These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookies are soft and chewy on the inside, packed with old-fashioned oats, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and caramel bits, with a light golden brown crispy outer shell topped with flaky sea salt. They're the perfect sweet and salty treat!
Table of Contents
What Ingredients Are Needed?
- All-Purpose Flour. You can sub out the all-purpose flour and do half all-purpose flour, half almond flour or use all almond flour. Using all almond flour will make your cookies spread out a lot. Just fyi!
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda. Your common leavening agents that give the oatmeal cookies a bit of height and help them spread too.
- Unsalted Butter. One cup may seem like a lot, but it helps to bring all of the ingredients together. It's best if the butter is at room temperature. You can use salted butter as a substitute if you don't plan to use flaky sea salt.
- Granulated Sugar and Light Brown Sugar. Added to give the cookies their shape, flavor, and their soft and chewy texture.
- Eggs. You'll need one large egg and one large egg yolk for these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
- Vanilla Extract. Helps to round out the flavors of the cookies. I went with one tablespoon because it just give the cookies so much more flavor.
- Old-Fashioned Oats. The oats give the cookies a nice, chewy texture. You can use quick oats, which will give you the same flavor, but they may end up mushier because the quick oats can bake or cook faster.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. You can also use bars of semi-sweet chocolate broken into small pieces.
- Caramel Bits. I used Kraft's brand which I found at Walmart. They remind me of chickpeas. No, seriously they do.
- Malden Flaky Sea Salt. This is an optional ingredient, but one I highly recommend. It brings a nice bit of salt to the overall sweetness of the oatmeal chocolate caramel cookies.
Let's Make the Recipe!
Here is a brief overview of how to make these soft and chewy oatmeal chocolate chip salted caramel cookies. For the full recipe, see the recipe card below!
- Whisk the dry ingredients together. This includes all-purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Mix the wet ingredients. Start with the unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.
- Add the whisked dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. After this is well blended, add in the old-fashioned oats.
- Stir in the chocolate chips and caramel bits. I would avoid using a mixer for this part as the cookie dough will be pretty thick and may cause your dough to jump around.
- Scoop, place on the baking sheet, then bake! Bake for 12-14 minutes at 350ºF. Don't forget to top the cookies with some flaky sea salt!
- Cool then enjoy. The oatmeal chocolate chip salted caramel cookies will be super soft, so allow them to cool almost completely before you enjoy them.
To store the cookies, keep them in a well-sealed container with a slice of bread to prevent them from getting dry and crumbly.
Helpful Tools for Baking Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies FAQs
I used old-fashioned oats from Quaker Oats which will give you a nice, chewy texture with your oatmeal chocolate chip salted caramel cookies. By using quick oats, you'll get the same flavor, but your cookies may end up mushier because the quick oats can bake or cook faster. Personally, I have always used old-fashioned oats when making oatmeal cookies, but when it comes down to it, it's really just a matter of preference.
You can use any size cookie scoop for these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I've used a 1 ½ tablespoon size cookie scoop, a 2 tablespoon size, and a 3 tablespoon size.
I recommend 2-3 inches between each cookie. Any substitutions you make to the flour (using almond flour for example) will cause the cookies to spread, so you want to give the cookies a little space.
A round cookie cutter! I use this stainless steel set from Ateco which I use for all different size cookies. They also come in handy if you don't have a donut cutter to make homemade donuts.
Check Out More Yummy Cookie Recipes from Beyond the Butter!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookies
Author:Ingredients
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- ¾ cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 Large Egg Yolk
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ cups Old-Fashioned Oats
- 1 ½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 ½ cups Caramel Bits
- Flaky Sea Salt (optional)
Instructions
- Adjust your oven rack to the 2nd level position (just above center) and preheat your oven to 350ºF. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.2 cups All-Purpose Flour, 1 teaspoon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- Using your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar until it's well blended and creamy.1 cup Unsalted Butter, ½ cup Granulated Sugar, ¾ cup Light Brown Sugar
- Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.1 Large Egg, 1 Large Egg Yolk, 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- Switch the mixer speed to low and add in the whisked dry mixture. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
- Keeping the mixer speed on low, add in the old-fashioned oats. The cookie dough will be very thick and creamy at this stage.1 ½ cups Old-Fashioned Oats
- Stir in the semi-sweet chocolate chips and the caramel bits using a spatula until it is completely blended.1 ½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, 1 ½ cups Caramel Bits
- Using a cookie scoop (1 ½ - 3 tablespoon size will work fine), scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Because these will spread a little, I would suggest spacing these cookies at least 2-3 inches apart. Depending on the size of your cookie sheets too, you may only be able to get 4-6 cookies on there.
- Sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt and place in the oven. Bake for 12-14 minutes (mine baked well at 13 minutes).Flaky Sea Salt
- Remove from oven and top with some more chocolate chips (if desired). Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring (carefully) to a cooling rack.
- Keep cookies stored in an airtight container with a slice of bread to keep them soft for up to 1 week.
Recipe Notes
Substitutions
- Flour. You can use almond flour in place of the all-purpose flour (1:1 substitution) or half almond flour, half all-purpose flour, but the cookies will spread a lot more.
- Old Fashioned Oats. You can use quick oats in place of old-fashioned oats, but the cookies might come out mushier in texture.
- Butter. You can substitute the unsalted butter for salted butter if you don't plan to use the flaky sea salt topping.
- Chocolate. You can use chopped-up bars of semi-sweet chocolate in place of the chocolate chips.
Seema says
Hello Jennifer,
This recipe sounds so good, I plan to try it out today. I love the fact that you've put down the recipes for doubling the recipe and more - I haven't seen anyone else do that - thank you. Just wanted to ask if you can consider putting down ingredients by weight - would really help as cup sizes vary across the world. Will let you know how the cookies turn out. 🙂
Regards,
Seema
Jennifer says
Thank you Seema! I can't actually take credit for the 1x, 2x, and 3x recipe scaling that appears on my recipes. It is something new that was created for the recipe plugin I use for my site! I love it! Regarding your request, I'm so glad you brought that up. I've been wanting to start listing ingredients by weight because I understand not everyone makes a recipe using the U.S. measurements. I'll start to do this for my new recipes going forward and will work my way back through my existing recipes to get those weights added as well. Thanks!
Sweetscakesandbakes says
Love this recipe! I have probably made this over a dozen times. I usually make a double batch and just preroll them into balls and freeze them so I can bake them fresh any time I want. I just add 2 extra minutes to the bake time and they come out perfect! I love how chewy and soft it is on the inside but slightly crisp on the out side.
Jennifer says
Love that you make a double batch and freeze them! And perfect for adding 2 extra minutes to the bake time. So glad you love them! They're a big favorite in our house!
Erin K Williams says
These were fabulous! I followed the recipe exactly (almond flour) and was given great compliments. I wasn't able to find the Ghirardelli caramel chips (but did use the semi-sweet chocolate) but I was able to track down Hersey's caramel chips. Can't wait to make again.
Jennifer says
Hi Erin! Thank you for making these cookies! I'm so happy that you loved them! I'll have to look out for the Hershey's caramel chips next time I'm out. I didn't know they made them!
Sophia says
These gluten free cookies taste better than most store bought cookies. I will definitely be making these again. I left out the caramel chips and used dark chocolate but they were still a bit to sweet, so I would cut down a bit on the sugar next time.