These easy salted caramel-stuffed chocolate cookies are soft and chewy filled with melty caramel on the inside. The homemade caramel candy is a soft caramel that you cook to the point that it sets into a chewy salted caramel candy pieces. The recipe yields 12 large chocolate-caramel cookies, but you can scale the size to make more if you like.
Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for these caramel-stuffed chocolate cookies! These came about as a bit of an accident - I had some homemade caramel leftover from making my caramel brownies, and so I made the dough from my super easy chocolate cookies, and stuffed a piece of the homemade salted caramel inside.
Let me tell you now, this was a very, very good decision. These bake up into soft-baked chocolate cookies, filled with soft and melty caramel on the inside. The recipe makes 12 large chocolate caramel cookies, but you can scale the size back to make more if you like.
How to make Caramel-Stuffed Cookies
These chocolate caramel cookies are super easy to make - there are a few steps, but the workload can be broken up easily.
- Make the caramel. This is a soft caramel, that you cook to the point that it sets into a chewy salted caramel candy. The caramel needs to chill so that it is ready to slice into pieces - it needs at least an hour to chill down, but can be done up to a few days in advance.
- Make the chocolate cookie dough. I usually use my stand mixer for this, but you can also just do it by hand with an electric handheld mixture. It is a super easy cocoa based cookie dough - simply cream the butter and sugar together, add in the egg and dry ingredients and you are good to go.
- Fill the cookies. If you don't want to fill all of them that is fine too - my husband doesn't like caramel much (I know, what on earth!?), so I often leave him a few empty. Once you have shaped the cookie dough, roll them in granulated sugar.
- Bake the cookies. It will feel a bit weird sticking a whole ball of cookie dough into the oven but I promise that they melt down nicely in the oven and you end up with soft, chewy, caramel filled cookies.
How to assemble chocolate caramel cookies
Basically, to assemble these cookies, you are enclosing the chunk of caramel in the cookie dough. Here is how I do it:
- Scoop out the dough. I work with 6 cookies worth at a time, but if your oven can handle two trays of cookies at once you can do this across two half baking sheets. Scoop out the dough using a #24 cookie scoop, or weigh out 75g balls.
- Flatten the dough. Work with one piece of dough at a time. Flatten it slightly, then press the piece of caramel into the middle.
- Enclose the caramel. Squish the cookie dough back up around the piece of caramel, ensuring that it is covering it completely and there aren't any pieces poking out.
- Shape the dough ball. Shape the dough ball back into a round ish shape (it is ok if it is a little oval shaped to make sure that the dough is surrounding the caramel piece
- Roll in sugar. I love rolling my cookies in granulated sugar to give an amazing sparkly finish to them.
Can I use store bought caramels in this recipe?
I haven't tried making these with anything other than the homemade caramels sorry! I assume that they would work stuffed with store bought caramel but I haven't tried it.
If you do decide to try, use the soft squares of caramel - a hard caramel will not work.
Bakery Style Chocolate Cookies
These chocolate caramel cookies are large and in charge - my regular chocolate cookie recipe makes about 20 cookies (using a size #40 scoop), and this recipe makes 12 larger cookies.
I have not tried to scale the recipe back to make smaller cookies but I am sure that it will work - you will need to cut down the size of the caramel to ensure that it all fits inside the dough ball and has enough coverage around the outside.
Make sure that if you scale the recipe back you also drop back the baking time to ensure that you do not have a dry cookie. If you can, make them the same size as written in the recipe, as it gives you a super soft gooey middle and a nice caramel centre.
How do you store caramel-stuffed cookies?
Store these cookies once baked in an airtight container. I prefer to store them at room temperature so that the caramel is soft, but if you prefer it to be firmer then you can also pop them into the fridge. They should keep for 3-4 days.
If you want to re-warm the cookies before serving to melt the caramel slightly, you can do this in the microwave. They will be amazing with a scoop of ice cream on top to go with the melty caramel!
Can the cookie dough be frozen?
I haven't tried baking these from frozen but I know that it works with my chocolate cookie recipe so it *should* work ok - I will give it a try and get back to you!
For all my tips and tricks on freezing dough, check out my post: How to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools and equipment do you use?
You can find a full list of the tools and equipment I use on my products page
What size cookie scoop did you use?
I used a #24 cookie scoop, which holds 2 ½ Tbsp. Alternatively you can measure out the dough into 75g balls. If you want to scale them down (these are large cookies), you will need to change the size of the caramel piece you put in the middle, and reduce the baking time slightly.
For more homemade cookie recipes, check out:
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Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
Easy Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These easy salted caramel-stuffed chocolate cookies are soft and chewy filled with melty caramel on the inside. The homemade salted caramel is a soft caramel that you cook to the point that it sets into a chewy salted caramel candy pieces. The recipe yields 12 large chocolate-caramel cookies, but you can scale the size to make more if you like.
Ingredients
Salted Caramel
- One batch of homemade caramels, set in the pan for at least 2 hours
Chocolate Cookie Dough
- 300g all-purpose flour
- 50g dutch process cocoa powder, sifted (I used half black cocoa and half Dutch process to give the super dark colour)
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 200g brown sugar
- 100g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg (50g not including the shell), at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- Granulated Sugar for Rolling
Instructions
SALTED CARAMELS
- Make the caramel as directed in the homemade caramel recipe
- Remove the caramel from the pan using the parchment paper sling. Using a sharp knife, cut into a 5x5 grid, to give you approximately 4cm squares of caramel. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until you are ready to use. Store leftover caramels in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
CHOCOLATE COOKIE DOUGH
- Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add the flour and cocoa mixture, and beat on low until just incorporated.
- Using a #24 cookie scoop, scoop balls about 3 Tbsp in size (about 75g). I do 6 per sheet - these are large cookies and I prefer to bake them one sheet at a time, but if your oven can handle it, you can bake two trays at once.
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it into a ball, then flatten slightly with your hands. Press a square of caramel onto the dough, and carefully mould the dough around the caramel to fully enclose it. You will end up with a slightly flattened ball of dough.
- Repeat with the remaining balls of dough.
- Roll all the balls of dough generously in granulated sugar, then arrange on the prepared baking pan, leaving adequate spacing between each.
- Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes, until the edges and tops are set. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat the baking process with the remainder of the dough.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
I use golden syrup in the caramel. It acts as in invert sugar to help the caramel stay smooth. If you don't have access to it, you can use honey or light corn syrup instead
You will have leftover caramel - the recipe doesn't use a full batch. This is delicious eaten just as is. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
If you only have salted butter that is fine, just reduce or omit the salt in the cookie dough recipe.
Comments
Janessa says
I wish I could give this recipe 15 stars!! Soooo delicious. I also went rogue and made your snickerdoodles to surround the other half of the caramel pieces, and hoooooly cow. Those spread a bit too much but I think it’s because it’s really hot in my kitchen and the butter was too soft. But holy. Cow. Your recipes are impeccable, as always!!
stacy says
so amazing!
Caribou says
The best combo! I love that there's extra caramel to snack on 🙂
Joanna Lyons says
Wow - these are FANTASTIC! The caramel on the inside is such a nice surprise and the chocolate cookie is delightfully chocolatey! I want to make these again and again and again.
Cara says
Great cookie and easy to make. I think next time I may put a little bit of salt in with the caramel before closing up the cookie and see if that amplifies the caramel flavor a bit.
Erin Clarkson says
Perfect! You could also up the salt in the caramel recipe too 🙂
Belinda says
These are so great. Turned out so professional looking! I made smaller ones, and added a dollop of chilled peanut butter to some for a snickers style. So pleased with these, reminded me of Moustache Cookies 🥳
Amber says
I made these as per the recipe, but slightly smaller is size. 50g dough per cookie, plus a caramel square of about 3x3cm. Still baked for 13 mins. They turned out perfectly, looked exactly as pictured and taste wonderful.
Cutting the caramel did make me realise my “sharp” knife wasn’t really sharp though! Think of this as a PSA to sharpen your knives.
Tomma Marcincuk says
This is the best chocolate cookie I’ve ever made! So delicious!
Kelly Monohan says
Hello! Love your recipes! Did you try and freeze these yet? I am going to make these to add to Christmas trays and would like to make them ahead 😊
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! I have some in my freezer I think i'll dig them out and bake them!
Kelly says
Hope they are just as yummy!
Vanessa says
I made these for the holidays and they were perfection. So chocolatey and the caramel turned out perfectly (after only 1 failed attempt - new candy thermometer!).
I made about 24 cookies with smaller sized dough balls and smaller sized caramels. I had lots of leftover caramel to individually wrap in wax paper and give out along with the cookies.
Michelle says
These are amazing. Originally I was just making the caramel squares recipe that Erin has in another post but I was distracted and messed that up so my caramel never set. I remembered seeing these cookies on her instagram and decided it was worth a try to use up the very, very soft caramel. It worked sooo well. These cookies were an absolute hit, I will definitely be making more.
Julie S says
Made these for a curling club event. Used some leftover homemade beer caramels and halved the size to get more. They were a HUGE hit. I have been asked to make them for our next big Bonspiel. Thank you for such an easy delight.
Lily Tafoya says
What if the Carmel sets in the cookies so it makes the cookies hard what should I do??
Erin Clarkson says
It shouldn't - did you cook it too much when you were making it?
Lily says
I don’t know but the next day the cookies were soft but the Carmel was a little hard do you have any tips to make sure it doesn’t
Erin Clarkson says
Yes it sets up to be chewy. You can always rewarm them if you need which will soften the caramel. Make sure that you don't over cook the caramel - if you cook it to be too warm then it may set up too hard.
Lily says
Ok thank you I think I finally get it
Kimberly Yuzon says
Wow. These are legit a hit! My sons say these are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I used sweetened condensed milk caramel and piped it out of a bag. I brought these to a party and they were a definite highlight. I’ve had requests for more now.
Thank you for this recipe.
George Hautler says
Easy to follow step by step instructions absolutely delicious
Hannah Webb says
Great cookies! I ended up doing 35 grams of dough per cookie, 2x2 cm squares of caramel, and baking them for 10 minutes. Turned out perfectly! I think my oven might be a bit cool because the caramel made little bumps on top of the cookies. But if you push the sheet further into the oven and gently press the top down after they come out of the oven that fixes it! It made 27 smaller cookies.
Belinda says
These are yum. I make some with chilled peanut butter and chopped peanuts on top. The dough isn't overly sweet, which goes well with the caramel