Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Feb 14, 2025 
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars combine the rich flavors of caramel and chocolate into a convenient cookie bar form! Featuring luscious chocolate chips and a homemade caramel sauce that is a total dream!
Why We Love This Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Recipe
There are treats you make on rare special occasions. Then some treats are so comforting they end up being family favorites that are replicated month after month, and year after year.
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are the latter treat variety.
Sticky chocolate chip bars oozing with thick buttery caramel filling… These cookie bars scream family game night, movie night, or any other kind of cozy night you want to share with people you love.
Caramel chocolate chip cookie bars have layers of chewy chocolate chip cookie dough with a gooey, creamy caramel in the middle that is so easy to whip up!
This recipe came from a cookbook my friend Shelly Jaronsky wrote called The Cookies & Cups Cookbook, named after her wildly popular dessert blog.
Ingredients You Need
- Butter – unsalted and softened to room temperature
- Brown Sugar – packed
- Sugar – granulated sugar
- Eggs – large and room temperature
- Vanilla – adds extra flavor
- Salt – balances out the flavors
- Baking Soda – to help them lift in the oven
- All-Purpose Flour – or a gluten-free replacement flour
- Chocolate Chips – semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Sweetened Condensed Milk – to make the caramel creamier
- Soft Caramels – an easy way to add caramel to cookies
- Flaked Sea Salt – for added flavor and texture
How to Make Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil and liberally coat it with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter with both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Mix well, then scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Turn the speed to low and add the flour. Beat to combine, then mix in the chocolate chips.
Press half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
In a medium saucepan, add the sweetened condensed milk and unwrapped caramels. Set over medium-low heat and stir until the caramels melt, making a smooth caramel filling. Pour the caramel layer over the cookie dough base.
Drop the remaining dough over the caramel filling in small teaspoon-sized clumps. Bake the bars for 25-30 minutes, until the center is just set and the edges are golden brown.
Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and allow the cookie bars to cool completely. Then lift the bars out of the pan by the edges of the foil and cut. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Tips & Tricks
- Don’t over mix the batter! Once the cookie batter has flour in it, it will start to build gluten. You don’t want the batter to build too much gluten or else the cookies will end up tough instead of chewy and moist!
- To most efficiently press the chocolate chip cookie dough into the baking dish, try coating your fingers in flour! This will help prevent the cookie dough from sticking to your hands.
- Don’t sprinkle the top with table salt! The top should be sprinkled with a flaky, coarse salt like sea salt or kosher salt. If you don’t have flaky salt, simply skip the salt on the top.
- Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on top!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! To make these gluten-free, replace the flour with a gluten-free replacement flour that is a 1 to 1 ratio!
Definitely. Allow the salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars to cool to room temperature, then freeze in an airtight freezer container or a zip freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months, then thaw before eating.
Since we want the edges to be set, but the center to be slightly soft and chewy, the bars will naturally sink in the middle a little bit! It is totally normal.
Store any leftover caramel cookie bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days! If you have lots of them, feel free to freeze them!
Check the Recipe Card Below for Instructions on How to Make Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars + Video!
Looking for more cookie & bar recipes? Try out some of your favorites:
- Blueberry White Chocolate Blondies
- Lemon Drop Cookies
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
- Cream Cheese Cookies
- Brown Butter Cookies
- Scottish Shortbread Recipe
- Bailey’s Irish Cream Coffee Bars
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Oatmeal Fudge Bars
- Gooey Blueberry Cookie Bars
- Potato Chip Cookie Bars
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 10 ounces soft caramels, unwrapped
- 1 teaspoon flaked sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil and liberally coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the softened butter with both sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Mix well, then scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Turn the speed to low and add the flour. Beat to combine, then mix in the chocolate chips.
- Press half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- In a medium sauce pot, add the sweetened condensed milk and unwrapped caramels. Set over medium-low heat and stir until the caramels melt, making a smooth caramel filling. Pour the filling over the cookie dough base.
- Drop the remaining cookie dough over the caramel filling in small teaspoons-sized clumps. Bake the bars for 25-30 minutes, until the center is just set.
- Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and allow the bars to cool completely. Then lift the bars out of the pan by the edges of the foil and cut. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe from The Cookies & Cups Cookbook by Cookies and Cups.
These bars a delicious!
I made these for our supper club the night I had dessert. Big hit! They Are very deceiving though when they were suppose to be done time wise they seemed not done with the way they moved in the pan. I took them out anyway and they set up beautifully as they cooled. At the end before I cut them I put them in the refrigerator for a little while. They looked just like the pucture.
This recipe was a big hit when I made it for Superbowl Sunday. Everyone loved them.
So very good, decadent. Don’t find them “too rich” (is there such a thing?). I did use a whole bag o f caramels, how it’s written, felt the ratio was off (too much sweetened condensed milk). I also would put the sea salt into the caramel mixture (vs waitig until post baking and sprinkling on top).
These are probably the best, thorough recipe, with the most seductive results! They are dangerously delicious. They lure you in when you don’t suspect it, and you keep going back for more more more. I ended up giving them to my kids when they were leaving to go back to their home, just to get them away from me! They just asked me for the recipe because they were running out of them! A real winner. Directions were perfect as were the results!
I made these the other day and everybody enjoy them and it is so easy to make .
These bars are amazing! Will make again several times over. Thanks Sommers for sharing.
I would like to make these but make my own caramel. Would I still add the condensed milk to the recipe?
Hi Kristy!
I’ve never made the recipe that way, but it does make sense to leave out the condensed milk if you are using caramel sauce.
I added a layer of small twist pretzels before adding caramel sauce. They were a huge hit!!!
I searched for amazing bar cookies, looking for something using ingredients I had on hand because I’m too lazy to go to town today. These really fit the bill! I tweaked it a bit because we are allergic to corn so caramels are taboo. I used a can of sweetened condensed milk that I simmered in the crockpot overnight. I didn’t add anything to it, just opened it up and spread it on the dough.
Wow. I made these for a work potluck….everyone LOVED them!! Gooey, but amazing! They went fast!! The noises people made while eating them was the best part! Thanks for sharing!!
That looks amazing! I can’t wait to try this recipe. I’m putting it in my recipe book that’s for sure!
Ok,big give up. Where is the recipe?
It’s about halfway between the top and the comment section