I don’t throw around the term ‘the best’ lightly, but these truly are the best salted caramel chocolate chip cookies…EVER! Make them for your next party or get together and everyone will be asking you for the recipe between bites of cookie!
I understand that there are about 1,000,001 different chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, but if you were to make one recipe, THIS would be the one I’d recommend! The cookies have a smooth sweetness from the caramel sauce used in the batter, and then a nice hint of salt from the sea salt on top.
Last year I started to convey how absolutely delicious these cookies were when I first posted the recipe for bourbon salted caramel chocolate chip cookies, and since then I’ve been tweaking and perfecting the recipe. The recipe from last year is fantastic, but they’re a little more labor intensive (you smudge caramel sauce onto each cookie before baking) whereas these cookies you simply add the caramel into the batter. Both recipes are THE BEST, but this one has fewer ingredients and is simpler to make.
I’ve also really honed in on a few key things that I want to share about making this recipe like the ingredients, equipment, and tips that will have you making delicious cookies every time:
- I like to use good quality ingredients – Fat Toad Farm caramel sauce is one of my favorite caramel sauces to use in this recipe (I have also made it with Schmuckers’ caramel topping and other sauces).
- For vanilla extract I like to use a high quality one like this Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract from Nielsen-Massey (they make the BEST extracts!)
- For chocolate chips I like to use Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips – they are always very consistent for baking.
- A good French Fleur de Sel (sea salt) is also a must – this is the one I have (I just purchased it on Amazon (along with my other favorite items) because I couldn’t find it at any of my local grocery stores.)
- Tools for making cookies – it all starts with creaming the butter and sugars, don’t skip this step! I use a hand mixer when I’m making smaller batches (this recipe can easily be halved) and a stand mixer when I’m making the full recipe. When mixing in the chocolate chips I’ve been told to always use a wooden spoon– this could very well be an old wives tale, but I follow it!
- I use a cookie scoop (like this one) when measuring out the cookie batter – it helps make consistently sized cookies – it also happens to be one of my favorite kitchen utensils.
- Lastly let’s talk about silicone baking mats….when my grandma-in-law gave me these silicone baking mats last year I thought nothing of it…until I used them for the first time. They are life changing! They make baking cookies a breeze, I would definitely definitely suggest getting some for your kitchen!
- Tip – a little tip I heard once was to chill the cookie dough for an hour. I do that now and really think it helps develop the flavors of the cookie dough, so chill that dough!
Let’s say you have a family picnic to go to, or a birthday party, or a business meeting, or a tailgate party, or a picnic, or your hubby needs cookies for work….see where I’m going with this…there is no situation in which these cookies aren’t perfect! I’ve made them probably over a hundred times now (no joke) including for all those occasions mentioned, and it’s my go-to cookie recipe.
This recipe can easily be halved, simply half each of the ingredients - I've done this many times - the yield is 3 dozen.
The Best Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
This cookie dough freezes very well. To freeze the cookie dough for use at a later time follow the directions for making the dough and then instead of letting the dough 'set' in the refrigerator for an hour put it in a gallon freezer bag and label, then freeze it until you're ready to bake them, then let the dough thaw in the refrigerator and then bake!
If you need me I’ll be over here sneaking a cookie (or two)!
If you make this recipe, I’d love to know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Facebook with #sweetphiblog or email me at sweetphiblog@gmail.com, I always love featuring your pictures on my Reader Recreations page!
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Note: This recipe was made by a reader and featured on the Reader Recreations page. If you ever make a SweetPhi blog recipe I’d love for you to submit it or share it on social media with the hashtag #Sweetphiblog I love seeing your recreations!
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In Canada I can’t find that caramel saucee, so I bought a date caramel sauce that is delicious on its own but I don’t think it was intense enough for the cookie! I also reduced the white sugar by 1/2 cup and I used bittersweet chocolate chips! YUM!
Only thing I had to change is drop my oven to 325, as the first batch got pretty dark at the bottom. A good recipe. I will use it again and would love to try different combinations and flavours! Thanks for this recipe!
Love the changes you made, thanks for sharing and i’m so glad you liked the cookies 🙂
Can we refrigerate the dough overnight and still make a great cookie?
Yes, absolutely!!
These are great, I made the caramel sauce as I couldn’t find any in the supermarket. I halved the recipe because you never know if there going to taste nice, so I always do half a batch first. There a Christmas gift for a friend, going to put them in nice container with a red ribbon. Who doesn’t love cookies.
So glad you loved the recipe!!
Made my own caramel sauce, and added 2 teaspoons of Crown Royal Apple.
I can honestly say these cookies are NOT going to last long in the kitchen!!!
That sounds like an amazing modification Dave, thanks for letting me know how much you liked this recipe!
May I ask what kind of brown sugar do you use in your recipe (light or dark)?
Lisa
Hi Lisa, I’ve used both light and dark brown sugar, so just use whatever you have on hand 🙂
I just made these and OMG are they good. I made a few changes you might like. I made half the recipe with these changes. I added 3 cups old fashion rolled oats, 1 1/2 cups flaked unsweetened coconut, used dark chocolate chips and added a bag of Heath bar toffee bites. To get them to come off the cookies sheet in one piece I lined the cookie sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed it with a little pam and only let them sit on the foil for about a minute after removing them from the oven. These are the best cookies in the world. Thank you so much for posting theses amazing cookies. I used Smucker’s Simple Delight Salted Caramel Topping.
I was wondering if they would still taste great without the added salt on top?? Have u tried them without it before?
They do still taste great without salt added on top, i have made them plenty of times without salt and they’re still great 🙂
Hi,
Just wondering if this recipe makes a chewy or crispy type of cookie?
Great question: it makes a slightly chewy inside, slightly crispy outside cookie 🙂
Is the dough supposed to be dry??
No, the dough is supposed to by pliable, but not “dry” – did you add the caramel sauce?
If my cookie dough ends up looking way too dry, I add 1 extra beaten egg. Works every time.
Thanks for the tip Cathi, so glad you like these cookies 🙂
I made these cookies for my husband’s band practice last night and I REGRET making only half a batch! These are so stinking good…. and the guys ate almost all of them!
Oh my goodness Rachael, thank you so much for the sweet comment! You know what’s funny? Nick came home after work one day last week and said ‘the guys said they haven’t had cookies from you lately’ so I made them these and they raved about them, and I too had only made half a batch, and wish I had made the whole batch!
They came out way too flat and thin…..totally bummed. Did exactly what recipe said!
Oh no! I just made these this past weekend and they came out great, so I’m sorry to hear they came out flat and thin for you. The one thing I can think of…did you maybe forget the baking powder and/or baking soda? I’ve done that before and they came out flat and thin…or is your baking soda old? This is a new one I’ve heard lately…that if your baking soda is old, it can lose its power. Oh, the other thing I can think of…did you perhaps not add a full 4 cups of flour? If you maybe did 3 instead of 4, that could have affected the cookies. Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of this!
I’ve been meaning to post here for a while and keep forgetting because by the time I get done using the recipe again, I’m too distracted by THE BEST SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER. Really, this is an excellent recipe. It’s something special, but at the same time still very doable without a huge mess or unusual ingredients or steps. I’m more of a savory cook and bake very few things, but since I found this recipe I have something special for cookie swaps, sick friends, rainy day activities, holiday treats, etc.!!! So fun. Thank you. I have occasionally adjusted the recipe with bakers yeast and flax seed plus a little milk when making them for nursing mamas, and I added cocoa powder in place of some of the flour a few times. I made them vegan once for someone. I have tried adding a banana and another time some peanut butter. I used other flavorings than vanilla (bourbon, coffee, almond), and when I make them for the kids I actually double the salt in the recipe and leave off sprinkling it on top after. All good in their way for the right occasion, but truly the recipe is pretty much perfect as is. I’ve made them upwards of a dozen times over the past year and a half, never one problem that wasn’t caused by my own errors, and now people think I can BAKE! Ha!
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for the amazing comment and feedback! I loved that you’ve made them so many times (I make these all the time!) and love even more that you’re a baker now 😉
Thank you for the nice recipe, I’m looking forward to trying it. I don’t really bake much but my mom’s lost so much weight on chemo i’m looking for anything that will sound appetizing to her and i think this will help.
Thank you so much for commenting, I hope she likes these!! And thank you – I will go update those links asap!