Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars – A layer of salted caramel sauce is sandwiched between layers of a favorite chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, then topped with a sprinkle of fleur de sel.
Over the last handful of years, I’ve become completely obsessed with salted caramel.
Ice cream? Pass me a spoon.
Popcorn, Pretzel & Peanut Bars? Hand me at least three, please.
Brownies? You may as well just give me the entire pan.
Growing up, I never gravitated to caramel sauce as a topping option, sticking with hot fudge as my old standby. Perhaps it was because I never had great caramel sauce, and it always seemed sickeningly sweet to me. However, once I tried my hand at a homemade salted caramel sauce, I did a complete 180.
Now, combine salty caramel with a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and you have something I absolutely, positively cannot stop eating.
How to Make Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
In this particular instance, I adapted one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes into bars, added a layer of salted caramel sauce in the middle, and then sprinkled the top with more flaked sea salt, just for good measure.
Kudos to Maria over at Two Peas and Their Pod for creating such an amazing concoction. She really is the cookie queen!
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These salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars are incredibly easy to throw together, thanks to a shortcut caramel sauce.
If you’d prefer to use a homemade salted caramel sauce, that will definitely work! Just make sure you let it thicken up a bit, and then use enough for a thin layer over the cookie dough.
These set up and keep for me perfectly at room temperature, but if your house or kitchen is a little on the warm side, you may need to pop them in the refrigerator to allow the caramel layer to set and to keep them from getting too messy once you cut and store them.
And on that note, these are an excellent candidate for freezing. I would just cut them, wrap each one individually in plastic wrap and then pop them in a freezer-safe ziploc bag. I need to get a batch in my freezer for upcoming nights on the couch snuggling a newborn and Netflix-ing!
If you love chocolate chip cookies, caramel sauce, and sweet and salty combinations, you absolutely, positively have to make these salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars. They will become one of your favorite desserts (or snacks, or breakfast *ahem*).
Enjoy!!
One year ago: White Chocolate-Coconut Brownies
Two years ago: Oven-Fried Onion Rings with Dipping Sauce
Five years ago: Maple-Hazelnut Oatmeal
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 2 ⅛ cups (265.63 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 cup (220 g) light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups (360 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- 10 ounces (283.5 g) caramel candy squares, unwrapped
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- Fleur de sel, or other sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square pan and line with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, mix together the melted butter and sugars on medium speed until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave on high until the caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes.
- Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Pour the hot caramel over the dough cookie dough and spread into an even layer, leaving about ½ inch around the border. Sprinkle the caramel with sea salt. Drop the remaining cookie dough in spoonfuls over the caramel and gently spread the dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Place the pan on a wire rack and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the caramel layer to set. Cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on February 22, 2012.
I will ask my Mom to bake me a bunch of these “salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars”. They look super delicious, now I’m craving to have one!
This is totally delicious! To start off with, I love chocolate chip cookies…and I love cookie bars! Now you went and added salted caramel to the delicious mix? SUPER!
Could you use your homemade salted caramel sauce in place of the melted caramels for this? I really want to make these, but I have no caramels in the house, so I thought I’d try doing homemade sauce instead. :)
Hi Jen, Yes, you can do this, just use enough caramel sauce for a thin layer on top of the bottom cookie layer.
I feel similarly – I never really cared much about caramel up until a few years ago, but now I can’t get enough, especially when there’s also salt involved. I bookmarked these when Maria shared them, so I’m glad to see you enjoyed them too!
I am a permanent passenger on the salted caramel train! Bring on that brownie!
You have made me into a salted caramel fanatic! I was just like you, I could take or leave caramel. Now I am crazy for salted caramel ANYTHING!
Wow, these sound delicious. Anything sweet and salty gets my attention! If only it weren’t such a pain to unwrap all those individual caramel squares.
P.S. It would probably also work to melt the caramels into the cream in a double boiler or over a *very* low flame, stirring frequently.
Caramel and chocoloate chip cookies?? YUM! These look fabulous and I will be making them soon. Caramel has always been a favorite of mine…my grandmother and mother make soft caramels from scratch. They are nothing like caramel sundae topping, no where near as super-sweet!
amazingness! I’m in love with salted caramel too, trader joes has the best chocolate bar with caramel and black sea salt.
These look so incredibly good!
These bars look amazing. I absolutely love salted caramel. You have a beautiful site.
i am completely obsessed with any salty/sweet treat. These are right up my alley! I pinned them for a future recipe idea. i love your recipes, you are a genius in the kitchen michelle! :)
I’m totally with you – bring on the salted caramel! In fact, I just posted salted caramel macarons yesterday and tomorrow I’m posting salted caramel whoopie pies.
I can’t wait to try your recipe – it sounds divine!
I like caramel!!!
I couldn’t agree more with your caramel predicament – – not a big caramel fan, but salted caramel … I don’t mind living in the stuff!! This bar cookie, is making me hungry – – do you think anyone will notice if I run away from work, just to make these ;)
That looks so good and gooey inside which is my favorite thing. I think the only thing worth getting at Starbucks is the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate they have in the winter….mmm.
Ohhhh…these look wonderful! Definitely need to make them next time I have company!
Salted caramel IS awesome. I made a salted caramel hot cocoa mix for Christmas this past year and it was fantastic. I should serve it with these bars ;-)
These bars look sensational – what a great twist on the Choc chip cookie bar :D
This is 100% my dish!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Latest: 5 Min Wrap Pizza
MMM I love salted sweets! This sounds incredible!
OMG! I’m totally in a sweet-salty-chocolate place. YUM! Can’t wait to make these!
Oohh, this looks fantastic!! I am a firm believer that salty-sweet-combos are the best.
These look utterly irresistible! You really can’t go wrong with salted caramel.
I can see this being my new favorite dessert very very soon!
I keep saying I’m going to stop collecting recipes and then something like this comes along and I just can’t pass it up. Sounds delicious.
I really just love sweet and salty so much and I love these bars! They look incredible!
LOVE! Salted caramel has the taste buds drooling first thing this morning!
I’ve been seeing so many salted caramel items lately and have yet to try it myself. I’m kinda sure I’ll love it, though, because sweet and salt together is my thing…as in chocolate covered salty pretzels :) I need to make a dessert for an upcoming dinner party at a friend’s and this might be the one. Thanks.
Gah! These look so good!
These look so mouth-watering! Oh my!!! Caramel and chocolate? It’s just TWO of my favorite flavors in cookie bar form! Keeping this in mind for next time I need a decadent treat :-)