As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Easy drop cookies filled with chocolate chips and swirled with salted caramel sauce. No chilling required!
If you came here to find the most epic chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever had, then, my friend, you are in exactly the right spot. Because this salted caramel chocolate chip cookie is going to knock your cookie-loving socks off and you won’t even know what happened to you.
Exaggeration? Probably. But maybe only slightly, because, y’all… You’re going to want to sit down for this one.
This all started back in October when I made bourbon caramel sauce. I mention in that post/recipe that if you leave out the bourbon, you magically have regular caramel sauce.
Side note, there are also instructions for making it salted caramel sauce or plain. We’ve really got you covered in salty, boozy caramel land.
Anyway, back to October… I have been wanting for years and years to include caramel sauce on my blog but just never got around to it. Fast forward to taking the blog full time, and I finally got my rear in gear and made it happen.
I published the salted caramel sauce as a bourbon one because, well, I wanted to. And because it’s different and it’s fun and, as I’ve already mentioned, the recipe and method are exactly the same if you want to make bourbon caramel sauce or regular caramel sauce, salted or unsalted. It’s just a matter of omitting one ingredient.
So, since October, I’ve made 3 more batches of caramel sauce, one bourbon and two regular, because I’ve been giving it away as host/hostess gifts and brainstorming a new set of recipes to publish on the blog including it.
Because hello, we can’t just make salted caramel banana bread over and over and over (or can we?), so let’s start adding to the collection and make some epic cookies– mmmkay?
Another reason I’m pretty excited about today’s recipe is because while I do love my classic chocolate chip cookie recipe from many years ago, I don’t love that it’s not a quick chocolate chip cookie.
It requires a couple hours of chilling the dough before actually baking anything, and remember that this lineup of December recipes is all about simplicity and ease and no we don’t want to chill our cookie dough.
Are you seeing a theme here? I already used the base for these cookies, originally seen in my Andes mint cookies, just this week with butterscotch cookies and Almond Joy coconut cookies.
So we’re adding cookie recipe #3 to that group, and I’ve got to say, this may be one of the best cookies I’ve ever made (sitting pretty next to cappuccino cookies, carrot cake coconut macaroons, and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies).
As I’ve said, the dough is simple. There’s nothing crazy about it. But there is a method that’s crucial to making these cookies extra special.
Once the dough has come together, including with the chocolate chips, you’re going to scrape everything down as if you were ready to be done with the dough and moving on to baking it (though I probably wouldn’t clean off the beaters or paddle yet).
You’ll add 3 Tablespoons of your salted caramel sauce (bourbon or non-bourbon) to the cookie dough in three different additions. Put one Tablespoon in one spot of the batter, the next in a different spot, and the third in another completely different spot.
Then, turn the mixer to low and let it stir juuuuuust a few times. Maybe 5 or 6. You want the salted caramel sauce to spread around, but you don’t want to lose it in the batter.
It should be swirly.
And you know what those swirls mean? Cookies with salted caramel puddles. And the good kind of puddles, not the totally-spread-all-over-the-baking-sheet puddles. Contained puddles, held in by the crevices of your cookie and all the chocolate chips.
Once my cookies come out of the oven, I gave them a little additional sprinkle of sea salt right on top. This is totally optional but totally encouraged. Because OMG, salted cookies are extra delicious and so necessary.
If you need a chocolate chip cookie that is next level, here it is. Take it and bake it and share it. Because this.is.it.
Other next level chocolate chip cookies I have are cappuccino cookies, snickerdoodle chocolate chip pudding cookies, chocolate chip snowball cookies, and oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookies.
Buuuuut these cookies give you an excuse to make some salted caramel sauce. Because the world can never have too much of that. And you’re def going to want to make these cookies more than once!
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3 Tablespoons homemade caramel sauce (use this recipe and omit the bourbon) store bought is fine
- coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate medium size bowl with a hand held mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat again on medium speed until everything is combined and no lumps remain.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2 additions, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the chocolate chips and mix again on low until evenly dispersed.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl to gather the batter. In three separate Tablespoon additions, add the homemade caramel sauce, putting each Tablespoon onto a different area of the batter. Turn the mixer on low and allow it to make a few revolutions, just to swirl the caramel sauce around a bit.
- Using a cookie scoop or a Tablespoon measuring spoon, drop rounded balls onto baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until sides just begin to brown. Remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt (if desired), and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week. Baked cookies may be frozen up to 2 months. Rolled cookie dough can be frozen, up to 2 months. Bake frozen on baking sheet for 12 minutes.
Notes
More chocolate chip cookies…
The classic!
Snickerdoodle Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
Danielle Michel says
Can’t wait to try these! Love reading your posts and your step by step explanations! Thank you!