribbler, so it was worth trying :)

Going in to making these, I had no clue what they would turn out like. But after seeing them out of the oven, these are chocolate chip cookies baked in a pan ...and a lot easier to make!

I added a 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 cup of butter to the mixer and let it go while I got the flour, baking soda, and salt ready.

Once the sugar, butter, and egg mixture was mixed well, I stirred in the flour mixture and then the nuts. I was expecting a batter, but it was really thick. I was really thinking I did something wrong. I checked online for other recipes to see if I was missing a liquid, but I wasn't.  So don't be surprised when it's like a cookie dough!

I pressed it down in to a greased baking pan and dropped the square baking chunks that I had leftover on to the top.  The recipe says to bake for 1 -2 minutes to melt them, but I went for 4 minutes before taking them out of the oven.

Even at 4 minutes they weren't completely melted, but I did my swirling with the knife anyways. I have to say I was a bit concerned with the thickness of the dough and swirling the chocolate through it. I really felt like it would stay all mangled looking and not soften or even out!

I was happy when it came out of the oven looking half decent! But would it be dry and crunchy like toast or grainy or or or... my experience with marbled or swirled desserts has been mostly limited to cake or cheesecake, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out it was basically a giant square cookie.

I had frozen the leftover Nutella Frosting that I used on the Fudge Four O'Clocks, so after a bit of defrosting, I used it on the Swirl Squares.  YUM!

Notes on the recipe:

My mom's recipe has a bit of a glitch in it. She's got an additional measure that isn't tied to anything.

3/4 cup   1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar

But, it seems like her recipe is half of a Five Roses recipe, somewhat. The Five roses calls for 1 cup brown sugar CHECK! 1/2 cup of white sugar...WAIT! That doesn't add up, but if I cut it in half it's 1/4 cup and if I add it to the half of brown sugar then it equals the 3/4 cup...hrmm..what to do?... I really do think this is the Five Roses recipe from online.

I decided on the 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup white. It doesn't seem overly sweet to me, but try it out for yourself :)

Swirl Squares
The recipe and instructions are how she wrote it out.
 
INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 3/4 cup   1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/8 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl measure butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg. 
2. Beat until blended
3. Stir in flour, soda, salt, and nuts
4. Spread in a 9X9 inch greased pan
5. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top
6. Bake 375 F for 1 - 2 minutes until chocolate chips are soft enough to marble.
7. Run knife through batter
8. Bake 20 minutes more.