Soft-baked and fudgy, with a gooey caramel surprise center, these salted caramel dark chocolate cookies are sure to satisfy more than one craving in a single cookie! They won a Nestlé Toll House award back when I first published the recipe several years ago, and have been a popular favorite since!
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos and success tips.
I have hundreds of cookie recipes on my website (and a whole book full of them in Sally’s Cookie Addiction), but how many can include “award-winning” in their title?
When I originally published my salted caramel dark chocolate cookies in 2013, Nestlé Toll House invited me to participate in their Dark Chocolate Pinspirations Sweepstakes. My salted caramel dark chocolate cookies won 1st place! They were in great company with several other mouthwatering dark chocolate-inspired recipes in the contest. What an honor to be included among such a tasty bunch!
This award-winning dessert recipe comes together with an easy cookie dough and even easier assembly process. Stuffing these salted caramel dark chocolate cookies is as simple as wrapping the chocolatey dough around a Rolo caramel candy. The dough needs to chill for at least 3 hours, but you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate overnight.
One reader, Nicki, commented: “I made these for the first time last night and followed the directions exactly. Hands down one of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life. I’ve made a lot of cookies but nothing like these. Absolutely divine! The sea salt on top and extra chips added after baking were the cherry on top. ★★★★★”
Why You’ll Love These
- Soft-baked and thick, yet dense and fudgy like homemade brownies
- Recipe is easily doubled
- Satisfies the most intense chocolate cravings
- Easy to stack and transport (pro tip: don’t show up to your next gathering without a batch)
- Made from 1 easy, versatile cookie dough
- Stuffed with soft Rolo chocolate caramel candies
Grab your sweet tooth, a few chocolate-loving friends, and your cookie baking tools. Let’s do this!
Start With a Multipurpose Chocolate Cookie Dough
These cookies start with my go-to, dependable chocolate cookie dough. My recipe for double chocolate chip cookies produces an incredibly soft and fudge-like chocolate dough. With a dough that good, you bet I’ve used it to make just about every chocolate cookie combo you can think of, like chocolate crinkle cookies, chocolate frosted cookies, inside-out chocolate chip cookies, and peppermint mocha cookies.
For today’s cookies, and for all of my variations using this same cookie dough, you need very basic kitchen ingredients, including:
- Flour: All-purpose flour makes up the base of these cookies.
- Cocoa Powder: Make sure you use natural cocoa powder here. If you’re interested in learning why, read this post on Dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder.
- Baking Soda: To give these cookies a lift in the oven.
- Salt: To balance the sweet.
- Butter: Remember that room-temperature butter is not as warm as you think. Let it sit out for only 1 hour before starting. It will be cool to the touch.
- Egg: To bind ingredients together and add richness.
- Sugar: A mix of brown and granulated sugars is key here to achieve the perfect balance of texture.
- Milk: A little liquid is necessary in this dough. You can use any kind of milk, dairy or nondairy.
- Vanilla Extract: Even the most chocolatey cookies need a kiss of vanilla!
- Chocolate Chips: You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I love making these with dark chocolate chips.
Then Add 2 Special Ingredients
The following 2 ingredients turn basic chocolate cookies into fancy-schmancy salted caramel dark chocolate cookies. The “bells and whistles” of today’s recipe, if you will.
- Rolos or Soft Caramels: I prefer to use Rolo caramel candies as the caramel filling here, just like these salted caramel chocolate chip cookies. You could use a regular soft caramel candy instead (like the Kraft caramels you see in these salted caramel pecan chocolate chip cookies), or try using homemade caramel candies.
- Sea Salt: To balance the sweetness, add a pinch of flaky sea salt right before baking. If you love the salty-sweet pairing here, try my salted caramel turtle brownies.
How to Shape & Fill These Cookies
What kind of hoops must we jump through to create these caramel surprise cookies? Great news: assembling these couldn’t be easier.
Add caramel centers: Take 2 Tablespoons of chilled cookie dough and divide in half. Roll each ball with your hands. Place the Rolo or caramel candy into the center of one ball (similar to a cradle). Top the candy with the other ball of dough and seal the sides together so that the candy is securely stuffed inside. The process is very similar to these caramel snickerdoodles and these Nutella crinkle cookies.
Then bake!
Be sure to try a baked cookie once it’s cool enough to handle. You need to experience the “caramel pull” for yourself. Just wait until you see your taste testers’ faces when they realize there’s a creamy, sweet caramel hiding inside the salted dark chocolate cookie. A look of surprise, followed by pure bliss!!
The cookies are still wonderfully soft on day 2… if they make it that long!
Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 18 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This award-winning recipe comes together with an easy cookie dough and even easier assembly process. Stuffing these salted caramel dark chocolate cookies is as simple as wrapping the chocolatey dough around a Rolo caramel candy! The dough needs to chill for at least 3 hours, but you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate overnight.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2/3 cup (55g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk
- 1 and 1/2 cups (270g) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
- 18 chocolate-coated caramels, such as Rolos (or use regular caramels)*
- flaky sea salt or coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preliminary note: This cookie dough requires at least 3 hours of chilling, but I prefer to chill the dough overnight. The colder the dough, the easier it is to handle and shape.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg and vanilla, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour the dry into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. The cookie dough will be thick. Switch to medium-high speed and beat in the milk, then the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop 2 Tablespoons (40g) of dough and divide in half. Roll each half into a ball. Make a thumb indent into 1 ball and place a caramel candy in the center. Top with other ball of dough and seal down the sides, enclosing the candy inside. Repeat with remaining dough and caramel candies. Tip: The cookie dough is certainly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
- Arrange stuffed cookie dough balls 2–3 inches apart on the baking sheets and sprinkle each lightly with sea salt.
- Bake the cookies for 12–13 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2–3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (step 3). Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls (with caramel candy center) also freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Check out my tips + tricks for how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack | Flaky Sea Salt
- Caramel Candies to Use: I usually use Rolo candies, but you can use square caramel candies, such as Kraft caramels. If using the square caramels, cut them in half and use half in each cookie. Make sure the caramels are recently purchased and still soft; if they are hard, they will not soften in the oven. You can also use homemade caramels. Cut them so they are roughly the size of a Rolo candy.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
These tasted delicious! My favorite cookie recipe!
No wonder it’s won awards. It’s excellent. Sort of like next level brownies in a cookie shape. I only wanted to taste one but ended up eating three. Lol. By far my favorite cookie after Sally’s chocolate chip cookies.
can i use baking powder instead of soda
Hi Tiffany, no, the two are different and can not be used interchangeably. If you’re interested, here’s more on the difference between baking powder and baking soda.
I used vinyl gloves like I saw someone mentioned in a review. This should be listed as special equipment required for this recipe. The gloves stayed clean and it was a breeze shaping the balls. The cookies came out insanely good! I tripled the recipe (I have a bosch mixer that handled it well)!
These taste so wonderful! And I don’t mind getting messy with my food when the outcome is a tasty success. Thank you. 😉
This is a tip – When rolling the cookie, instead of wiping you hands clean, roll an ice cube around in you hands about 2 or 3 times. The small amount of water and the fact that your hands are now cold, make the cookie very easy to roll. The cookie is no longer messy.
I d not have access to Rolos, so I used dulce de leche. It was messy and I had to make the cookies a little bigger to get the dough wrapped around the dulce de leche (used same baking time), but they are hands down the best cookies I have ever made. Thank you for the wonderful recipe (and great site).
I accidentally used Dutch process coco powder instead of natural, is there a way to salvage my mistake?
The dough is chilling in the fridge now.
Hi Sandra, there’s nothing to do now, but you could press the dough into a 9×9 pan to make bars/brownies instead, since the cookies may not bake up properly.
I can’t eat chocolate so I substituted carob powder and WOW! I am a chocoholic and giving up chocolate hasn’t been easy. Carob has helped ALOT but there are things that i just miss about chocolate. One of those is brownies, the creamy deep chocolate flavor just can’t be matched. I’ve tried various home recipes and some carpb brownie mixes but they just aren’t right. Now, these cookies, WHAM, the absolute perfect “chocolate” experience, with and without the caramels.Thank you for bringing this recipe to my life.
I made this!!!! WOW a smash hit at at the cookie plate for movie nite! A bit messy to make, as you warned, but well worth the end cookie. This is 5 star keepers. Will definitely be in my cookie rotation.
The recipe is definitely 5 stars. The cookies are delicious! The website is horrible, though. There are so many ads and things loading on the screen constantly that it takes forever to load. Each time I would scroll up and down to go back to look at the ingredients and then the directions, my computer would freeze. I don’t have an old computer and this doesn’t happen on other sites. I know ads make money, but you need to put a limit on it so that your site is still usable. It was so frustrating that I will not be looking for any more recipes on this site!
Hi Amanda, that experience sounds awful. I am so sorry! It seems like the URL you were visiting (this one) may have been experiencing an issue or lag, because that site behavior is not normal. The page should not be jumping, nor should the site make your screen freeze. I’m sending this information to my tech support team so they can look into it. So sorry again, and thanks for letting us know.
Another great recipe! My husband and I love them, so delicious. Making them for Christmas day along with many others of your other cookie recipes.
I have Werther’s chewy caramels on hand that I’d like to use for this recipe. Would you halve them or leave whole?
Hi Nora, halving them will still give you plenty of caramel in each cookie. Enjoy!
Will this recipe work with Dutch processed cocoa? I don’t know if unsweetened cocoa refers to natural or Dutch processed or both.
Hi Jen! Use natural cocoa powder here.
I have made these cookies several times and they are always a massive hit! Thank you so much!
This time I want to freeze the cookie dough after chilling it. Is it ok to freeze the cookie dough balls with the rollo chocolate inside the balls? Will the freezing disrupt the chocolate consistency?
Hi Angelica, unbaked cookie dough balls (with caramel candy center) freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw.
Great Cookie! They are a lot of work because they are so sticky but baked up great. They look impressive. Next time I may use a caramel square instead of a rolo. I felt it needed more caramel. They looked just like Sally’s everyone was impressed.
The caramel oozed out of the cookie?
Hi Jill! Was the caramel totally surrounded by cookie dough before baking? What kind of caramels did you use? We’re happy to help troubleshoot!
I have made these once & my neighborhood has requested them again, lol. Could I use just plain soft caramel squares instead of Rolos?
You bet!
Yeah! I have a sack in the pantry, so I can make this afternoon 🙂
I’ve made this a few times over the years and was the first Sally recipe I ever made. I have a hard time sharing.
I have some salted caramel chips on hand i would like to use in a rich chocolate cookie. I recognize the taste will be different because the flavor is spread out rather than being concentrated, but this looks like the chocolate goodness I’m looking for. Any reason this wouldn’t be a good base?
Hi Terry, you can definitely use your salted caramel chips in place of the chocolate chips in this recipe.
I was looking for a fall recipe to try and although not normally a double chocolate girl these truly might be the best cookies. Amazing!!
Hi Sally!
Love your recipes – in the middle of making this one. I was just thinking that it would maybe be helpful if you specified what size cookie scoop to use for this one (small, medium, large) – in the video you just cut to having 2 tablespoons of cookie dough but you don’t show exactly how you scooped it
Hi Dan! If you have a 2 tbsp scoop, you can use that. We usually just use a tablespoon measuring spoon and do two scoops of dough per cookie.
Do you use mini rolos ?
We use regular-sized Rolos.
Love this made them and they don’t seem as high as yours even though they are 40 grams. What do I do wrong? thank you so much in advance!
Love from Denmark
Hi Ida-Sofie, there are quite a few different factors that can cause cookies to spread too much while baking. This post with 10 tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading will be a helpful resource to review. Thanks for giving these cookies a try!
A new favorite! My family loved these cookies & asked that I make them again! Recipe was easy to follow. Delicious! Thank you
I LOVE this cookie recipe!! I’ve made these cookies twice now and a suggestion that I have is to let the dough chill FOR 24 HOURS. I know the recipe says you can chill for less but when the last time I made it (and only chilled the dough for 4 hours), the dough was still sticky and spread quite wide in the oven 🙁 Other than that, these were delish and a hit!!
Sticky nightmare
These cookies were NOT easier to assemble. I let them chill in the fridge over night and it was like rolling melted chocolate into balls. I stuck them in the freezer after I managed to get some semblance of balls. Haven’t baked them yet but I needed a break from them. It is summertime here so maybe that’s why, the dough should
Probably be made in the winter season when the kitchen isn’t boiling hot even without the oven on. I hope they turn out
They turned out!
I was so glad that they turned out perfectly fine! in fact, they were extremely popular. But again, the chocolate mess….ooof. I warn anyone making these, freeze your dough and work fast, or keep putting the dough back to harden. When i finally got all the dough rolled, i left them to chill and continued to roll them before baking. They were delicious…but just be prepared to put in a lot of extra TLC with the dough, especially when stuffing them.
These are the BEST COOKIES ON EARTH. The sticky dough can be tricky but they are worth the effort! 10/10
Can I triple or even quadruple the recipe? I’d like to bake them in advance to gift then during the holidays.
Hi Serenity, we’re so glad you loved the cookies! Doubling should be just fine, but tripling or quadrupling may become too much for your mixer to handle. You can also risk under-mixing the dough that way.
I took these to our church picnic today and everyone raved about them. One person said they were the best cookie they had ever tasted!
Hi, if I have a party in two weeks and make the cookie dough now, can I freeze it for two weeks? Or 3 days only max? The time instructions just confused me a bit if I can freeze the dough for two weeks, how long to thaw?
Hi Selena, unbaked cookie dough balls (with caramel candy center) freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Check out these tips for how to freeze cookie dough.
These are one of the best cookies I’ve ever made, and I’ve made quite a few! Easy recipe, I used dark chocolate Rolo’s, chilled the dough overnight, and used food grade vinyl gloves to roll the balls(rolling the dough is definitely a bit messy). These cookies taste amazing and aren’t too sweet. They have been a big hit with family and friends. Thanks Sally for another fantastic recipe!!