Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Wholefully

This might be the most ridiculous cookie I’ve ever made. I know there are a lot of really serious cookie recipes floating around on the internet. They’re stuffed with this and topped with that, but I’ve always tended to keep my cookie baking to the classics. Chocolate chip cookies. Shortbread cookies. Thumbprint cookies. Simple. Delicious. Classics. Um…until now. Because I made dark chocolate brownie cookies, and then, like that wasn’t enough, I stuffed them with ooey, gooey caramels and topped the whole thing with a generous dusting of sea salt.

These cookies are my Christmas gift to you.

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

The dark chocolate brownie cookies on their own are pretty spectacular. As you can see from the photos, they have that chewy, craggy, cracked edge thing going on that makes brownies so awesome (and the reason why brownie edge pans exist). And then they are fudgy, soft and intensely chocolately on the inside. You could just make the brownie cookie part of these and make a darn good cookie.

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I like that the caramel in these is a total surprise. Looking at the outside of these cookies, you’d probably never guess there was a pocket of caramel-y goodness waiting for you inside.

Depending on the softness of caramels you use (I used Trader Joe’s sea salt caramels), these cookies will be nice and gooey even at room temperature, but for optimal decadence, I recommend heating them up just a touch before eating. Five or ten seconds in the microwave does wonders.

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I’ll be the first to admit that this batter is a bit…strange to work with. When you’re mixing it up, you’re going to look back at the recipe a good dozen times and think, “Now, that just can’t be right.” But it is!

When you first mix up the batter, it’s going to be super thin and liquidyโ€”think cake batter. Something you’d never be able to form into a cookie shape, let alone smoosh around a caramel. But as the batter rests and chills in the fridge, it thickens up something fierce, and ends up turning into the consistency of fudge. It’s still a touch sticky to deal with, but with damp hands, you can make it work. And a little bit of cookie dough on your hands is totally worth it for these intensely chocolate cookies.

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I’ve talked in previous cookie posts about the importance of watching your cookies like a hawk while they’re in the oven to make sure they end up soft and chewy, and that’s even more important with dark-colored cookies like these. It’s almost impossible to tell when these start to brown at all, so you’re really testing doneness based on texture and jiggle. You want to pull these when the tops just begin to crack and crinkle, but they still feel very liquidy.

No worries, even though they feel that way, these cookies aren’t raw in the middle. That’s just the caramel that has turned to liquidโ€”it’ll solidify back up as the cookie cools. Because of all that liquid deliciousness in the middle of these cookies, they are pretty fragile when hot, so I recommend letting them cool almost completely on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack to finish the job. If you do it too early, you’ll leave half of your caramel center on your cookie sheet. Sad panda.

Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Additional Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 13 minutes

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies are rich, decadent, chewy chocolate cookies stuffed with an ooey gooey caramel. Yum!

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pound semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3 dozen soft-style caramels
  • Coarse sea salt

Instructions

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add in the eggs, salt, and vanilla extract and beat on medium until smooth and light yellow. Add in the flour and baking powder, and continue to mix until just combined.
  2. Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on high for two minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until the chips are completely melted.
  3. With the mixer running at low speed, pour the melted chocolate into the cookie batter. Once all the chocolate is in, increase the mixer to medium-high and beat for one minute. The mixture will appear liquidy and thin (like cake batter) at first, but will solidify as the chocolate cools.
  4. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap, and chill dough in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 350°. Roll the dough into a one-inch ball, then flatten. Place a caramel on top, and then place another flattened, one-inch ball on top, sandwiching the pieces together and crimping the edges to seal in the caramel. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and caramels.
  6. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the cookies begin to look cooked around the edges, and cracked on the top—but still liquidy in the middle.
  7. Remove from oven, and sprinkle immediately with sea salt. Let cookies cool almost completely on the baking sheet, about 15 minutes, before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 36 Serving Size: 1 cookie
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 132Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 80mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 1gSugar: 17gProtein: 2g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

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21 Comments

  1. I want to try these because I LOVE salted caramel but I am confused, it says roll into one inch balls and then flatten. It doesn’t seem like that would be big enough to put a caramel on and then sandwich, how big in diameter should they be when they are flat? Do they end up to be “regular” cookie size or smaller?

  2. I just made these and was at first disappointed because they were soooo sticky! My hands seemed too warm for rolling and flattening. I actually only made two cookies at first because it was a little tedious and I didn’t want to waste my time on a pan if they weren’t going to turn out. I pulled them out of the oven and they looked just like the pictures above! I rolled out a complete pan and had to cook them a little longer, but they too turned out perfectly chewy on the outside and cracked on top! I’ll probably reserve these for special occasions, but they’re great! Hang in there people!

  3. Tried these cookies and was super disappointed since I made them for guests. They were super difficult to shape since they kept melting in my hand and after baking a batch and letting it cool the cookies would not come off the baking sheet and just turned into a pile of mush.

  4. I am an experienced baker and have made many cookies over the years. These did not set up at all…ended up very runny and a mess. Too many expensive ingredients for ruined i

  5. Hey I tried this recipe. Instead of using chocolate chips I used cooking chocolate. I made half the batch cause it was a trial. So instead of half a pound of chips which is roughy 240 gms chips I used 200 gms chocolate compound. I think that was way too much chocolate as when I tried to shape it all the dough (chilled for almost an hour) was coming off on my palms. I tried greasing my palms too. That’s when I felt there is something off so just tried baking 3-4 cookies and as expected the chocolate melted away and got burnt. Then I tried incorporating more flour to the dough but the result was the same. I’m guessing there is some different calculation for using cooking chocolate/chocolate compound in place of chips? Please help ๐Ÿ™

  6. I have everything ready to make these, but I have one question. It’s probably a very silly question to some but it’s driving me crazy. I’m nervous that the caramels I have are too big for the cookies and it wont work out. Since I don’t have a Trader Joe’s around here I picked up Kraft brand traditional caramels that are a little smaller than 1 inch cubes. Are the ones you used similar in size? We are so excited to try these!!!