Salted Caramel Cookies
Soft chewy caramel cookies with sea salt and drizzled with salted caramel.
This is for all of my salted caramel lovers. I am such a HUGE fan of all things caramel. I have been wanting to create a caramel cookie for so long. I decided to get to work in my kitchen with a brand new jar of salted caramel that I couldn't wait to put to use.
I was so excited to discover that this sea salt caramel cookie turned out absolutely perfectly! It was sweet, salty, chewy, with golden crispy edges. The perfect salted caramel cookie recipe!
The key to making a chewy caramel cookie is to start off with butter and a mix of dark brown sugar and white granulated sugar. Each of them plays an important role in these cookies. It helps to create a chewy center and crispy, buttery edges.
I worked with the baking temperature and found that 390 degrees was just the right temperature to be hot enough to allow the edges to become crispy while keeping the centers nice and chewy.
How to make the Best Salted Caramel Cookies:
- Use room temperature butter. I love to use dark brown sugar because it creates a richer, chewier cookie texture. The extra molasses helps to create that chewy texture. You can substitute regular golden brown sugar as well. Cream the mixture for at least 4 minutes with a mixer.
- Stir in high-quality thick caramel. I like to use refrigerated caramel as it has a thicker consistency. The cookie dough calls for ¼ cup but for extra caramel flavor, I suggest drizzling caramel on top of the baked cookies.
- Bake just until edges starts to become a light golden brown color. I always suggest using these light-colored baking sheets. Once you remove from oven, sprinkle with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes for extra salty-sweet flavor.
- Drizzle extra salted caramel all over the top of the cookies before serving.
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Salted Caramel Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter (lightly softened)
- 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 large Egg
- 1 large Egg Yolk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- ¼ cup High-Quality Caramel Sauce (plus more for drizzling on cookies)
- 2 ½ cups Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- Sea Salt Flakes (optional to sprinkle on the top)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 390 degrees (unless you are chilling your dough). In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and sugar for at least 4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl often.
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix for 1 minute longer. Stir in caramel.
- Fold in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. If sprinkling sea salt flakes on the top of cookies, reduce salt to ½ teaspoon. If you have time, I suggest chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes. This reduces the spreading of the cookies. I suggest a 24-hour chill time, if you can wait.
- If possible, use a light-colored baking sheet. Roll cookies into light balls and place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-11 minutes or until lightly golden on the sides. Remove from the oven and let set up for several minutes.
- Drizzle caramel all over each cookie before serving. If so desired, sprinkle with sea salt flakes.
Traci Stark
What temperature should be used if we chill the dough? You wrote 390 degrees F unless we're chilling the dough. Thank you!
Modern Honey
Hi! I just mean that if you are chilling the dough, you don't need to preheat the oven until you are ready to bake the cookies. You will still bake the cookies at 390 degrees. Hope that helps! 🙂
Pat
I made these with browned butter, these were so delish!!
One of my new favorites!
Barbara B
Hi! Can I use caramel syrup instead of caramel sauce?
Theresa Good
Hi my name is Theresa .. I am an baker but cookies can be challenging for me .. lots of recipe taste good but not awesome .. I made your Caramel cookies - awesome .. I also made your oatmeal cranberry cookies and added white chocolate chips .. super awesome !! I will try some other recipes .. I can’t wait !!
Jemimah
Super yummy!!
However I made a few changes.
1. I added more salt in to the recipe then it asks for and glad I did because you can’t taste it anyway and for salted caramel there definitely wasn’t enough.
2. I added about 80g less of butter and they were so soft and chewy that I can’t imagine a full cup.
3. I added in caramel chocolate chips with chewy chocolate inside and it was such a good addition. I feel like they’d be quite plain without.
A good basis for the recipe but these few additions made them so much better. The caramel sauce on top with a good dose of salt made them super yum.
Bri
I would eat these cookies everyday if I was allowed. These are FANTASTIC!
Misa
My favorite cookie and just made my first batch. Love this recipe!!!
Jessica
The first time I made these they were perfect and chewy. The second time they turned out puffier, even if I followed the recipe perfectly.
What went wrong?
Jennifer
I had to review with a couple of comments. These cookies are super good! Exactly what I was looking for!
I wasn't able to set my oven to 390 so I took a chance with them at 375 and they came out perfect at the 10 minute mark. I let them cool for a minute on the air bake pans and then moved them to the wire rack to finish cooling.
I did 1/2 the batch according to the recipe, and did the other half with semi-sweet chocolate chips and those turned out super as well! I'm not sure which I prefer. 🙂
Melinda
I’m going to make these for our friends and family cookie delivery. I was just reading that you used to do that too ???? Do you think I could make the caramel? Like maybe using the recipe from your sticky toffee pudding? Or is buying one better because it’ll be thicker and have a better consistency?
Anna
These are the best cookies I’ve ever had
sandra
This was AMAZING!!! Wonderful recipe.
Karen
Mine went extremely flat, got brown after only 6 minutes and when I took them out and let them set for 15 minutes, they were completely soft and impossible to take off the sheet. I put them back in the oven to bake them longer. They got very brown, but a little bit better. At least now it is possible to eat them. For me they are a bit too sweet and taste too much like grease. Sometimes it is difficult to use recipes in other countries because the ingredients aren't exactly the same, so maybe that is the reason.
Luana P.
Followed the recipe and the cookies turned out delicious! Chewy and crispy at the same time. The crowd was so pleased the whole batch was gone in one afternoon! Will definitely do again but with slightly less brown sugar since it was too sweet and intense for my personal taste. Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Jordan
Just pulled the first batch out of the oven and they are amazing! Will definitely be making these on the reg.
Lizzie
These cookies are AMAZING. I use this recipe without the caramel as just a go-to base cookie recipe because it's just that good!
Jacinda Gonzales
Made this recipe with light brown sugar and they turned out AMAZING!! They have the best texture and I made my own sea salt caramel to add to the cookies as well as top, they are perfect! The cookie I was looking for!!
Betty
I went so wrong. Dough was very thick as I folded in the flour. Used smalled cookie scoop - 12 balls to a sheet. They totally melted into on big sheet cookie, flat as a flitter and very dark brown at 8 minutes. 6 minutes - not done. I'm afraid they go in the trash. I bought good caramel too.
Janice
This may have been caused by the butter being too soft. It's a common mistake to soften butter too much. I used to do it myself. And too soft butter often causes cookies to spread too much.
I would say even more so since this recipe states "lightly" softened butter. Butter for cookies should not be so soft it's losing its shape. It should still be cool to the touch and at about 65 degrees F. This takes no more than one to two hours out of the refrigerator, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Perhaps you should try again, paying attention to how soft the butter is.
Susan
I am so excited to make these! I hope they're as good as they sound!
Kathy
These sound delicious! Would it change the cookie dynamics if chocolate chips were added to it?
Nancy
Is the oven temp at 390% correct,. Isn’t that to high and would burn them?
Bisky
They turned out a bit dark on the bottom but were not burnt, and were really good!