Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Caramel stuffed inside milk chocolate chip cookies that already have a strong butterscotch flavor, and all topped with sea salt? Plus a hint of cinnamon? Out of this world.
Texture: The edges are crisp, the inside is ultra ooey and gooey and sticky, and the cookies are chewy throughout. This is the cookie texture motherload.
Ease: Easy peasy. What you need here is PATIENCE because I promise the 24-72 hour chill for the dough is SO worth it. DO IT!!!!
Appearance: Perfect.
Pros: My all time favorite cookie recipe with a fun twist.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? Absolutely I made extra dough, portioned it into balls, and popped them in the freezer to enjoy whenever I want!
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Holy crap you guys. I just got caught up on The Good Wife. That was cathartic, to say the least. I should have never let myself fall behind on watching because the shocker of this season was totally spoiled for me on basically every social media site and even entertainment news sites.
I accidentally saw the spoiler in the HEADLINE of articles about the show. Like, really guys? Can we not put spoilers in the TITLE?! Especially when shows air throughout different timezones. Also especially in this modern age of DVR. Oh well, at least I knew to brace myself when I did finally watch. I won’t say much more in case you’re a few episodes behind. Man, I love good TV.
Almost as much as I love a good chocolate chip cookie. Nice transition there huh? Seriously though, sometimes when I’m brainstorming recipes to make and share with you all I find myself just wanting to make cookies and brownies all day long because they’re my forever favorites. Just recently I was attempting to force myself to try to bake something far from that realm of treats but I thought why? Variety schmariety. I like what I like and that’s half the reason you read this blog, right? Hopefully.
Hopefully you like cookies because I’ve got a pretty kickass recipe today. There’s caramel, but don’t worry you’re not making it from scratch because we’re cheating today. There’s milk chocolate chips because sometimes only milk chocolate will do. There’s fancy fleur de sel (sea salt). And there’s even cinnamon! I wanted to include the cinnamon part in the recipe title but then it got to be too long. I love the warm surprise the cinnamon adds, but you can totally omit it if it’s not your thing. Whatever you do, plan to make these soon.
The dough is based off my Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (which took many batches to develop – I make these sacrifices for you!) and all the ingredients and methods are written very intentionally and purposefully into the recipe to make, well, the ULTIMATE chocolate chip cookie. Just know the dough needs at least a 24 hour chill period. Before you start complaining, yes you can skip this but you don’t want to. The flavor and the texture of the baked cookies will improve exponentially the longer the dough is chilled. Trust me!
By the way, these are big cookies because that’s the way I like ’em and because that way we can stuff the caramel inside. I like to use a large 3-Tablespoon spring-loaded cookie scoop.
Why use a cookie scoop?
Using a stainless steel spring-loaded cookie scoop when portioning out cookie dough is one of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets. A spring-loaded scoop saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough. When using a scoop, you ensure each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, meaning you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
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Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (191 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups (159 grams) bread flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature (67°F)
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (156 grams) packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups (1 11.5-ounce package) milk chocolate chips
- 24 square caramel candies, unwrapped
- Fleur de sel, for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and the yolk, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in the vanilla. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before shaping.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.
- Divide dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Take a ball of dough and divide it into two. Flatten each piece and place a caramel candy in between. Shape the dough around the candy to seal. Slightly flatten then sprinkle with the fleur de sel. Repeat for each ball of dough.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Let cool until warm before serving. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds or in a 350°F for 5 minutes before serving.
Can you make these without using bread flour, and just using regular flour for it all instead of the two different kinds ?
Hi Alicia! While we do recommend using bread flour if possible, because its higher protein content will help these cookies be thick and chewy, you can substitute it 1:1 for more AP flour in a pinch – just note that the texture will change as a result. Happy baking!
Do you have a metric version measurement for the ingredients?
Thanks!
Hi Juriah! This appears to be one of our older recipes that we haven’t had the chance to update to metric measurements yet. I just added in what I could, but in the future, feel free to use our Ingredient Measuring Guide. This guide contains all of the commonly used ingredients in our recipes and their weights 🙂 I hope that helps! Can’t wait for you to enjoy these cookies.
Any brands for the caramel that you recommend and that would melt better? I find sometimes even Kraft bite caramels just don’t do the trick. They don’t melt well.
Hi Maria Elena! I’m sorry, but we have really only experimented with Kraft caramels! I would recommend experimenting with any other brand you’re able to find, and see what you prefer!! Good luck and happy baking 🙂
Werthers soft caramels are a great choice.
I’m kind of a purist when it comes to baking and prefer not to use store bought caramels …. Do you think subbing your homemade caramel sauce in these would work, maybe?
Hi Amber! While we haven’t tried it, our homemade caramel sauce might be a bit too liquidy for this recipe, unfortunately, and may seep out of the cookies. You’ll want to find a thicker but slightly soft caramel substitute. Please let us know how it goes if you give this recipe a try 🙂
Absolutely AMAZING! I baked some of them after refrigerating for only 12 hours because I was in a time crunch and they were perfect. However, the ones that I let sit for 72 hours had a much more complex flavor. I also put the salt on after baking for the second batch and it worked out the same!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Charlie! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Could you use caramel chips?
Hi! The dough was chilled 24 hrs and right now I cooked the cookies and they were beautiful but when I took them out of the oven the deflated jaja. Why did this happen?
Hi! I made the Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies and the cookie came out really great. But the caramel didnt . In some cookies it spilled from the bottom and the caramel was not soft nor chewy. Whats the secret for the cookie to come out with a soft filled caramel center?
I also tried putting the dough balls in the freezer. Help!!! ☺️
Making this recipe for the second time (my husband RAVES about them) and I’m wondering how you would recommend freezing the dough? In scoops? Caramels in or out? Just as a big hunk of dough? Thanks in advance!
I think I got a cavity just looking at these photos! I’m a sucker for salted caramel and can’t wait to whip up a batch of these cookies! Happy I stumbled onto your site and excited to follow along!
I found those regular caramel candies dont bake good. They are nice and melted once you pull them out of the oven but they get hard pretty quickly after cooling and when you bite in expecting soft chewyness you dont get it. I tried baking with the whole candy and with cutting it up in to 4 pieces and it gets hard again after baking every time.