Thick and soft-baked salted caramel chocolate chip cookies are filled with caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. Sweet and a little salty, these always disappear quickly!
These salted caramel chocolate chip cookies begin with the most popular cookie recipe on my blog: my beloved chewy chocolate chip cookies. To this fan favorite recipe, we’ve since created salty sweet chocolate covered pretzel cookies. Today, we use the same base dough and add caramel and a sprinkle of sea salt. Everyone loves these thick, soft, chewy, and caramel-y cookies because they taste like salted caramel cookie dough when warm from the oven.
Trulyโis there anything better than cookies and caramel?
These Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies Are:
- Thick and extra chewy
- Rich and buttery
- Soft-baked style
- Relatively easyโno mixer required
- Sweet and salty
- Stuffed with gooey caramel
- Topped with crunchy sea salt
- Based off of my chocolate chip cookies recipe
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies Video
How to Make Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Beat the wet ingredients together.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them.
- Chill the cookie dough. Chilling is mandatoryโat least 3-4 hours, but if you have time I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight for less spreading.
- Shape the cookie dough. Take 1 scant Tablespoon of cookie dough, stick a caramel inside, and place 1 more scant Tablespoon of cookie dough on top. Smooth the cookie dough over the caramel to completely hide it inside the dough ball. We prepare these caramel snickerdoodles the same way.
- Sprinkle with coarse sea salt or flaky sea salt + bake. These cookies take about 12-13 minutes to bake. If they didn’t spread much in the oven, press them down lightly after you remove them from the oven. Do not over-bake the cookies. The cookies will appear very soft and undone at the 12 minute mark. However, they will continue to bake for about 10 minutes as you allow them to cool on the cookie sheet. The cookies you see in this post were baked for 12 minutes.
Best Caramels to Use
The best caramel candies to use are either (1) Rolo candies (the little chocolate covered caramels) or (2) Wertherโs brand soft caramels. Kraft caramel squares seem to have gotten firmer and harder in the past couple years and wonโt create a gooey caramel center like Rolos or the Wertherโs. If you’re up for it, you can even use homemade soft caramels! The caramel you use definitely matters, so stick to my suggestions. If using Wertherโs brand, fold them in half because they are pretty long and wonโt fit inside the cookie dough ball otherwise. I always have the best luck with Rolo candies.
More Caramel Recipes
- Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Caramel Stuffed Nutella Cookies
- Salted Caramel Pretzel Crunch Bars
- Salted Caramel Frosting
- Loaded Caramel Dipped Pretzels
- Salted Caramelโlove the flavor!
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 15 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Chewy chocolate chip cookies with caramel hiding inside! These cookies are unbelievable and disappear every time I make them.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cup (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup (150g) light brown sugar, loosely packed
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (180g) chocolate chips
- 15 Rolo candies (or other chocolate coated caramel)
- coarse sea salt or flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Whisk theย flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or silicone spatula. The dough will be very soft, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them. Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or up to 3-4 days. Chilling is mandatory. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight for less spreading.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven toย 325ยฐF (163ยฐC). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.ย (Always recommendedย for cookies.)ย Set aside.
- Roll the dough into balls, 1.5 Tablespoons each (I like to use this medium cookie scoop). You’ll have about 30 balls, give or take. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact. Make a thumbprint into one dough ball and press the Rolo inside. Cover the Rolo with another dough ball and mold the two dough balls around the Rolo, making sure it is completely wrapped inside. See photo above for a visual. Gently press down on the large cookie dough ball to *slightly* flatten and press a few more chocolate chips on top. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt or flaky sea salt. Put 7-8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Put one cookie sheet into the refrigerator as you bake batch #1. Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet.
- Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. If the cookies still look too puffy when you remove them from the oven, gently press down on them a little more.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls (with caramel inside) freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Hereโsย how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack | Coarse Sea Salt or Flaky Sea Salt
- Eggs: Room temperature egg + egg yolk are preferred. To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, simply place the whole eggs into a glass of warm water for 10 minutes.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally and company! Weird question, but I figure it can’t hurt to ask. Any chance that this method could work inside an oatmeal raisin cookie? Or do you think the dough would be too flimsy to contain the Rolos? I know you haven’t tried this, so an educated guess would be more than helpful enough as a response. I won’t hold you accountable for my mistakes, haha. Thanks for all your efforts making recipes and maintaining the site. ๐
Hi CB! My educated guess is that the caramel may spill out, as you guessed, but it would be worth a try!