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caramel, caramel recipe, chewy chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chip, Chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chip cookie dough, pecan clusters, salted caramel, salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars
If you don’t love salted caramel then you should check to see if you have a reflection in the mirror because you are most likely a soul-less vampire. Go look. I’ll wait here with some salted caramel.
And a wooden stake…just in case.
I saw these bars from heaven on Brown Eyed Baker’s blog. I thought I would use my Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie, Ever recipe and my own go-to salted caramel recipe. I ended up with left over chocolate chip cookie dough and a yacht load (bigger than a boat load) of left over salted caramel. I followed the original recipe and used a 9×9 baking dish, but I should’ve used a 13×9 pan instead. If you follow my recipe I would suggest you use a 13×9 pan, but still expect to have leftover caramel.
To make the caramel I assemble all of my ingredients ahead of time. When working with boiling caramel you must stir constantly so I like to have everything ready for when it’s “go-time”.
I set my thermometer to 232F which is thread stage. This temperature is a lot softer than if you were making chewy caramels, but I didn’t want the caramel layer to be too stiff. I’m still experimenting with sugar temperatures. I actually stopped cooking when it reached 227F and the caramel turned out to be a good consistency for the bars, but too soft to cut and wrap, or even make caramel pecan clusters. Keep reading to see what I did with the left over caramel.
Melt the butter on a medium heat setting.
Add the remaining ingredients, except for the Mexican vanilla. Stir on a medium heat until it begins to boil.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take photos while the caramel was boiling, or while adding the vanilla. WARNING: When you add the vanilla the caramel will bubble up so make sure your pan is deep enough to contain all of the caramel. Here it is after it reached 227F. ANOTHER WARNING (more of an advisory, really. Not sure if it needs to be in bold, anyways…): When pouring caramel out of a pot do NOT scrape the sides of the bowl, just let the last little bit drip out of the pot and then set it aside. If you agitate the caramel too much it will crystallize and/or become lumpy. I wanted it to stay warm so I could pour it on the cookie layer so I left it in the glass pot on the counter.
Make your chocolate chip cookie dough. I used my Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Ever recipe but did not let it chill overnight. If you have time I would recommend letting it chill for 24 hours. Press into a greased pan (9×9 if you follow the Brown Eyed Baker recipe, 13×9 if you follow mine).
Pour the caramel onto the first layer of the dough and cover the caramel with make-shift sheets of more dough. I got so excited I forgot to take a picture of the caramel layer before I added the top layer of cookie dough. It looked glorious. Sorry.
Here’s a side shot to kinda make it up to you. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 325F, or until it’s nicely browned on the top and sides.
After making it in the smaller dish I realized I had a lot of left over dough and caramel. I put a thin layer of caramel on some parchment paper and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up. I took some of the remaining cookie dough and lined the inside of some non-stick mini muffin tins. Then I rolled the caramel into balls and dropped them into the center of the dough cups. I topped each off with a little sprinkle of sea salt and baked in the over at 350F for 10 minutes.
Fresh out of the oven. Looking like a square glass of sin.
If dessert were porn, then this would be the money shot.
Here are a few of my treats created with the leftover caramel. Along with the bars and little cookie bites, I also made some chocolate covered caramels with one of my candy molds, some pecan caramel clusters (should be refrigerated to keep caramel from spreading), and regular chocolate chip cookies (in case I grew tired of the caramel – HA!). After all of this I still had a lot of leftover caramel. I put it in the fridge overnight and then cut it and wrapped it using caramel wrappers. It was still pretty soft even after being in the fridge over night, so I put it in a Zip-lock bag and threw it in the freezer. Salted Freezer Caramels…it’s a hip new type of caramel. Trust me. I’m pretty hip.
Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Recipe inspired by Brown Eyed Baker
Yield: 16 cookie bars
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square pan (or 13×9 pan if you want to use up more dough and caramel); set aside.
- Make chocolate chip cookie dough (recipe)
- Make salted caramel (recipe below)
- Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Pour the hot caramel over the dough cookie dough and spread into an even layer, leaving some empty space around the edges. Sprinkle the caramel with the sea salt. Make “sheets” of dough and place over the top of the caramel, sealing all edges.
- Bake the cookie bars for 30 minutes, or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool the bars on a wire rack to room temperature, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the caramel layer to set. Cut into squares and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Salted Caramel Recipe
Adapted from Chef Keem’s Espresso Sea Salt Caramels
Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ozs.)
16 ozs. brown sugar (2 1/3 cups)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can “Dulce de Leche”
1 Tablespoon Mexican Vanilla
Instructions
1. Over medium heat, melt 2 sticks of butter in a 2-qt. sauce pan with a heavy bottom. Cheap pans tend to burn the sugar.
2. Add brown sugar, Sea Salt, light corn syrup, Dulce de Leche; bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.
3. Insert the candy thermometer. Keep stirring and cook to 227 degrees F.
4. Take the pot off the heat and add 1 Tablespoon of Mexican Vanilla. Stir to combine well.
5. Pour a layer of warm caramel over the cookie dough until it reaches about 1/4″ thickness…or thicker if you really love caramel.
These bars are to die for! Yummy, double and triple yum! And I love your candy thermometer, so easy to read, gonna have to find one of those. Great choices for the award!
Thanks Joan! I’ve discovered that the food blogging community is very supportive, super friendly and always willing to answer questions and provide advice. I’m so happy I started doing this, and even happier that there are people out there who are willing to listen!
Thank you so much for the award – and to have it attached to THIS recipe makes me a happy lady. You are so right – if you don’t like salted caramel, something is seriously wrong…
You’re welcome! You were one of my first supporters, so thank you for being a wonderful blogger friend and mentor! 🙂
mm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any helpful hints for inexperienced blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.
Sorry I didn’t reply sooner! Your post was stuck in my spam folder! Thanks so much for the kind words 🙂 I’m a new blogger too so I don’t know how much help I can be. I would say to be sure to get set up on Facebook and other social media sites as that helps with promoting your content. Otherwise, good recipes, fun stories and nice photos are always popular!
I think you sent this reply to me instead of someone else! This is definately a newbie mistake that I would make, I may be having a negative effect on your computer skills .
I think maybe you should send Carolyn a “photo shoot” sample of these…..Alex and I will take care of the leftovers!
That’s a good idea 🙂 I say you pressure Carolyn into taking a break from snapping pictures and making a batch of these for you instead!
This is cruel and unusual punishment! You should be hand delivering these.
Ha! Sorry I don’t live closer Donna!
I am with Donna, I believe in Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars delivery service! Congratulations on winning the Versatile Blogger award, your blog is wonderful! Nettie
Thanks Nettie! And thanks for stopping by!
You are so welcome!!
Nettie
The caramel goodies look obscene (in the best way possible, of course!), and I loved the Boo-urns 😉
Loved this recipe and will definitely be making it again! Just a few comments: The instructions on the salted carmel says to cool the carmel, but the blog post discusses how you poured the hot carmel on top of the cookie dough. In my confusion I cooled mine and I had to stretch it out over the dough and I think it would have bubbled more if I had poured it on hot. Second, I felt the cookie dough recipe was barely enough for the 13 X 9 pan (it worked but there was way more carmel than cookie and I had some empty patches). May be good to make 1.5 of that recipe. Last, where do you find dulce de leche? I couldn’t find it and had to make my own. Wasn’t a huge deal but I hadn’t done that before so it was a little challenging. Thank you for this – I will be keeping this in my go to recipe catalogue!
So happy to hear the recipe was a success! Sorry about the lack of cookie dough! You will have a TON of left over caramel using the recipe I provided. I just used the caramel to make other items, but you could cut the recipe in half and have some left over, but not as much. For the Dulce de Leche, I found that in the grocery store in the ethnic food section. It’s made by Nestles…here is a link to purchase it online http://www.thelatinproducts.com/la-lechera-nestle-dulce-de-leche-13-4-oz/?gclid=CJj3_ZO84bICFYs7MgodAW8A7Q#back, Thanks so much for your feedback!
Thanks for the recipee..looks so good — I am drooling!!! Thank goodness I can’t smell them or I would be running out the door to the grocery store in my pjs. I would like to make these delectable cookies for our school picnic this Sunday, however I do not feel comfortable making my own carmel. Is there another option…can I buy carmels and melt them or maybe just place them on top of the cookie layer?? I don’t have a thermometer and time is tight this weekend so if there is an easier way, that would be great!!! Thanks again superstar!!
Hey Allison! Thanks so much for the sweet words! Yes, you can totally just buy a bag of wrapped caramels (or the little caramel bits ( http://www.kraftbrands.com/caramels/products/default.aspx) and melt them in the microwave with a little bit of heavy whipping cream. I would microwave for 30 seconds, stir and then continue in 15 second increments until completely smooth. Good luck and be prepare to share the recipe or make more after everyone tastes them! 🙂
Can I make these without making my own caramel? I was thinking of just using the caramel candy squares that come individually wrapped and melting them down. Thoughts?
Yes! Just melt them with a little heavy whipping cream or milk until you reach the desired consistency.
You can boil a can of sweetened condensed milk for about 3 hours and it makes fantastic carmel. That is how we made our carmel for our turtles with the pecans.
Yes! That works too! Or you can buy the Nestle Dulce de Leche La Lechera stuff at the store, which is basically caramelized sweetened and condensed milk, so you don’t have to do the crock pot thing.
I have made these twice now and we think they are delicious. I used a 13×9 pan. I cheated and used melted caramel and cream for the middle because I haven’t had success with homemade caramel. However, I used your cookie recipe and directions and they turned out fantastic both times. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome! Thanks for posting your results. The caramels and cream method is so much easier and a 13×9 is always better than an 8×8 since you have more dessert to share (or not share)!
This is one of the best things I have ever ate. Thank you so much. I brought it to work and it disappeared!
Thanks so much Vicky! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed them and so did your co-workers! Caramel and chocolate chips are one of the best combos out there!
they look amazing!
Thanks!
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