Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

5 from 1 vote

Chocolate chip cookie bars with a layer of salted caramel sauce in the middle.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Total Time50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: bars

Calories: 352kcal

2 1/8 cups (255 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup (213 g ) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (99 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg room temperature
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup salted caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9 square pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Divide the cookie dough in half. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough. Sprinkle caramel with sea salt. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel and spread dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.
Bake 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 bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.

Be sure to measure your flour correctly. Overmeasuring can result in a cakey texture instead of the perfect chewiness that we are going for. You can get the full tutorial on how to measure your flour here.
Room temperature matters. Make sure your ingredients are room temperature, like your eggs. To bring your eggs to room temperature quickly place them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.
Use unsalted butter. Different brands will add varying amounts of salt in their salted butter so it can hard to control how much salt to add to the recipe. So go with unsalted butter!
Watch that butter temperature. Use room temperature softened butter. If your butter is too soft or too cold it can affect the texture. You should be able to make a dent in the butter but it should have some resistance still
Do not overbake. They may appear not done at this time, but taking them out during that time, ensures you won’t overbake them!
Use a plastic knife. Once they have cooled and set up, use a plastic knife to cut them. Plastic won’t heat up and will cut them neatly.
Making your own caramel sauce: You can always make your own salted caramel sauce if you want!
Adapted from Two Peas and their Pod