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
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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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.