Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Did you know that Kraft makes Caramel Bits? Where have these been all my life? As soon as we saw them we knew we had to bake something with them. Our first foray is making these Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies. They turned out so well we will for sure be making them again. Sweet chocolate, chewy caramel, buttery cookie all in one tasty bite. Yum, yum, yum!
Ingredients you will need
- Kraft Caramel Bits: The secret ingredients for these yummy cookies are these Kraft Caramel Bits. You can find them in the baking aisle at most grocery stores.
- Chocolate Chips: We recommend Nestle Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips. We use the Minis so the chocolate chips don’t overpower the Caramel in the cookie.
How to make the Cookie Dough
Step 1: Cream the butter and sugars in a mixer for 3 minutes.
Step 2: Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for an additional 3 minutes.
Step 3: Add the Baking Soda and salt and mix just until combined.
Step 4: Add the flour in two batches and mix only until the flour is incorporated into the dough. Don’t overmix at this point.
Step 5: Use a spoon to make sure the flour is completely incorporated into the cookie dough.
Step 6: Finally, mix in the mini chocolate chips and the caramel bits with a spoon.
Step 7: The Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies are ready for baking! Mmmmm …. mmmmm …. good!
Baking Instructions
Steps 9-10: Bake the cookies in an oven pre-heated to 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. They are done when the edges turn slightly brown.
Expert Tips and FAQ’s
Both the eggs and the butter should be at room temperature which will help your cookies turn out lighter and fluffier. For the eggs, room temperature simply means not cold out of the refrigerator. If you forget to take the eggs out before you start making cookie dough you can put the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes to warm them up. The butter also needs to be softened to room temperature which means if you touch it you should leave an indentation on the stick of butter. Do not use butter that has been over-softened or melted. If that happens you should use a different stick of butter or put it back into the refrigerator to let it set up. We have a whole post about How to Soften Butter, click here if you need more information on how to do that.
Yes. In our opinion, you need some kind of a mixer to make a good cookie dough. A stand mixer, while expensive, is a great investment if you believe you have a lot of homemade baked goods in your future. An electric hand-mixer also works well and you can probably find one for around $20. You can hand mix cookie dough in a pinch (which is how we did it growing up), but you will really have to use a lot of muscle to cream the butter and sugar, and eggs properly.
Creaming the butter, sugar and then mixing the eggs in is the most important part of the cookie dough mixing process. Creaming is when you fully incorporate the butter and sugar together and add some much-needed air to the dough. We recommend creaming the butter and sugar for 2 minutes at medium-high speed and then mixing the butter/sugar/eggs for another 3 minutes at the same speed. Once you add the flour, you want to mix the dough as little as possible. Mix it too much and you will get tough cookies. Mix in the flour at low speed and continue mixing ONLY until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the dough. Make sure you scrape down the sides and the bottom to make sure all the flour has gotten mixed in.
We always line our cookie sheets with a piece of parchment paper, it keeps the cookie from sticking to the sheet and from over-browning. You can find parchment paper either in rolls or in pre-cut sheets in most grocery stores, and we highly recommend it. Ideally, you should use at least 2 cookie sheets when baking cookies. You don’t want to add the raw cookie dough to a cookie sheet that is hot out of the oven. The dough will start baking even before you get it in the oven.
Cookie size is a matter of personal taste. The important part is making them all the same size so they bake evenly. We like a good-sized cookie, so we use a medium-sized cookie dough scoop that makes a portion that has approximately 2 tablespoons of cookie dough. You can also pull out your food scale and measure the cookie dough.
Everyone’s oven is different. We recommend starting with a test bake with a single cookie to help you hone in on the exact baking time for your oven. You should set your timer for 2 minutes less than whatever the recipe recommends. Once the timer goes off, open up the oven and see how your cookie is baking. Make corrections accordingly. Our oven has a hot spot in the back so we always rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time to get a more even bake. Although this may seem like an unnecessary step, it is better to do this than burn a whole tray of cookies.
These cookies should be stored in an airtight container. And they will stay fresh longer if they are completely cool before you pack them up. We usually add a layer of parchment paper between each row of cookies in our plastic container. They will stay fresh at room temperature for 2-3 days if you store them correctly in an air-tight container. They will last up to 3 months in the freezer.
Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before removing them if the caramel is sticking on the bottom of the cookie sheet.
Other Cookie Recipes you will love
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Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Our Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies take a classic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to the next level with the addition of yummy Kraft Caramel Bits and a little TLC.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter (Sweet Cream, Salted)
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
- 2 Large Eggs
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Mini Chocolate Chips
- 1 cup Kraft Caramel Bits
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugars in a mixer.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until fluffy.
- Add the Baking Soda and salt and mix.
- Add the flour a bit at a time and mix until it is completely incorporated.
- Finally, using a spoon, mix in the mini chocolate chips and the caramel bits.
- Bake the cookies in a 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
Notes
Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before removing them if the caramel is sticking on the bottom of the cookie.
Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
These cookies are delicious and a huge favorite at my house. The only thing I did differently was to cook them just a couple of minutes longer. We like crisper cookies. Thanks so much for posting.
I followed recipe except for the chips. I only used 3/4 cup of caramel and chocolate chips plus added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Delicious
I want to make the Caramel Chocolate Chip cookie recipe but my grandson loves salted caramel chocolate products. IS it possible to just add salt to do that with this recipe , is there anything else I would need to change, and what amount would you suggest of salt? Thank you Love your recipes!
Can they be made into cookie bars?
Sure! That would work.
We don’t have caramel bites in Canada. ( or I just can’t find them). So sad
Made these cookies this weekend with my 2 grandchildren (ages 5 & 12). Everyone said they were the best cookies they had ever tasted. Will definitely be making these again and again!!
These turned out great for a 4th of July potluck. I transposed the brown sugar (1C) and sugar (1/2C) portions, browned the butter, added 1 teaspoon of soy sauce (yes, soy sauce) and chilled the dough overnight. Really brought out all the flavors.
How could I use camel spread instead of bites? Thanks!
Unfortunately, I don’t think a caramel spread would work well with this recipe. Sorry!
I only have unsalted butter. How do I adjust the recipe?
Thanks,
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne, just add a small pinch of salt to your batter.
Hi! I made these cookies today and my hubby, the cookie expert, gave them a thumbs up. I read your blog and the recipe a couple of times and decided I wanted to comment. My cookies did not turn out as pretty as yours did. I looked for instructions as to how to form the cookies, heaping teaspoon, more, less? A novice baker may not know how much dough to use, or how long for the cookies to cool on the pan after baking. Also, after a sticky melted caramel mess, causing the cookies to stick to my best cookie sheet, I decided parchment paper was the way to go. The cookies were much easier to remove from the sheet. All in all it was a good recipe, a generous amount of dough made more than 36 cookies. They will be frozen for now, to be served at our church Christmas concert.
Can I ask after you freezed the cookies, how do you thaw them before eating. I would like to pre make these also for a craft fayre I am doing in Dec and freezing them now would be handy.thanks.
These Turned out sooo good! But I ran out of Carmel bits at half a cup and decided to even it out with butterscotch chips lol still turned out fabulous. Thanks for the recipe!
HI Tabby – glad you liked the recipe. What a great idea to add butterscotch chips. We are going to try that next time.
Would these be consider peanut free
Hi Samantha – the only thing I can think that would have peanuts would be the Caramel Bites. You would have to check the label.
How much brown sugar? It looks like it says 1/2 cup but it looked different than the other half cups. Thank you! These look delicious and I’m hoping to make them today.
Hi Lisa – sorry, that was an extra space in there. It is 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Hope you like the cookies!