Here’s a most decadent dessert to try: Gooey Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
My family is crazy about these dessert bars… so crazy that we couldn’t stop eating them. They’re ooey and gooey and everything you’d ever want in a dessert. I ended up sending most of the batch these Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars to my son’s lacrosse team party. The platter came home empty!
This recipe comes from The Cookies and Cups Cookbook: 125+ sweet & savory recipes reminding you to always eat dessert first by Shelly Jaronsky. If you love to bake, you need this one on your cookbook shelf!! Shelly has a very popular baking blog- CookiesAndCups.com… so it’s a natural transition for her to come out with a baking cookbook.
Here are a few recipes I’ve tagged to make from this book: Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodles, Banana Bread Pancakes, Brown Sugar Cinnamon Swirl Bread, Pound Cake Cookies, Icy Lemon Cake, Hot Fudge Sundae Cake, Marshmallow Buttercream, Payday Pie, and Marble Sheet Cake. Shelly also includes a few dinner recipes in the final chapter of the book (her family’s favorites… such as King Ranch Mac and Cheese and Garlic Bread Pasta). I love this book!
Yes, these bars are that decadent and gooey. I’m a caramel-lover myself, so these are like the perfect dreamy dessert for me.
There’s a bit of flaked sea salt on top- which happens to be a very good idea. It gives these bars a little bit of a salty kick, and it balances out the sweet. You must try these Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars for your next occasion worthy of them. Everyone will love you. Enjoy!
Here are a few more cookie bars you might enjoy:
- Sugar Cookie Bars
- Candy Bar Cookie Bars
- No Bake Monster Cookie Bars
- Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Oreo and Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Recipe Details
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 10 ounces soft caramels (unwrapped) -- this is about 40 caramels
- 1 teaspoon flaked sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with foil and coat liberally with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking soda and continue mixing until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Turn the speed to low and add the flour until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Press three-quarters of the dough into the prepared pan.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the condensed milk and caramels and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the caramels are melted.
- Pour three-quarters of the caramel mixture on top of the dough in the pan and drop the remaining dough evenly in teaspoon-size amounts on top of the caramel. Save any remaining caramel for another use (it's great over ice cream!)
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the center is just set.
- Sprinkle with flaked sea salt. Allow to cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars.
Notes
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
I made this and, while I’m sure it will be delicious, I don’t understand why the recipe has you make 3x the amount of caramel sauce you need. Also, I don’t understand why the recipe calls for 1/3 of the dough for the bottom of the pan, this is nowhere near enough to cover the bottom of a 9×13 pan. To keep the structural integrity of the bars I certainly recommend using half the dough for the bottom. The wasted caramel sauce certainly taught me to read the entirety of a recipe, so thank you!
I would guess the reason is because of the full can size. What else would you do with half of a can of condensed milk? So rather than throw it away make extra caramel to use for other things later :).
I Absolutely Love Carmel so I’m headed to the store in the morning to make this
Just wondering if these can be frozen and if so, for how long?
Thanks!
I haven’t frozen them, but they should be fine in a well-sealed container for up to three months.
Love but have not made. Going to make double batch for 50 emp. for my B12 visit doctors office’s always with goodies, but going to triple the cookie part so not as gooey, yet more dough to work with. This should eliminate a little too much filling.
I thought this recipe looked delicious! I decided to make it & it was extremely difficult spreading the dough in the pan. Wish the recipe was more specific on measurements!
I have a question, instead of using caramels can you use like the Carmel ice cream topping
I feel like that would be too gooey and runny for these.
These were delicious, but the edges of the bars browned significantly more than the rest of the bars. I did use a (glass) 9×13 and cooked for 25 minutes. Anybody else had this happen? Any tips?
I love making these bars, they are delicious, but if you use the Werther’s soft caramels you do not need 14oz condensed milk. 6oz makes a gooey caramel, and if it’s too thick you can add milk a tsp at a time until you get the consistency you want. Also, if you boil a can of sweetened condensed milk for 2 hours, replenishing the water to keep the can covered, you’ll get a delicious dulce de leche that works perfectly with these bars.
So delicious!!! For those that found their bars too gooey make sure you only use 3/4 of the carmel sauce. I also added a layer of coconut (yum!) which may have helped keep them a little firmer. I may try a layer of nuts next time. Sent to both of my boys in college and they LOVED them!
If you bake in a glass baking dish, always reduce the recipe oven temperature by 25 degrees. For any recipe. Glass conducts the heat more efficiently and things tend to overcook if you don’t reduce the temp. Hope this helps.
Thank you for a great recipe. My son lives in western Canada & I send cookies every 6 weeks. He wanted something with caramel this time & I came across yours. Because of the situation in the world now it took a week for the package to arrive. I had made the bars in 3 bread loaf pans & sealed them up in food saver bags. (Always add a piece of white bread to keep them soft) The cookies were great. Every time he opens a new package I get a text saying how amazing they are. Definitely a keeper recipe & will be made again & again. Thank you!
Made this recipe today, and it was really good; fist know that this is a very rich/sweet treat. *I will say that it’s best if you skip the foil and just bake it in a glass or non-stick pan with cooking spray, because the carmel will stick to the foil!
Made these last night for a group of friends, and they were devoured in no time!! After reading other comments, I used more than half of the cookie batter on the bottom to keep the caramel from seeping through, didn’t use all of the caramel (saved the rest for later!), and shortened the cooking time by 5 minutes. I will definitely make these again – thanks for the recipe!
I admit, I am not averse to eating a failed cookie or cookie bar recipe with a spoon, but how can results be so drastically different when following a recipe to the letter? Epic fail! What a waste of ingredients, time, effort. Virtually inedible! Stuck like gorilla glue to the foil, and even the side portions were completely underdone after 30 minutes (flowed like lava when cut). After spooning out two “pieces,” I will try putting it back in the oven and hope to salvage something.
Oh my gosh, so sorry this one didn’t work for you. It’s definitely a gooey recipe. I cut them and removed them from the foil as soon as possible so it didn’t become attached to the foil when setting.
If I wanted to use my own cookie recipe, how big of a batch of cookie dough does this call for? A dozen, two?
Thank you!
I’m not sure– perhaps like a regular toll-house style recipe.
Would it work to use parchment paper to avoid the messy cookie sheet?
You could try! It’s pretty gooey all around. But worth it!
These look really good but were an epic fail at my house. Where it says spray foil liberally – when you think you have sprayed enough … spray more. My caramel ran all under my bottom layer of cookie so I had a hard time getting the foil off and the bottom is now a sticky caramel mess. Maybe I pressed the cookie dough too much and it was too thin. Anyway, they do taste good so I will try them again one day and do a few things differently.
Can you use jar caramel sauce and omitt the mixture of caramels and condensed milk or will jar stuff ruin the recipe? Has anyone tried that yet?
I haven’t tried it!
What should I use as caramels in the UK?
I’m not sure– I’m not familiar with UK products, sorry!
This looks amazing!! Caramel makes everything better! Yum!
These look so incredible. I love cookie bars in general but salted caramel recipes only usually show up in the fall but I crave it year around. Thanks for sharing!
These dessert bars look incredible! My favourite things in one go, I’m not surprised they went down a treat with your family!
xx
These look fabulous! Great idea to add caramel to chocolate chip bars. One question, though: Are they too gooey/messy to serve as finger food for a crowd?
At a casual party, they’d be fine. I put them on a platter and served them to my son’s lacrosse team at a BBQ. They all loved them. They are gooey though, so if you have a fancier gathering… maybe not such a good idea.
OMG! These look incredible!! Thank you so so much 🙂
Made in a glass pan. The top baked perfect but the bottom was a gooey mess. I feel like it would be good to bake the bottom layer for a bit before adding the caramel. The salt should be sprinkled before baking because it doesn’t stick after.