About this Recipe
These salted caramel chocolate chip cookies start with a soft, buttery chocolate chip cookie base that bakes up golden and chewy. After baking, the cookies are finished with a generous drizzle of rich caramel and topped with crunchy broken pretzels. The pretzels add a salty crunch that balances the sweetness of the caramel and chocolate, giving each bite a perfect mix of textures and flavors. Sweet, salty, soft, and crispy — together in one indulgent cookie that feels both classic and warning: HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!
Key Ingredients
Butter – The foundation of these cookies, adding rich flavor and creating a soft, tender texture with slightly crisp edges once baked.
Quality chocolate chips – High-quality chocolate chips matter! Not only do they melt seamlessly into gooey pockets throughout the cookies– but they also give a deep chocolate flavor that balances the sweetness of the dough and caramel.
Homemade caramel sauce – A drizzle of homemade caramel sauce adds a buttery, slightly chewy sweetness on top, elevating the cookies with a rich, bakery-style finish.
Flour – Provides structure, helping the cookies hold their shape while still staying soft in the center.
Cornstarch – Keeps the cookies extra tender by softening the crumb and contributing to that melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Baking soda – Gives the cookies their lift and helps them spread just enough while baking, creating the perfect chewy consistency.
Brown and granulated sugar – A combination of brown and white sugar creates balance—brown sugar adds moisture and caramel-like depth, while granulated sugar helps with structure and a slightly crisp edge.
FAQ’s
Helpful tips
Here are some important Pro tips by Maude
- When measuring your flour, be sure not to scoop your measuring cup into the flour (that is too much flour!) You want to spoon your flour into your measuring cup (spoonful by spoonful) until the cup is full. Then use a knife to scrape off the top, excess flour. This tip will ensure that you are not using too much flour in your recipes.
- Chilling cookie dough is a sure way to improve the flavor of your cookies! The chilling process allows the flour to moisten and the sugars and butter to get acquainted… which creates an almost butterscotch/caramel-like flavor to your cookies! It is heavenly! Try not to skip this step!
- Chilling cookie dough is a sure way to improve the flavor of your cookies! The chilling process allows the flour to moisten and the sugars and butter to get acquainted… which creates an almost butterscotch/caramel-like flavor to your cookies! It is heavenly! Try not to skip this step!
- When baking your cookies, try not to crowd your pan as your cookies will spread. For this recipe, I usually bake 3 cookies at a time.
- I often bake ugly looking cookies (LOL). To avoid ugly cookies, and to create uniformed cookies, I take a cup or cookie cutter and place it over each cookie- give it a nice swirl, which helps the cookie return to a circular shape. Its a bomb technique, and no skill required!
More Recipes!
Here are some more bar recipes you might enjoy!
Crumbl Copycat Cornbread Cookies
Salted Caramel Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
If you try this recipe, I would love your feedback! Please leave a star rating, a comment below or on the reel in Instagram! Also please share what you made and tag @eatmaudes !! Thank you so much for stopping by and making yumminess with me!
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temp
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 10-12 chopped salted pretzels
- salted caramel sauce
Instructions
Enable Step-by-Step Mode- Place melted butter and sugars in a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, mix until everything is well combined (Don't overmix).
- Add eggs and vanilla. Mix on low speed until combined.
- Sift all dry ingredients into a medium bowl (wait on the chocolate chips). Give the dry mix a good whisk or two so everything is combined. Add all ingredients to your butter and sugar mixture. Mix and fold gently until the dry ingredients are barely combined. Add chocolate chips. Fold everything gently.
- At this point, I like to cover and chill my dough for 24 hrs. You can also bake right away. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375.
- Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop dough into about 8 large cookies or 16 smaller cookies. Place 4-6 (depending on size) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 10-12 minutes (if baking larger cookies, bake time could increase to ~14 minutes), or when edges are browning and tops look puffed up but still underdone. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
- Drizzle homemade, room temperature salted caramel sauce over each cookie and sprinkle chopped pretzels. Enjoy warm or at room temperature! Cookies can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days.
- *Pro tip: You can reheat your cookies at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. This gives your cookies that fresh baked taste again!