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
- 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 were amazing!! My boyfriend and I loved them and they were so easy to make (we usually mess up making desserts but had no trouble with this one)!! We baked them for 35 minutes and they came out perfect. Will definitely make them again and again.
Can you make this with keto friendly ingredients such as almond flour and Monk fruit sweetener?
Hi Linda,
I honestly can’t say, because I’ve never tried making these bars that way. Maybe someone from our community of readers can help… Any takers?
These look sooo amazing! I’m am definitely going to make them and repost but as I’m from the UK I wanted to share that you can purchase caramel in a tin from the company that make ‘Carnation Milk’ in the red and white tins. It’s called ‘Carnation Caramel’ 🙂 I’ve used it before as a goey centre for my brownies 😋
If I use prepackaged chocolate chip cookie dough how much would I need?
Just made these and they are delicious, but even after cooling for 2 hours, when I cut them the middle ones were still super soft (I followed directions exactly), where the edges had a crisp to them. I will definitely make these again but I think I’ll try baking the bottom cookie layer a bit first, give it some firmness, think that would help?
These bars can’t even make it to the freezer. They are fought over until the very last bite. So delicious. This recipe is one we absolutely love!!
This recipe is a game changer. It was easy to follow and baked perfectly. The caramel filling is thick and delicious, it’s not gooey or runny if you let them cool long enough.
SO DELISH! I took them to work…it was a hit! I will be giving some to the neighbors. They turned out like gourmet bakery goods! I love them!
My family and coworkers love these bars! Very easy to make
I just purchased enough ingredients to make 4 pans, for our front line healthcare workers:)
I have never made them, but sound amazing!
My question: Does the caramel ooze out or is it pretty firm? I need for them to be “a grab and go”.
Hi Donna,
If you make them as directed, they will cool and firm enough to cut and serve as a hand-held treat. Just make sure you give them plenty of time to cool. :)
Hi!
I am so excited to try this recipe. However I am making it in the UK, so I’m not sure where I would buy (or if we even have) soft caramels in our supermarkets. Have any other English friends made this recipe? If so, what did you use and where did you buy it?!
Hi Penny,
Yes, we are going to have to rely on input from our UK friends. Soft caramel squares are in all the grocery stores here in the USA. Any thoughts, guys?
PS, I have heard from some readers that they used very thick caramel sauce (or dulce de leche) instead of the caramels and sweetened condensed milk, and it stayed in the middle. Just a thought…
werthers originals do a chewy variety :)
How many squares did you use for this recipe?
This is an amazing recipe! I have made it numerous times and it is my husband’s favorite as well as the first thing to run out at potlucks. Yummm!
These bars are unbelievable!!! I would put a bar in the microwave for 13 seconds to just heat it a touch. The chocolate and caramel got just the perfect amount of gooey. So good, definately making these again!!!