Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars
Saturday was a rough day. Long story, but we have been having problems with our hosting company so we decided to switch to a new company. Well, the transition didn’t go too smoothly. We spent the majority of the weekend on the phone trying to figure things out. Sorry to anyone who tried to access our site and got an error message. We really appreciate your patience. We finally got our site up and running, but it was a stressful day. I owe Josh a huge thank you for the long hours he spent working on our site. I also owe a huge thank you to these Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars. They were a lifesaver. I don’t deal well with tech issues, so I decided to bake. Baking always cheers me up, especially when the end result is a sweet and salty cookie bar.
I based this recipe off of my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I took them up a notch by adding a caramel layer. I pressed half of the chocolate chip cookie dough into the pan and then added a creamy layer of caramel. I sprinkled sea salt over the caramel and topped the caramel with the remaining cookie dough. I love a good kick of salt in my sweets, so I sprinkled a little more sea salt over the top of the cookie bars. I baked them until they were golden brown and then indulged in the best cookie bar ever invented.
I loved everything about these bars-they are pretty much perfect. The sweet and salty combo gets me every time. The bars are rich, gooey, with the perfect hint of salt. My bad day was soon forgotten after eating one…or maybe two of these bars:) If you ever have a bad day and need a pick me up, make these Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars. Your troubles may not go away forever, but these cookie bars will help ease the pain. They sure made my day a lot better. And if you are lucky and don’t have bad days, you can still make these bars. The sweet and salty combo cures all cravings and is perfect for any mood.
Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars
Yield: 16 cookie bars
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Chocolate chip cookie bars with a layer of salted caramel. These gooey sweet and salty cookie bars are pretty much perfection!
Ingredients:
2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and barsDirections:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 2-quart baking pan (which is an 11 X 7 pan-I used a glass Pyrex dish) with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together 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.
4. In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave caramels on High until caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave.
5. Divide the cookie dough in half. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough. Sprinkle caramel with sea salt. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel and spread dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.
6.Bake cookie bars for 30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.
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SaveIf you like these Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars, you might also like:
- Homemade Twix Caramel Cookie Bars from Dine and Dish
- Salted Caramel and Chocolate Pretzel Cups from Bakers Royale
- Twix Caramel Brownies from Two Peas and Their Pod
Welcome to Two Peas and Their Pod. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. Join us in our culinary adventures-our kitchen is always open! 
Wow, these look incredible. Salty and sweet treat are always the best!!!
These look like the perfect cure for tech issues – lucky you having Josh to sort it out! I need a Josh for those kind of Saturdays.
sorry you had a rough weekend–at least you had a cute baby and these to cheer you up! i am loving anything sweet/salty so i’m adding these to my ‘to make’ list!
Saw your choc chip salted caramel bars this morning and needed to make them RIGHT AWAY…they’re baking in the oven now and I can hardly wait! Thanks for improving my Monday!
yumm! i will be making these so soon!
These are making my mouth water!!
YES!! Chewy and gooey on the inside, crispy on the outside. And with salted caramel, which makes EVERYTHING better
Must. make. now.
Divine. I need these for my Monday.
YUM.
Sorry about your issues, but glad it’s all worked out!
xo
Baking really is cathartic and a release. Ugh, technical problems are the worst. I’m glad you got them figured out and now to try these amazing cookie bars. I love that flavor combo.
your photos look AWESOME!! Oh and so do the cookie bars, of course
My mouth is watering these sound so good!
Sorry you had a bad weekend but I’m glad you got the site up and running again!
Cookies in payment for tech issues. Fair shake… GREG
Tech issues stress me out too. I’m glad these bars got you through, they would definitely help me. I love salted caramel!
That’s the worst! I had the same thing happen Friday night when downloading a plugin update – it caused a fatal error and crashed my site. Luckily, three phone calls and an hour later, it was all fixed. But so scary in the meantime. Glad you got everything worked out!!
I can’t wait to try these, but I’m a little confused about the pan size… you said both 2 quarts and 11×17… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a pan like that…
Two Peas replied: — January 23rd, 2012 @ 4:06 pm
A 2 quart pan is an 11 by 17 pan. I put both measurements so people wouldn’t get confused, but I guess it didn’t work:) I used a glass Pyrex baking dish. It is a little smaller than a 9 by 13 pan.
okay, one more question… I don’t have any caramels in the house… any suggestions on a caramel recipe to use instead?
Two Peas replied: — January 23rd, 2012 @ 4:20 pm
I haven’t tried the recipe with a caramel recipe. I just melted caramels with heavy cream.
I guess I was confused because 11×17 is the size of a jelly roll pan… I thought the other pan was 11×7… however, I have the same pyrex dish, so I’ll all good
Two Peas replied: — January 23rd, 2012 @ 4:19 pm
Sorry, typo! 11 by 7 not 17! So sorry!
Oh man, I have other things I need to bake but now I’m going to have to make these too! They remind me of your Pumpkin Caramel Bars, which were a huge hit at my church! I’m glad you got your site problems figured out, tech problems are the worst.
Yep – these just may be a little bit of perfection!
Technical issues are the worst. I’m glad you got it all straightened out with the help of those delicious cookie bars! I’m having trouble with my host, too—are you pleased with your new one?
Two Peas replied: — January 24th, 2012 @ 10:47 pm
We are using Liquid Web. So far they are good:)
I love the sweet-salty combo, it sounds perfect in these bars! I’m all over these bars with their salted caramel and chocolate.
i love the combination of caramel and cookies! wait, actually i love the combination of caramel with ANYTHING!!
These look AMAZING! I can almost taste them!
i don’t fare well with tech issues either
glad it’s all worked out now.
So sorry you had such technical problems! That is super frustrating, but these bars look like the perfect thing to cheer anyone up! They sound fantastic!
Uggggg. computers will be the death of us all! But your cookie bars will make it all better!
Those look bey0nd delicious. I’d like a dozen please ; )
Absolutely divine! One of my favorite combinations!
These are above and beyond the standard cookie bars. Everyone is getting so brave with sea salt on sweets. I love the combination of the sweet and the salty! Way to go!
skateboards longboard
I’m switching over to wordpress soon from blogger and am definitely going to need a batch of these for the process. In fact…I might need a batch just THINKING about the process!
Glad you are up & running. Anything with caramel in it catches my eye. They look delicious!
Sorry for the rough weekend but glad you guys are up and running. The bars look amazing. I can’t wait to make them.
I’m really loving the salty/sweet combinations. Sorry about your technical issues, they are the worst!
That sweet and salty combo always gets me too and these look ooey gooey good!
All I can say is….Is the house next door for sale?
Looks amazing Maria (as usual).
I am drooling! These will definitely be made!
Sorry to hear about all your technical issues but so pleased you managed to find solace in these incredible looking bars… Chocolate chip cookie dough and caramel combined? Wow.
omg.. those cookie/ bars looks gorgeous! so fudgy.. gotta try this