These Salted Caramel Cookies are a match in caramel + flaky sea salt + white chocolate chip Heaven. Not only do they taste amazing, but the recipe is incredibly easy (no need to soften butter or use a stand mixer).
My girls head back to school tomorrow and I’ve been trying to think up what first-day treats I should send with them for their teachers and their lunchbox. We’ve been obsessed with these Salted Caramel Blondies ever since I first made them a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to make (and eat) a whole big batch so I decided to make them into cookie form!
Small Batch Salted Caramel Cookies
My favorite things about that blondie recipe are that 1) I don’t have to bust out my stand mixer and 2) I don’t have to remember to soften my butter. (The worst!) With those goals in mind, I created a small batch Salted Caramel Cookie recipe that makes between 6-12 cookies. I use a 1.5in cookie scoop and make eight average-sized cookies.
White Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookies
Stay with me. Don’t read “white chocolate” and immediately click away because you think you don’t like it. First of all, I’m also not a fan of white chocolate either. Least favorite of all the chocolates for sure, but when combined with the creamy caramel and flaky sea salt magic happens!
If you just can’t do it, feel free to sub in semi-sweet chocolate instead.
How to Make Salted Caramel Cookies
There’s several different techniques when it comes to making Salted Caramel Cookies. Some like to add the caramel bits into the batter. Some half a soft caramel and stick it in the center of the dough. Some wait until after the cookies have been baked to drizzle it on.
Again, my goal here was SIMPLICITY. I didn’t want to be waiting around to drizzle the caramel on after they finished baking. (That method also makes them less stacking friendly for gifting.) I wanted it all done and in the oven as soon as possible, so I added my caramel to the cookie dough prior to baking.
The result was a delicious and easy small batch Salted Caramel Cookies recipe: chewy with crispy edges, soft and creamy caramel throughout, and full of white chocolate chip perfection.
Doubling this Recipe
I know somebody will ask so let me go ahead and answer: Can I double this recipe?
Can you? Yes. Would I? No.
This recipe has been paired down purposefully to be a small batch recipe.
I make this recipe (with chocolate chips & without caramel) all.the.time after the kids go to bed because I can make it quietly (no mixer), only dirty one bowl (winning), and not be up all night, missing out on watching Netflix with my husband, while waiting for 4 dozen cookies to bake.
In all honesty, if you wanted a large batch of Salted Caramel Cookies (36-48 cookies) then I would just take my favorite chocolate chip recipe, swap in white chocolate chips, and drizzle those with caramel and top with flaky sea salt.
Obviously, I can’t guarantee your success with that because it will fully depend on what base cookie recipe you use. Happy baking!!
Salted Caramel Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- 6 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup caramel bits (or 6 unwrapped caramels)
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- In a small bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together.
- Add the vanilla and egg yolk. Whisk until smooth and creamy.
- Sprinkle the flour, baking soda, and salt over the wet ingredients, and stir until just mixed.
- Fold in the white chocolate chips. Set aside.
- Add the caramel bits and heavy cream to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave at 50% power in 30 second increments, stirring after each time, until smooth and fully combined. Allow the caramel mixture to cool slightly- not so much that it becomes thick and hard, but you don't want it piping hot either.
- Scoop the dough into 8-12 portions depending on how many cookies you want. They will spread some- so leave at least 1-2 inches between each scoop of dough.
- Use a spoon to drizzle caramel over each ball of cookie dough. (Note: You will have caramel leftover. You just want a thin drizzle on each ball of dough, don't try to coat the entire surface. See image above.)
- Bake for 12-15 minutes. Do NOT overbake. They may look doughy on the inside- but they will continue to bake while they cool.
- Immediately top with flaky sea salt after removing from the oven.
- Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
More Lunchbox + Teacher Friendly Cookie Recipes:
Rob says
This is the worst recipe ever. each cookie turns to liquid, and spreads about 8 inches wide while cooking. They are 2 millimeters thick, you can not transfer them to a backing rack. I made 6 cookies on a 14×12 sheet and they rain into each other and off the edge of the sheet. unfortunately canty give 0 stars
Emily Grace says
Haha! Well, at least you’ve found “the worst” and will only have successes from here on out- congrats! Jokes aside, you chose to make six cookies instead of eight as the recipe was written. That means you should have also adjusted the cooking time AND the amount of caramel you put on each cookie. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing what your issue was- my guess would be that you used too much caramel per cookie or that the caramel was too hot- but I make these cookies all the time with great success. I hope you will try them again as written. Hope that helps!