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. StoreĀ 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.
Oh my! Ā These are soooooo good!
This is a huge hit for the guys at work that I bake for, oh yeah, my husband too!
These are amazing!!!
These are soooo yummy!!! Ā First time I made them I didn’t put enough dough on the bottom so they difficult to serve but still delicious. Ā Soooo, just make sure you put enough dough tin the bottom layer.
Made for pitch in. People couldnāt get enough. Going to try salt in the Carmel Vs on top. Definitely making again. Great recipe.Ā
Oh yes baked at 350 for 45 min! when you smell them check them!
great receipe! i did add a few things to it. after pouring on the caramel i added 1 cup more of chocolate chips,1 cup of butterscotch chips,1 cup of white chocolate chips, i cup of shredded coconut. then put the rest of the dough on then poured another can of condensed milk. Oh and i added 1 cup of chopped pecans to the crust! Thank You for the receipe and Merry Christmas to you and your family!
I have been making these for the last 4 or 5 years. They are a hit with my husband, family and friends. We love them!!! I am making them tonight and something isn’t quite right and I can’t figure it out! After I added the eggs, vanilla etc after beating the sugars and butter it looked too liquidy. But I carried on adding the flour and chocolate chips and it looked “normal”. However, the caramel looked more liquidy also, not thick. I followed the recipe exactly as I always do. I always bake them 25 minutes and they are done. However I baked them 5 minutes then 5 more. The middle wasn’t setting, it was too raw using the toothpick method. So I took them out and they are more brown than usual. So I went through your recipe and noticed the pictures. When I make the dough, it’s more sticky and shiny than what yours show. Yours looks like a regular cookie dough. Then your caramel looks thicker. I use the exact ingredients for that as well. When I spoon the remainder of the dough it looks nothing like the picture. I always never seem to have enough. I flatten and stretch the dough on the bottom and top. And when I pull it out of the oven, the edges are more caramel and kind of burnt. But it’s crunchy, so we like it that way. The only thing I can think of is the caramels expired in June and were really soft. Could they be part of it? But there is still the matter of the first step being too liquidy. Sorry for the long post but I just wanted you to get a good clear picture of how my dough comes out as they don’t match your pictures even though they come out fantastic!!!
Same here they are in the oven now on 30 minutes hoping the middle sets
Ok left on the oven additional 10 minutes and that did the trick. Ā They are gooey and delicious, definitely making them againĀ
Hello!
This recipe looks amazing- can’t wait to try it! But I’d like to use my homemade chewy caramels: do you think I could just substitute 10oz of them and proceed as specified?
Also, do you think I should make the caramels, let them set and then continue or just go straight into it from making them? Thank you for your time š
These are absolutely delicious and the perfect gooey cookie bar. Thanks for a marvellous recipe.
I made these for my co-workers – they could not stop raving about them and very affectionately referring to them as “crack bars”. They all said, “You have to make these again!”
Thank you for the fabulous recipe… I’m about to bake them for the second time…
I made these for a 4th of July party and they were a hit! Everyone loved them and said this recipe is a definite keeper! Thank you!
Decadent. Moist and good Carmel.
These look really tasty. Must make these for my next get together.
This looks amazing!!
Not to sound lazy, but….could you use refrigerated cookie dough?
Hi Marli,
I have not tried that, but if you give it a go, please report back. :)
These are decadent! I made a batch last week and they didn’t last long with my family. I am sending them in for a class party on Valentine’s day and will add Valentine M&Ms and sprinkles on top to make them festive. I know I will be making these again and again!
Absolutely the best amd most amazing cookie bar recipe. I have lost count on how many times I have made it. I also make it with gluten free flour. Thank you, Thank you!
Do you use the same amount of flour for the gluten free flour
Even my brother who is not a dessert person loved these. Will be making these again