Crispy Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Crispy Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies are nothing short of perfection in a bite. With crispy edges, and a soft gooey center, crunchy caramel and puddles of melted chocolate, you won’t be able to have just one.
This is my GO-TO recipe when I want to make a dessert that is easy to share and transport, is sure to impress, and doesn’t actually take much effort at all. Plus, there is no chill time required! A dream!!!
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Why this recipe works:
- The presentation. I mean…. one glance at these and you know they will taste great!! The crispy caramel becomes shiny on the top and bottom, the melty chocolate puddles all over, and the browned butter gives a golden glow.
- The textures. The best of all worlds with the crisp exterior and gooey center, crunch and silkiness from the crispy caramel and puddles of melted chocolate.
- The flavors. The brown butter base goes perfectly with the addition of caramel in this chocolate chip cookie. I prefer dark chocolate chunks and chips but you can use any chocolate you’d like!
- The ease of preparation. There is no chill time, no special techniques, no hard-to-find ingredients. These take minimal effort for maximal output!
Ingredients
- Butter: when browned, it enhances the nutty aroma and deepens the taste, giving your cookies a delightful complexity.
- Sugar: we use both white sugar and brown sugar in these cookies. We also use white sugar to make the crispy caramel.
- Eggs: cookies’ binding agent, helping to hold the ingredients together while providing structure and stability to the batter or dough.
- Vanilla extract: for a warm and aromatic hint of flavor, that all baked goods will have
- Flour: the cookie base! If not using a scale, remember to *not* scoop the flour directly into a measuring cup. Rather, use a spoon to add the flour into your measuring cup, then use the flat edge to level. This will ensure you do not add too much flour!
- Leaveners: Baking powder and baking soda help baked goods rise and spread.
- Salt: to enhance the flavor of everything, including the brown butter, sugars, and chocolate, by balancing sweetness and intensifying other flavors. We use kosher salt in the caramel and in the cookies, and add flakey sea salt to the freshly baked cookies right out of the oven.
- Chocolate: I like to chop up a bar of chocolate and use chocolate chips. Chopped chocolate will melt down while the chips will maintain their structure. I like the combination of the two!
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Step 1: Brown the butter by melting 1 cup of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer to cool while preparing the caramel.
Step 2: Make the crispy caramel by adding sugar, butter, and ¼ teaspoon of salt to the same saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the mixture melts and turns smooth with an amber color. Pour the caramel onto parchment paper to cool and harden while preparing the cookie dough.
Step 3: Prepare the cookie dough by beating together the browned butter and sugars for a few minutes, then adding in the eggs and vanilla extract until fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, mixing until just combined. This is like any other cookie recipe, including my Lemon White Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Step 4: Chop the cooled caramel into small pieces and reserve some for topping the cookies. Add the remaining crispy caramel pieces, chocolate chips, and chopped chocolate chunks to the cookie dough, folding until evenly distributed.
Step 5: Scoop the dough into balls and place them on a baking sheet, topping each with a shard of caramel and a chunk of chocolate. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden and the centers are still slightly soft. Sprinkle with flakey sea salt and allow to cool before serving. Enjoy the crispy caramel chocolate chip cookies right away, or store at room temperature for later!
What Chocolate To Use
I like using a mix of chocolate chips and chopped up chocolate bar. They leave the cookies with a variety of chocolate textures. Note that if you buy “chopped chocolate” in a bag similar to chocolate chips, they will not melt the same as if you had chopped up a chocolate bar!
There is no wrong answer in terms of chocolate to use! For the chopped chocolate, my preference is to chop up the Trader Joe’s Pound Plus 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate bar. I find the quality to be great, and the price point can’t be beat.
For chocolate chips, I use Ghiradelli or Guittard dark chocolate (bittersweet or semisweet will work). The cookies are plenty sweet on their own and with the caramel chunks, so don’t worry about the chocolate being too bitter. Again, use whatever chocolate chips you prefer!
Crispy Caramel vs Softer Toffee Caramel
I have tried both variations of the cookie and I simply prefer the caramel to be more crispy. If you like a softer, more toffee-like caramel, add 4 tablespoons of butter to the caramel instead of the recommended 1.
Storage
Store these crispy caramel chocolate chip cookies at room temperature in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.
Any un-baked dough can be frozen for up to three months. I recommend rolling the dough into balls and adding the chocolate/caramel toppings to each one before freezing, that way you can just pop in the oven. Bake straight from frozen, just add one minute of bake time.
More cookies?
Rate this Recipe
Lastly, if you do make this Crispy Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (then first of all, thank you!!), be sure to rate this recipe and leave a comment and rating below! It would mean the world to me if you tagged me on Instagram or TikTok (@snackingemily) so I can see your creations.
Crispy Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Crispy Caramel:
- 1 cup white sugar 200g
- 1 tbsp salted butter or more, see Note
- ½ tsp kosher salt
Cookies
- 1 cup salted butter, roughly cut into 2 tbsp pieces (225g)
- ¾ cup brown sugar (150g)
- ¾ cup white sugar (150g)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ⅔ cup all-purpose flour (330g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- ⅔ cup chopped chocolate about 80 grams, plus more for topping
- 1 tbsp flakey sea salt optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Line an additional flat surface with parchment paper (can be another baking sheet, or just parchment on your counter, this is for the caramel).
- Make the brown butter. Add 1 cup butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Once fully melted, the butter will begin to bubble. When bubbling, begin to lightly stir using a spatula. You will notice the butter turning a golden brown at the bottom and smelling more nutty. As soon as the butter stops foaming and bubbling, take off the heat and pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer, using a spatula to scrape all the brown bits into the bowl. Allow to cool while making the caramel.
- Make the caramel. To the same pan, over medium heat, add 1 cup of white sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter (or more, see Note), and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Allow to melt, stirring every 30 seconds or so until all of the ingredients have melted together. The mixture will look clumpy before it gets melted, don’t worry about that. Cook until the mixture is fully smooth and has an amber color, then immediately remove from heat and pour over the parchment paper on a flat surface, using your spatula to spread a little bit. Allow caramel to cool and harden while making the cookies.
- Make the cookies. Now that the butter is already in your stand mixer, add the brown sugar and white sugar to the same bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat together for about 3 minutes, until all the ingredients have combined. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and beat for another 2 minutes until the batter becomes fluffy.
- Turn the mixer off and raise the paddle attachment. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and 1 tsp of kosher salt to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Using the same spatula as before, first gently mix the dry ingredients together on top, then fold it all in together until the mixture is mostly uniform with some white flour still showing.
- By now, the caramel should be hardened. Using a knife, chop up the caramel into small pieces, about the size of the chocolate chips/chunks. The edges may be a little sharp so be cautious (but, I do use my hands to get some pieces smaller). Note that the more butter you have used in the caramel, the less sharp the crispy caramel pieces get. Once all chopped up, set aside a few tablespoons of the chopped crispy caramel to put on top of the cookies.
- Pour the rest of the caramel pieces into the cookie batter. Add the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate chunks into the batter too, and fold in to combine. At this point I will use the paddle attachment again for about 15 seconds until just combined, but you can use a spatula instead as well.
- Using a cookie scoop, roll the dough into balls and place on the sheet tray, I do 6-8 cookies per tray. On top of the cookie, place at least one shard of crispy caramel and one chunk of chopped chocolate per cookie, and a few more if you have.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the outer edges are golden and the center has not yet fully cooked through. Immediately sprinkle with flakey sea salt. The cookies will continue to cook as they rest on the sheet tray out of the oven. Allow to rest on the tray for about 15 minutes, then move to a cookie rack. Serve, or let cool completely.
So excited to try this! What brand chocolate chips and chocolate bar did you use?
Eight children gobbled this up in about five minutes. I will make this for the next potluck. Thank you so much!
loved these cookies and the recipe was so descriptive they were so easy to make!
The cookies are wonderful. Taste so good. Will definitely make them again. Thanks for sharing it!