This Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookies recipe gives you light, crispy edges that are soft and fudgy in the middle, with a rich chocolatey, caramel taste, and sea salt flakes lightly sprinkled on top! For a little extra sweetness, you can drizzle over the top some more caramel or dulce de leche. These are easy to make, require ZERO chilling before baking, and are absolutely perfect for anyone that loves cookies, chocolate, or a really good sweet and salty combo with their dessert!
Recipe updated and fresh new photos 4.5.2020
Table of Contents
Inside the Recipe
This double chocolate salted caramel cookie dough is adapted from my super soft chocolate chip cookies recipe, a cookie that's been pretty popular over on my Instagram feed and over on Pinterest.
With this recipe, I omitted the instant vanilla pudding and vegetable shortening, and added in unsalted butter, unsweetened cocoa powder, and salt. Then I swapped out the semi-sweet chocolate baking bar for the semi-sweet chocolate chips and caramel-flavored baking chips from Ghirardelli. You can still use the baking bar if you'd prefer though!
I made sure the unsalted butter was softened and creamed together well with the brown sugar and granulated sugar before adding in the eggs, vanilla extract, and dry ingredients. Then I folded in the chips using a spatula.
What's really nice about both this recipe and the chocolate chip cookie recipe is they don't require chilling before baking. That's a nice time saver right there!
As soon as I folded in the chips, I immediately scooped out the dough, using a 1 ½ tablespoon-size cookie scoop, and placed them about 1 ½ - 2 inch apart on my cookie sheets. I was able to get 3 rows of 4 cookies, yielding a total of 36 cookies. Given the size of your cookie sheets and spacing needed, you may not be able to fit the same amount.
What Ingredients are Needed?
To make these insanely delicious cookies you'll need the following ingredients:
- All-Purpose Flour
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Unsalted Butter - should be softened and at room temperature
- Granulated Sugar
- Light Brown Sugar
- Eggs - should be at room temperature
- Vanilla Extract
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Caramel Flavored Chips
- Sea Salt Flakes - for sprinkling over top of cookies
- Caramel Sauce or Dulce de Leche - for drizzling over the top. It's totally optional, but good Lord it makes the cookies even better tasting!
Quick Tips Before Starting
- The recommended baking time for this recipe is 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. Mine baked for the full 10 minutes.
- Cooling time for these double chocolate salted caramel cookies is not included in the prep or cook times shown.
- Ghirardelli makes a caramel chip and, thanks to a Beyond the Butter reader, I've learned that Hershey makes them as well! They can be a little tricky to find, so if you don't have them you can omit them or try another chip like butterscotch or peanut butter!
- Fold in your chocolate chips and caramel chips to prevent over mixing of the cookie dough. I do this with any add-ons like nuts or fried fruit too.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop out your cookies to get a more consistent shape and size each time! I used a 1 ½ tablespoon size cookie scoop.
- Instead of using a caramel sauce, you can easily use dulce de leche. I've made them with both and they equally taste excellent!
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to the wire cooling rack. They will be very soft, so be sure to use a spatula!
Give These Other Delicious Cookie Recipes to Try!
Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookies
Author:Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar, lightly packed
- 2 Large Eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ cups Semi-Sweet or Milk Chocolate Chips
- 1 cup Caramel Flavored Chips
- Sea Salt Flakes , for sprinkling over top of cookies
- Caramel Sauce or Dulce de Leche, optional, for drizzling over the top of cookies
Instructions
- Adjust your oven rack to the 2nd level mark (just above center), preheat the oven to 375ºF, then line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or you can use silicone baking mats.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Using your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and continue to mix together until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Switching the mixer speed to low, gradually add in your whisked dry ingredients until just combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips and caramel chips.
- Using a spoon or cookie scoop (I used the 1 ½ tablespoon size), drop dough by the spoonful leaving 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheets.
- Lightly sprinkle the tops of each cookie with the sea salt flakes.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF (mine baked for 10 minutes).
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Drizzle the tops of each cookies with a little caramel sauce or dulce de leche (optional).
- Keep stored in an airtight container for up to a week with a slice of bread.
Dee says
Jennifer!
Love your blog! such great recipes!!! I really have to try this recipe! Chocolate and Caramel is always a great idea!!!
Jennifer says
Thank you so much, Dee! I completely agree about chocolate and caramel! I hope you get a chance to make these!
Janna says
These were hands down the best double chocolate chip cookies I've ever made and tasted. I brought them to work and they were gone in no time. Everybody loved them! I had some leftover homemade caramel sauce in the fridge and used it to fill the cookies (as suggested by Jennifer when I asked for her opinion on Instagram), instead of using caramel chips. The caramel spilled over just a little bit while baking, and created a delicious caramel puddle in the middle of each cookie. I will definitely make these again VERY soon. Yum!!
Jennifer says
Yay Janna!! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out! I'm so happy you and your coworkers loved them!
Nola says
Though I see it is not necessary, would it be okay to refrigerate the dough overnight?
Jennifer says
Absolutely! I would just make sure to let it sit out at room temp for approx. 30-45 minutes before trying to scoop it onto the lined baking sheets.
Noemi says
Such an amazing recipe! These Cookies are so easy to make and so delicious!!! Thank you!
Jennifer says
I'm so glad you loved them Noemi!
Tanya says
This was a no-brainer---anything involving chocolate makes me happy! I didn't have the caramel chips so I just used more chocolate chips. I also used local, ground-just-for-me eikorn flour. So good! Oh, and I didn't have any brown sugar, I used minimally processed organic sugar for all of it. Can you tell I was determined to make these no matter what? They are soooo good and it is nearly impossible to eat only one in a sitting (okay, it is impossible, I always have at least two).
Sheila says
I tried this and am so pleased with the results! They spread beautifully and have a lovely chocolate smell and flavor. Many times I try a chocolate cookie recipe and it comes out nothing like the pictures or doesn't spread etc. This is the first time I can say these are as advertised. Thank you for sharing such a great recipe!
Jennifer says
I'm so glad you loved them Sheila, thank you!
Barbie says
Hi there, I am going to make this cookies, but before I do, I want to know if the caramel drizzle stays "wet" , I would like to stack them. If so, can you suggest a drizzle that hardens? thanks.