Have you guys seen caramel chips popping up in your grocery stores? The idea intrigued me so obviously I had to try them out in some Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chip Cookies. Guys- THESE COOKIES. I originally thought about putting them in a chocolate cookie, but my husband said I should go with a classic chocolate chip base all the way and I realized that was a much better idea because I wanted something mellow enough for the flavor of the chips to come through. I knew the perfect compliment to these would be some finely chopped toasted nuts. The other magic ingredient is browned butter. And lastly, I sprinkle with flaky sea salt for the ultimate sweet and salty combo.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Butter – We’re going to be browning the butter here. If you’ve never browned butter before it’s super easy and SO worth it. Basically what happens is you melt butter in a skillet and the solids separate and brown and toast in the melted butter. It gives this amazing nutty toasted component to anything you use it in. You can read an easy how-to by clicking here!
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg and egg yolk
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Caramel chips – I’ve seen a few different brands of caramel chips and wondered how they compared. I got Ghirardelli and Hershey’s. Normally I’m a Ghirardelli girl through and through, but I actually preferred the Hershey ones. They were noticeably salty, which some people may not like, but I thought they were really yummy. The Girardelli weren’t bad, but they tasted more like extra sweet white chocolate chips, not crazy caramelly.
If you can’t find those caramel chips, you could make this recipe with any chips you like. They’d be good with white chocolate, butterscotch, cinnamon chips, or chocolate! - Chopped pecans, toasted – If you are an “ew, nuts in cookies” person, I’m telling you- chop them fine and TOAST them and it’s a total game-changer. I like my nuts chopped pretty fine, but it’s a personal preference. You can buy them pre-chopped at the grocery store. Just place them in a dry skillet (no oil in there or anything) and toss them around until they are golden brown on the white parts of the nuts. They’ll smell divine. Make sure to let them cool down before you put them in your dough.
- Flaky sea salt – For topping. Maldon is my very favorite salt for baking and I just buy it on Amazon.
How to Make Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chip Cookies
- To start you’ll brown some butter and mix it with the sugars, then your typical dry cookie dough ingredients.
- Next come your toasted and cooled nuts, followed by the caramel chips.
- And then a little trick to getting a good texture and shape on your cookies is to make one large ball of dough and then break it in half and put the craggily side up. I learned that tip from America’s Test kitchen, from their best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, that this one is based off of. It will give the tops of your finished cookies some dimension.
- I bake them until golden around the edges and then sprinkle them with a flaky sea salt right as they come out of the oven so it sticks!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store finished cookies in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy within 3-5 days for best results.
- For nice round cookies, use a biscuit cutter or canning ring in a circular motion to shape the cookies while still hot out of the oven.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, most cookies freeze really well and these are no exception. After cookies are completely cooled, stack in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper. Freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, simply leave out at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Definitely! Scoop the dough into balls, freeze on a baking sheet until firm, then transfer to a freezer-safe bag. You can bake the dough straight from frozen, although the cooking time may need to be extended.
The browned butter in this recipe is part of what makes it unique. But no, you don’t have to. If you’d rather skip that step I’d recommend just melting your butter in the microwave before following the recipe as written
Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons butter browned and cooled to room temp or slightly warm
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 ½ tablespoons milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups caramel chips
- ½-¾ cups chopped pecans toasted (see note in recipe)
- sea salt
Instructions
- If you haven’t browned your butter yet, start with that! Click Here and follow these instructions and then set it aside to cool.
- You will also need to toast your pecans. Simply place in a dry skillet on medium heat and stir often until toasted and browned.
- Heat oven to 325℉. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
- Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, milk and vanilla.
- *When measuring flour, lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level with the back of a knife. If you scoop your flour, it will be too much.Add dry ingredients to dough. Stir in chips and nuts.
- Scoop cookies onto baking sheet. Bake until cookies are set around outer edges start to firm up yet centers are still soft and puffy, 10-13 minutes (dependent on size). Sprinkle lightly with flaky sea salt right when they come out of the oven (so it sticks!).Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Store finished cookies in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy within 3-5 days for best results.
- For nice round cookies, use a biscuit cutter or canning ring in a circular motion to shape the cookies while still hot out of the oven.
Questions & Reviews
I measured the flour by scooping and leveling but the mixture still turned out so crumbly and dry even before adding the nuts. I ended up adding 2 t of water. I still couldn’t just scoop with my cookie scoop but had to roll the dough in my hands to get the dough to stay together. I worried they wouldn’t turn out but they were amazing. So worth the extra work. It was my first time browning butter. I followed your recipe but used salted butter since I didn’t have unsalted like your recipe recommends and it turned out delicious. Thanks!
Browned butter first timer here – I can’t believe what a difference in flavor it makes! These were divine! (I may have overmeasured the flour, though, because the dough was kind of crumbly/wouldn’t hold its shape very well – so just be aware of that, future cookie makers.) I grabbed the kroger brand caramel chips and I thought they tasted great (though I didn’t compare them to anything else, so take that for what it’s worth). Also, I didn’t have any sea salt for the top, so I just skipped it and the cookies still tasted delicious, just not as fancy.
I’m make my these right now- second batch just popped into the oven. My dough also seemed a little short and was tough to stick together. The cookies are delicious, but I’m wondering why the crumbly dough? Never had this before with any of my cookies of dragons molar recipe.
This recipe looks SO good! The funny thing is that I have started using your cookie recipe with the melted butter and browning the butter. It makes super good chocolate chip cookies! I have also done chocolate chunks, caramel filled chocolate chips and sea salt with the browned butter and that is SO dang good. For fancy sake I’ll even drizzle caramel on top with the sea salt. Oh so yummy.
Yes! Me too! Makes such a difference, right?
YES! And it makes the dough so flippin’ irresistible!
Oh, you said the magic words. Cookie dough is my favorite food group.
These look soooooooo yummy, I can’t wait to try! For this recipe, do we use salted or unsalted butter?
When reading any recipe, you can always assume salted unless specified otherwise. In this recipe, to be honest you could use either!
These cookies look amazing! I most definitely need these in my life!
I thought this recipe sounded similar to the one I’d made from America Test Kitchen! They added a little water back into the butter after browning it. What do you think?
I don’t add anything to it 🙂
Browning butter removes about 1 1/2 tablespoons of water, that’s what the milk is for.
I’ma try these. I make brown butter chocolate chip cookies, but the old man doesn’t like chocolate (odd as that sounds). I use a similar recipe but it’s a full cup of butter, browned, which then rechills and is creamed with the sugar. Sounds fussy but it works! I also use muscovado in place of the brown sugar, which is just a SUPER caramelly brown sugar with lots of molasses left inside, which makes the cookies a richer shade of brown as well.
I’m in love with caramel, so great that you have this recipe! Thanks!
It doesn’t look like the melted butter makes the cookies spread!? What sort of magic is this!? Haha! Definitely adding them to the list to make.
Nope, it’s perfection!
You said to adjust racks to Upper and Lower middle positions. Does that mean you put two cookie sheets in at the same time? Is this for convection oven people?
Yep. It just means if you are baking 2 trays at a time put them both in the middle, not on the very top or bottom.
I just happened to make these last night, when I too grabbed up the ghiradelli carmel chips at the store, recently. My husband said they were the greatest cookies I’ve ever made. I thought they were really yummy too. Luckily, the kids didn’t like them as much because of the pecans. My husband and I were thrilled, more for us!!
They can eat their halloween candy instead!
These cookies are SOOO great for November and the Fall time. I highly recommend making them. Thanks for sharing the melted butter tip over the stove top! This will improve the recipe for sure.
These look so so so good. I hope I can find those chips somewhere here, now that I can bake my heart out because electricity is backkkkkkkk!!!! 🙂
Thanks for this recipe, these look incredible Sara! ?
SOOO happy you have power back!!!
Amazon has the chips!! And the cookies are amazing!!!