Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

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I LOVE cookies, but I also love making cookie bars, especially when I am short on time. You don’t have to roll the dough into balls, just put the dough in a pan and bake! Cookie bars are also great for taking to parties and potlucks!

These Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars are such a great! The chocolate chip cookie bars have a layer of caramel that is sweet, slightly, chewy, and gooey! The caramel and chocolate combo is perfection!

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. The sweet and salty combo cures all cravings and is perfect for any mood.

If you want to go all out, serve warn with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

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Chocolate chip cookie bars with a layer of salted caramel. These gooey sweet and salty cookie bars are pretty much perfection!
4.59 from 17 votes

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • 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.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
Keywords caramel, chocolate chip

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Maria

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!
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  1. these look wonderful! I just made deep dish choc chip cookies; I should have added caramel. Your bars look so tasty 🙂

  2. Woah. I am drooling. As for the hosting problem…that is no fun. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I currently have 1and1, but my husband is considering moving me to Bluhost (cheaper). I am terribly scared of him transferring it because I’m afraid that there will be all sorts of issues. :-/ Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and make these ‘make it all better’ cookie bars. Gooey goodness. 🙂

  3. These look so gooey and yummy. Love love love the salty sweet flavors -especially when there is caramel involved. Yeah for patients husbands whole will deal with technical difficulties for us…glad your site is back up and running – that must be stressful.

  4. oh man! What a pain! Glad everything is fixed. What a delicious treat. I am thinking about making cookie bars or a cookie pie this weekend. May need to make this one

  5. i’m sorry the weekend was rough, but you’re back up and better than ever! and really, when does a chocolate chip cookie (bar) not make it all better? 😉

  6. Me too no like a bad day:( but I’m glad you found something that made you feel better and that you could share with us! Looks delicious as always.

  7. Sweet + salty wins my vote, every single time. These look so gooey and delicious! I’m glad you got your tech issues straightened out. 😉

  8. Tech. issues make me nauseous, but I have not doubt that these bars could remedy anything. Who can resist the siren call of salty caramel and chocolate? 😀

  9. I LOVE your chocolate chip cookie bars. They are my go-to when I need something for a get together, but don’t have the time for a batch of cookies. So I have no doubt that this recipe is amazing!! Definitely going to the top of my To Do List.

    So sorry to hear about your hosting issues…I am only too familiar with that!!

  10. Oh girl, you better have saved me one. Or better yet, the whole pan. These are so up my alley you have no idea! Salt+chocolate+caramel= Kelley’s version of heaven.

  11. Site and tech issues are no fun to deal with. I am sorry that you had a long weekend taking care of that, but at least chocolate and baking makes things a little better. I always find myself going to the kitchen to bake on bad or stressful days. These cookie bars look so good. I love the idea of a sprinkling them with sea salt. Great idea!

  12. I hate tech issues too, probably because I don’t always understand what is going. I know full well these would cheer me up – I love the addition of caramel!

  13. I agree with you – computer and tech issues are the worst. I always feel so helpless so glad Josh could help you out. These bars look divine and are the perfect combo of flavors. Can’t wiat to try!

  14. Mmmm, salted chocolate and caramel–definitely a combo that can fix any problem. Sorry to hear about your blog stresses! 🙁

  15. I’m sorry you had so many difficulties, but glad that the problem is solved. You’re back at full force with these (VERY!) tempting bars.

  16. Maria, the combination of sweet, salty, and gooey is over the top goodness. Thanks for sharing these sweets and terrific photos!

  17. Sorry for your techincal problems, it seems alot of people are having them lately. I’m terrified of whats going to happen to my blog, I want to switch to self-hosting, but I haven’t had a clue on how to do it. I wish I could just pay someone and say you do it! 🙂

    These chocolate chip salted caramel cookie bars look amazing! I made your chocolate chip pretzel bars and those were a huge hit, now I must make these! Yum!

  18. Tech issues stress me out beyond belief. I think it’s mainly the fact that I usually have no idea how to fix them. Glad you guys are back up and running.
    Between these, Jenna’s chocolate chip cookie pie thing and Averie’s deep dish chocolate chip cookies all within the past 5 or 6 days, I’m seriously craving some chocolate chips!

  19. Holy heaven, I’m going to have to add another 30 minutes to my workout routine today, just for looking at these. I WANT!!

  20. Tech issues are the worst!! You both deserved this delicious treat indeed! Chocolate, caramel & salty? I’m in heaven!

  21. Yes, I’m so with you! I don’t want to deal with tech issues because I know nothing about it and it makes me feel sick to my stomach! Ahh! So frustrating! I almost switched hosting companies in November. And, I had a bad weekend and made cookies….it made life much better!

  22. 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.

  23. 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! 🙂

  24. 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!

  25. YES!! Chewy and gooey on the inside, crispy on the outside. And with salted caramel, which makes EVERYTHING better 😀 Must. make. now.

  26. 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.

  27. Tech issues stress me out too. I’m glad these bars got you through, they would definitely help me. I love salted caramel!

  28. 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!!

  29. 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…

    1. 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.

  30. okay, one more question… I don’t have any caramels in the house… any suggestions on a caramel recipe to use instead?

    1. I haven’t tried the recipe with a caramel recipe. I just melted caramels with heavy cream.

  31. 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 🙂

  32. 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.

  33. 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?

  34. I love the sweet-salty combo, it sounds perfect in these bars! I’m all over these bars with their salted caramel and chocolate.

  35. i love the combination of caramel and cookies! wait, actually i love the combination of caramel with ANYTHING!! 😀

  36. 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!

  37. 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!

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  38. 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!

  39. Glad you are up & running. Anything with caramel in it catches my eye. They look delicious!

  40. Sorry for the rough weekend but glad you guys are up and running. The bars look amazing. I can’t wait to make them.

  41. I’m really loving the salty/sweet combinations. Sorry about your technical issues, they are the worst!

  42. 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.

  43. so glad everything is worked out now – and if baking these will solve my tech issues, i’ll definitely be making them soon 🙂

  44. I agree with you – tech issues are such a pain. Even after being in the tech support business for nearly 20 years, I still hate dealing with hosting problems. At least you had these scrumptious looking bars to take your mind off the problems!

  45. So glad you got the hosting issues worked out! I can see how these would help cheer you up under frustrating circumstances!

  46. I hate tech issues with websites especially when it’s you’re lively hood. We’ve had that problem with ours before and it’s a horrible feeling. I’m glad you’re such a good baker and could save yourself. I’m good at eating baked goods. That’s how I get my therapy on stressful days. These bars look wonderful!

  47. I’m sorry you had a bad day with tech issues…yuck. I can see why these cookie bars made you feel better, though! I received some salted caramels for Christmas, and I just finished them off (they were SO good!). I am already having withdrawels, and this recipe looks like just the right treat to help me with that! 😉

  48. Sorry about your tech issues, those drive me crazy too! These would definitely have made me feel better, they look awesome!

  49. Tech issues are the worst! If anything can make things better, it’s definitely these cookies 🙂

  50. I’m so glad my sugar cleanse is over. Now I can chow down on these. I guess first I’ll have to make them. Thanks for the recipe!

  51. I didn’t think the chocolate chip cookie could be improved upon. But you just did it 🙂

  52. YUMMMYY!! Cookie bars always work wonders 🙂 – – this one looks soft and gooey and juuusstt delectable 🙂

  53. These are about to happen. I’m allowed. I ran this morning and did all the good things for myself that lets me have things with caramel in them. Yay! 🙂

  54. Baking is very therapeutic and these bars are just wonderful. I love caramel and need one right now:)

  55. Hmmm. Do you have a great alternative to the packaged caramels? Is there anything that I could whip up on my own somewhat easily. I love the idea, have no caramels and live ages from a store with any. Hmmm. Let’s ponder this shall we?

    Oh the pain. The pain!

  56. Do you use salted or unsalted butter? I am never sure of which to use in what recipes. Is there a general rule to follow? Thanks to anyone for their tips!

  57. I just thought I’d comment to say that I had a great success with this recipe last week. I ended up baking the cookie bars in two loaf tins, as I didn’t have a pan of an appropriate size, but that didn’t seem to make a big difference. EVERYONE came back for seconds and one friend told me she dreamt about them afterwards. I’ll definitely be baking them again.

  58. These were very delicious! I don’t have a 11×7 pan, so I made a recipe and a half in a 9×13 pyrex and it turned out great. Thanks for all the yummy recipes- I make your green smoothie a couple times a week and love everything I try from your site!

  59. I made these for a Super Bowl party. Awesome. Just awesome. I used dark chocolate chips for mine though. Goes awesome with the sea salt and caramel

  60. Oh my goodness I want one of these hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I’m making these this weekend for sure! Thanks for the recipe!

  61. just made these the other night!!! So good, definitely a good idea to let them cool before eating them, they turn into a gooey mess if you don’t! I just couldnt help myself!! 🙂

  62. Prep time 5 minutes? ha ha….What? It’ll take 5 minutes to get all the wrappers off the caramels…. Like the cooking shows, let’s simply ignore the time it takes to gather the ingredients, prep them(melt butter, pack the brown sugar, measure the flour, etc.) and start the clock when we start mixing the pre-portioned items together. Be reasonable: more like 10-15 minutes and longer for people who aren’t regular bakers.

  63. These sound so good! I have a slight obsession with the sweet/salty combinations, and desserts that incorporate a salty flavor along with the sweet stuff are my favorite. I will have to bake these next. Thanks for the awesome post and great pics/tutorial!

  64. YUM these look incredible (especially the extra kick of salt…mmm)! Did you experience any problems with the second layer of cookie dough? Hoping to make these tonight but I’m afraid the top layer won’t spread easily over slippery caramel. Any tips would be appreciated 🙂 thank you in advance!

    1. Spread the cookie dough over the caramel using a spatula and then just lightly pat the cookie dough down over the caramel using a spatula or your hands. Enjoy!

  65. Was massively looking forward to these but I managed to mess them up! Couldn’t find any caramel squares (perhaps it’s an England thing) so made my own caramel, also my tin was too big so everything just kind of mushed together. Taking them out of the oven in a bit so hopefully they’ll taste better than they look….

  66. WOW! just made these and they were absolutely fantastic! i made them in muffin tins instead of as bars, and they were great like that. the only thing is that next time i’ll use slightly less chocolate just because the bars are so rich

  67. These cookies bars are the perfect combination of true yumminess! I can’t wait to make them for my dad. For sure I will score brownie points,lol 🙂
    The cookie bars remind me of one of my favorite drinks made at Starbucks, the Salted Carmel Mocha.

  68. Made these for the Teacher Appreciation luncheon this week. Very yummy and didn’t really want to share the entire pan with the school!

  69. Sounded great . . .but not sure what went wrong my bars never cooked in the middle. I used the 11X 7 pan and as I was preparing I thought this sounded small but I followed directions maybe if I used a used a larger pan I could have gotten them to cook in the middle.

  70. I made these for Easter and they were such a huge hit! My dad could not get enough of them. What made them extra special was that the caramel I used was totally from scratch. This is definitely a keeper!!

  71. Oh gosh… chocolate and salted caramel all in one equals the most amazing treat! Those are my two absolute favorites! Baking always helps my stress melt away too… thanks for sharing!

  72. I’m making these for my daughter’s birthday instead of a cake. The recipe doesn’t say to pack the brown sugar, and I’ve read in other places that one should not pack brown sugar if the recipe does not specifically say so. What do you do?

  73. Sooo good, but I cant handle too much sugar.So I reduced it to 1 cup, and with carmal, was little too sweet still,added pecans( yum). Next time ,can I add just alittle less sugar ,my kids n hubby don’t need a lot either..?

  74. These were delicious! Do you think these would hold up well in the mail? I would like to send some to a friend in college.

  75. I made these while on vacation with my mom and my husband this week. They are AMAZING. Even better than I imagined they would be! I’ve also never made a chocolate chip dough quite like yours, but I really liked it. Will definitely be making these again, thank you!!

  76. Found this on pinterest and I absolutely fell in love! I have made these twice now and so far, they just keep on getting yummier! My family just eats it up, as well as me! They are just so hard to resist eating two at a time. I recently made them only a couple of days ago and now there is only two left! I will certainly use this as my “go to” cookie recipe, even if I don’t want to do the cookie bars! 🙂

  77. Do you think i could use condensed milk in a can boiled to a caramel sauce in place of the caramel squares?

    Appreciate any input…thanks!

  78. Hi,
    These look absolutely amazing, can’t wait to try them!!
    Would it be possible to use Dulce de Leche instead of the caramel candy?
    Thanks!

    1. If you double the recipe for a 9×13 pan, the bar will be thicker. So maybe bake them for longer.

  79. I subbed some homemade caramel sauce for the caramel/heavy cream mixture, and it was out-of-this-world amazing. We’re talking the best thing that has ever come out of my kitchen (and I cook and bake A LOT). Thank you for an amazing recipe–I can’t wait to make them again!

  80. I made these last night, and they were so, so yummy — thank you. I used a ~11×7 ceramic baking dish, and at 32 minutes they came out a bit underdone. (And, of course, it is basically impossible to test for doneness with all that gooey caramel). Also, a little guidance on the amount of sea salt would be helpful. I was afraid to over-do it, but in the end I think I could have used more.

  81. these are so delicious! i made them for a group and friends, and was requested to make them again just a week later!

  82. These look awesome and I am wanting to make them for a baby shower. However, I don’t have an 11×7 pan. I have a Pyrex 9×13 or an 8×8. What do you think my best option would be? Thanks for posting such awesome recipes! I’ve LOVED every recipe of your’s I’ve ever tried!

  83. If some one desires expert view about running a blog then i suggest him/her to pay a quick visit this website, Keep up the good work.

  84. How much sea salt are you using? The first time I used too much and the second time not enough. Could you give me a ballpark amount? A teaspoon, a half a teaspoon??

  85. These are amazing! Everyone loved them…and since one bar is plenty, there was enough for my family (6 people including 2 teenage brothers), my friends, and my boyfriend. They were easy to make and came out delicious!

  86. These are so good! I’ve made them several times, unwrapping 38 caramels each time. Do you think it would be possible to use the sweetened condensed milk cooked into caramel instead? I’ve never made it, so I don’t know how firm it gets.

  87. I might have to get back on the sugar wagon for these. Hungry now.
    You must have xmission! Chocolate Snowball is hosted by them and it was down and the same time. Bad bad. Thank goodness lettyskitchen is with bluehost–Really like them.

  88. These were a HUGE hit at my office. I thought they came out a little too gooey/buttery/sugary for my taste but I’m definitely not complaining. I brought them to the office just so my husband and I wouldn’t eat them all! Everyone loved them and asked for the recipe. I did use half & half because that’s what I had on hand and it seemed to work fine. I also had to leave mine in the oven a little longer than 30 minutes. Thanks fro the recipe!

  89. Salted Carmel = LOVE! Can’t think of a better way to amp up chocolate chip cookie bars. Looks delicious!

  90. I noticed that this recipe has been around for awhile (2012), so am wondering if anyone has made it successfully using a gf flour blend (such as Namastes). I’d love to try them!

  91. These look wonderful and I’m making them for my Valentine party. Was all set to do this this afternoon, but realized I have no idea how liberally to sprinkle that salt to make it come out just right. Can you give my guidance? A teaspoon? A tablespoon?

    1. 1 teaspoon is probably good. I never measure. Just sprinkle so the tops of the bars are evenly sprinkled. You don’t want them completely covered, just scattered with salt. Does that help?

  92. I made your salted caramel sauce for the baked brie recipe and was looking for something else to do with the rest of the sauce. Could I use it here instead of melting caramels? Thanks!

  93. These bars look great. Can you use Hersheys caramel topping instead of the wrapped caramels and heavy cream?

  94. Not sure but think mine may be gooey and after 35+ minutes.  Bigger pan may help but not enough to use 9X13. Hope they are okay after cooling.  I would decrease the caramel mixture by almost half I think next time.  A cookie bar usually is easy!

  95. Hello, I had seen the salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars on a web site Pintrest , the picture to this recipe

    does not look the same.

  96. 5 stars
    These are amazing! Creamy caramel, fudgy chocolate chip bars satisfy sweet & salty cravings. A new favorite recipe at our house – big hit at the office, too!

  97. 5 stars
    This is one of my favorite recipes to bake – I always requested these brownies for my birthday, and now I make them for many others! Deliciously sweet and salty! So yummy!