Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
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
- Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars
- Bailey’s Irish Cream Coffee Bars
- Oatmeal Fudge Bars
- Gooey Blueberry Cookie Bars
- Potato Chip Cookie Bars
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
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.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe from The Cookies & Cups Cookbook by Cookies and Cups.
I made this recipe exactly as written except I didn’t have flakey sea salt so I used kosher salt. Delicious and easy!
I can’t wait to make these – and ran out this morning to pick up the ingredients I needed. To my chagrin, three different supermarkets either didn’t carry or were out of salted caramels. I resorted to getting Werther’s Original Soft Caramels, which was the closest I could come to the required ingredient.
Now my question is, how much salt should I add to the melted caramel – and should I use Kosher or regular salt?
Thanks so much!
Wow. These were on yesterday’s baking binge marathon. They came out of the oven and looked PERFECT – and it almost gave me palpitations to wait overnight to lift-and-slice them. But, I’m so glad that I waited. They are astounding – rich, chocolate-y, and decidedly decadent with that luscious caramel center, which is ju-u-u-ust gooey enough to be dreamy without being messy. These are going to be my gift-to-the-neighbors holiday cookies this year – and they are truly a gift!
Thanks for this fab concoction!
I just took these out of the oven and I cannot wait to try them. I have a question, though. I had been planning on mailing about half of these in a cookie tin. However, I see the note that they only last for three days in an airtight container. Does anyone have any experience with shipping them? I certainly won’t do it if they might spoil or turn rancid.
I’m not a big baker but have been enjoying it lately – it gives me something to do during covid! Followed the recipe to the T and they came out AMAZING! I thought they may not have been cooked enough but once they cool, they are a perfect texture, nice and soft and chewy. I will definitely make these again!
I never leave comments but my husband and kids loved these! Definitely spray the edges of the foil well too (my only mistake lol) and just realize they take a long time to set up and cool… so thick and yummy it’s worth the wait:) Another person commented that they always plan to let them set overnight which is a great idea. Followed the recipe exactly and perfection! We tried to sneak into them after only 2 hours of letting them cool and they were still pretty gooey, let them sit another 2 and they were amazing!
This look delicious. We dont have caramel bars here. Can i use salted caramel syrup as a replacement?
Hi Vee,
I have not tried this method, but I’ve heard from the ASP community that some people have used thick caramel sauce and it worked. Good Luck!
Delicious!!!!
I made these for the first time and they did not turn out as I’d hope. I think I just under baked them even though I baked for 30 minutes. I also did not let them cool off completely before cutting. Next time I make these I will for sure follow these rules and I hope they come out better!! They are so good as I have had them before!
Big big hit! Instead of unwrapping caramels I found Kraft Caramel bites in the baking section of grocery store. Saved so much time and they melted down very quickly!
I found caramel morsels at the grocery store. 11 oz bag
I made these cookie bars and they were fabulous, salty/sweet. Amazing. I did learn not to stop stirring the caramel.
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe
The recipe turned out really good although I think I should have let it cook longer or possibly freeze to solidify the caramel. It tasted good after refrigeration for a few days and being warmed up in a microwave with a scoop of ice cream.
Good overall recipe , I used dulce deleche mixed with as the caramel filling (we don’t have caramel chewers over here ) . I just added 10% melted butter in a pan then warmed threw the caramel , the consistency was fine and mine did not fall apart . Mine ended up picture perfect all be it 150g palm sugar and 150 Demerara so we’re a little more brown and somewhat of a gingerbread cookie slice . But the ratios in this recipe were good and they ended up very nice . I’ll make with light brown and normal next time I did not have any normal auger today
These look fabulous. I’m making them now and can’t wait to try them. For the next time I make them, are they supposed to look a little u set poked when you take them out of the oven? Thank you!
Just made this for Father’s Day and the bars were amazing!! I’m freezing what’s left and have a question about thawing – thaw in the refrigerator or thaw at room temp?
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 😋