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.
Hey,
I’m impressed by your blog. Absolutely amazing work.
Delicious! A very good recipe. I did prebake the bottom crust for about 5 minutes. Otherwise, I followed the recipe and they turned out perfect!
I can’t get all purpose flour, could I use plain instead?
Hi Karen!
Where do you live? In the US, all-purpose flour is plain (standard) flour.
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I used bittersweet chocolate chips =)
I made this for a party and they were a HUGE hit! I did add vanilla to the cookie dough and 1 tsp salt to the caramel sauce. Thank you for such AMAZING recipes!!
Very excited about these. My carmel however seems very liquidy to pour on top. do i need to cook it longer?
Hi Margaret!
Did you used the caramel squares and sweetened condensed milk, or did you swap it for premade caramel sauce? If you are following the recipe, it will definitely be thick enough, promise. :)
Are you from Canada? I am glad I read your comment about the caramel sauce being too thin. I double checked the conversions from ounces to milliliters, and for something thicker like sweetened condensed milk, a 300 ml can is what you should use. The other conversion chart I used gave me a measurement of 414mls…
Delicious!!! The caramel layer is decadent and the cookie wonderful. After reading reviews on sweetness I opted to make mine with dark chocolate and I’m happy with the results. Will definitely be making again…..thank you for this great tasting and easy to put together dessert.
We had friends coming for “heavy savory apps (appetizers) and cocktails” last night. We love entertaining that way because the invitation itself sounds more casual and laid back. Guests know they’re going to leave with a full stomach and we get to try new recipes to add to our repertoire without a full commitment. These cookie bars took home the Oscar of the evening! I followed the recipe exactly except (oops) I disregarded the baking time and added four minutes thinking the center wasn’t finished baking. So mine were a little more brown. Next time they’ll come out on time. I took one reviewer’s suggestions and used parchment paper to line my baking dish. When completely cooled, they sliced up perfectly and lifted away from the paper with no sticking. I’m adding these to my holiday cookie line-up and know they’ll be requested every year! Thanks for the recipe!
I have made these cookie bars quite a few times now. They are easy to make and everyone I have made them for absolutely loved them!
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.