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.
This recipe was a hit! And very easy to make. I added pecans to my batch! Yummy. The only thing I think the key is waiting at least 24 hours before cutting and serving. They will make you abandon any weight loss plan for sure.
These are perfection! I have made them many times, and they come out the same every time! They are so so good! They have to cool ( I plan for overnight, always) and they never disappoint 😁. My oldest son requests this for his birthday “cake” every year!
I made these as a new addition to my Christmas cookie list. They are AMAZING!! I had to put them in the freezer because I was eating too many of them. I have made them two times now and haven’t had the problem that others have had. Part of the goodness is that they are a bit gooey. As an experiment, I am made them again using chocolate chip cookie dough in a tube. Next time I will buy a big tube and a regular size so I have enough dough to go up the sides a bit. They were delicious while still warm but I think I like them more once completely cooled and even cold.
I wanted this recipe to live up to the reviews. It didn’t. It didn’t make sense that so much sweetened condensed milk with caramels could be baked into a pan of chocolate chip bars, but I gave it a shot. It was a big gooey mess.
Would you be able to use a jar of caramel sauce instead of the condensed milk and caramels? I read this recipe on another site and almost everyone said it was a fail because of the caramel going through bottom layer and oozing out everywhere. Is there a way to make it thicker or maybe use less?
Hi Job,
Yes, I believe caramel sauce would be way too thin and sink to the bottom. This method definitely works though! :)
This recipe looks like perfection! Do you know if it would work with a homemade caramel sauce/filling or would it be too runny once in the oven?
Thanks!
Also, would parchment paper work instead of foil to avoid the sticking issue I’ve seen in previous comments?
Hi Susan,
I do think homemade sauce might be too runny for this recipe, but I have not tried it. Yes, you can definitely use parchment paper. Happy Baking!
I used a homemade caramel sauce and it worked. These are delicious.
You can use homemade caramel sauce as long as you make a thick one. I tried it out yesterday and the bars turned out perfectly!
If you are using a homemade caramel sauce would you still use the sweetened condensed milk?
Hi Julie,
I’m sorry, but I’ve never tried that so I can’t answer with confidence. If you give it a try, please make sure to let us know how it turns out. :)
I make my own caramel sauce and leave out the condensed milk. They are perfection
I was very excited to try this , however mine were a flop. The caramel sauce mix melted the bottom layer of the cookie dough so when they came out it was a mess. All of the chocolate chip dough and caramel mix had melted all together into a weird concoction. Like how a cookie gets too saturated with milk if you dunk it too long – analogy.
Tasted good though! so what did i do wrong? Do i need to let the caramel sauce cool before pouring it on? Was my dough too runny? I also agree that they were difficult to get off the foil.
I am going to try these again – wish me luck!
Hi Amy,
I’m so sorry that happened! If your caramel was boiling before you poured it over top, that could account for the issue. Usually you do not need to cool the caramel, if you just heat it until it’s melted, then take it off the burner. Another thought is to try hanging a small oven-proof thermometer in your oven. It’s very common for oven thermometer to get squirrely over time. I’ve had readers comment back that they tested their oven temperature with a hanging rack thermometer and it was up to 40 degrees off. Good luck!!
These are very good but really hard to get off the tin foil. I had to freeze them to remove It, and it was still difficult. Next time I will use parchment paper rather than foil to bake them on.
Followed recipe exactly and they are delicious! Perfect texture as long as you allow them to fully set. Family agrees it’s a keeper!
Any chance of this recipe in grams.
Can never get my head around cup measurements
Hi Mother Baker,
If you look at our new recipe form, there is a place you can click to convert the recipe to metric measurements. Hope this helps! :)
What size pan did you use? In #1 it says, “Line a with foil…” I’m guessing a 13×9 pan? Looking froward to trying these!
Hi Amber,
I’m so sorry about that!! We are currently having our recipes converted into a new recipe form and there have been a few glitches. Thanks for helping us find this one. It’s fixed!
OMG, these are fabulous! Love, love, love, this recipe. I made a batch of them and took them to my (super-picky-cookie-snob) daughter, and she thought she was eating heaven on earth. My grandchildren devoured them, and daughter likened them to “crack brownies,” not that she ever tasted crack brownies, but that they were so delicious she felt an addiction coming on.
She/we have since renamed them Crack Brownies. Hope that doesn’t offend anyone at the local PTA, or other child-centered organizations, but that’s just how good they are.