Today I have a sweet treat to share with you, salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars! These bars are basically chocolate chip cookies baked in a large square pan with a thick layer of melted caramel in the middle! You simply take an easy chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, press half of it into a pan, top with melted caramel followed by the rest of the dough before baking. To keep things nice and simple I take chewing caramel candies and melt them in a sauce pan along with some cream which makes it easy to pour over the cookie dough and helps keep the caramel nice and soft after its baked into the bars. If you are feeling a little adventurous, sprinkle some coarse salt over the caramel for a sweet and salty treat! These salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars are the perfect combination of chocolate and caramel in cookie bars!
Updated: 2020/12/14 – added tips to recipe
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Soft and tender chocolate chip cookie bars filled with ooey gooey caramel!
ingredients
- 8 ounces caramels
- 1/4 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse grain salt (optional)
directions
- Melt the caramels into the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat before setting it aside to cool while you continue on.
- Cream the butter and sugar together before mixing in the vanilla extract followed by the egg.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt before mixing into the butter and sugar mixture, before mixing in the chocolate chips.
- Press 1/2 of the mixture into the bottom of a greased 8 inch square baking pan, pour the caramel on top, sprinkle on the salt, and gently press the remaining dough on top.
- Bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until the sides are lightly golden brown and the caramel is bubbling, about 15-20 minutes before removing from the oven to cool before slicing and enjoying!
Option: Use a 9×13 inch baking dish for thinner bars.
Tip: Pressing the dough on top of the caramel can be a bit tricky. I like to grab pieces of dough, press it flat between my hands and then gently press it down on top of the caramel; there is no need to cover 100% of the caramel, small holes are ok.
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Those carmelitas look so good!
Omgosh, the gooeyness! Pinned!
OMG, I’m drooling! Those look AMAZING!!
This recipe did not work for me at all. Followed the instructions but the texture seemed off and it took way longer to bake than indicated in the recipe instructions. Will not be making this again.
Currently in the oven, it’s been 3x the amount of bake time indicated, still soupy. I wouldn’t make this if you’re considering, doesn’t work!
The batter should be cookie dough like and not soupy at any point…
Just made these and they are a gooey mess. They are not like bars at all. The recipe said 8 ounces of caramels. Is this weighing them or putting enough in a measuring cup for 8 ounces?
8 ounces by weight. If the caramels were solid at room temperature before baking in these bars, they should return to solid after baking and returning to room temperature and the bars will be bars.
I made these yesterday and very soupy. I think there is too much cream in the recipe. Only the outside was edible.
So with all of reviews I heard about it not turning out it kind of worried me a little bit. So I did a little altering and it turned out to be fire!! I started with the caramel first. It calls for 8 oz but I used 11 instead and just a Tad bit less heavy cream. I set it aside and let it cool. Then I made the dough and used 1/4 cup of extra flour. It was baked for 40 minutes at 350. And I let it sit and cool overnight before cutting into it. Overall its a great recipe just needs to be changed a little bit.
Yes, sometimes we need to play a bit with the ingredients……I do it quite often….Sounds like a great recipe…thanks Alyssa and Kevin….I try to read most all of the comments before making any recipe….give it another try…..and enjoy…..💕👌💕
I tried this recipe and I should have read the reviews first. Mine were also a soupy gooey mess. Maybe they should have been baked in a 9×13 because mine was quite thick.
The caramel will be pretty liquidy when still warm from the oven but sets when they have cooled to room temperature.
Kevin, The cooking time is way off, otherwise it’s fine. You need to fix this, there have been multiple comments about this but the recipe still says it only takes 15-20 min to bake. Please update it to 40-50 minutes, which is comparable to other deep dish brownies in an 8×8.
I made these in a 8×8 baking dish.They turned out great for me
and I followed the directions. it took 20 minutes in my oven. I also used the 11oz. kraft carmels. They are delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
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I made these and simply guessed how many caramels to use for 8 ounces. I evidently used too many caramels because the cookie bars came out very, very gooey. Can you inform me how many caramels to use for 8 ounces? The recipe tastes good and would be awesome if I could get the cookie bars to come out so we could cut them and eat. They are simply a pile of gooey, gooey mess. Thank You.