Just when you think chocolate chip cookies can’t get any better, they can! These Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies are HUGE, crispy, chewy, loaded with chocolate chips and stuffed with caramel. They’re outrageously good!
Chocolate chip cookies.
You all know how I feel about them. I dream about them. I make them several times a week. I am always trying new recipes. #chocolatechipcookiesaremylife
Chocolate chip cookies are near perfect on their own, so why mess with such a good thing, right? Well Martha Stewart decided to mess with them and I’m not sad about it.
These Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies are seriously amazing! Buttery, crispy, chewy, gooey, and they’re huge! I wish I would have taken a picture of one of them sitting in the palm of my hand, then you could really see how gigantic they are. I know I rave about many cookie recipes, and I’m doing it again about these cookies. They’re amazing! I love absolutely everything about them and I think you will too.
The secret to this recipe is freezing the balls of dough for just 15 minutes before baking. That way, the center cooks more slowly, and you achieve that heavenly balance of a melted, gooey inside and crispy edges.
DO I HAVE TO MAKE THESE COOKIES BIG?
These cookies are giant (which I happen to love!), but you can make them smaller if you want. The recipe has you use 4 oz of dough per cookie which does make for a really big cookie. If you do make these smaller, I would use only one or two pieces of caramel instead of three pieces.
SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS VS. MILK CHOCOLATE CHIPS
These are a fairly sweet cookie and with the caramel in the center, it makes them even sweeter. Even though I am definitely a huge fan of all milk chocolate chips in cookies, I love these with all semi-sweet or half semi-sweet/half milk chocolate. I don’t recommend using all milk chocolate chips in this recipe because I think it would make them too sweet.
A FEW TIPS FOR MAKING THESE COOKIES:
- These cookies are mixed differently than most cookie recipes, so make sure you follow the directions! You DON’T cream the butter and sugars. You mix the sugars and dry ingredients first and then incorporate the butter in, followed by the chocolate chips, eggs and vanilla.
- Make sure you use cold butter. The cold butter is coated with the flour as you mix the ingredients which results in a more tender cookie.
- I use Werther’s chewy caramels in this recipe, but you could use Kraft or another brand of your choice. Werther’s are my favorite store-bought caramels and think they work perfectly in these cookies. (I like the chewy caramels, but you could use the soft caramels as well.)
- Make sure the caramels are completely covered with cookie dough. If they’re not, the caramel will ooze out during baking.
- Bake cookies on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. This makes it much easier to remove the cookies from the cookie sheet if any caramel does ooze out during baking.
- These cookies eaten warm will have soft melted caramel centers. Cookies eaten at room temperature will have firm chewy caramel centers. I love them both ways. You can rewarm the cookies by putting them in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
- Make sure you freeze the dough balls. I know this is sometimes a pain, but it’s only 15 minutes and makes the difference in how these bake up (I mentioned why above).
Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 12 large cookies 1x
Description
Just when you think chocolate chip cookies can’t get any better, they can and do! These Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies are outrageously good!
Ingredients
- 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (cold, cut into 1/2‑inch pieces)
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 18 caramels, cut in half
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, mix together flour, both sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add butter and beat on medium until combined but some pea-size butter pieces remain. Add chocolate chips and beat until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Continue mixing until dough comes together (this takes a few minutes).
- Scoop dough into 4-ounce balls (each about 1/3 cup) and make a deep, wide hollow in each center. Enclose 3 pieces of caramel in each and roll back into a ball. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 3 inches apart. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes (don’t skip this step).
- Bake cookies 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F, rotate sheets, and continue to bake until centers are almost but not completely set about 7-10 more minutes. Bang baking sheets on a counter a few times to create cracks in tops of cookies.
- Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 17 mins
- Category: Cookies
Recipe Source: Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection
I made these and used the kraft caramels. The caramel came out too hard not soft and gooey. Other than that they were delicious
Thanks my cute aunt! Glad to know the Kraft caramels don’t turn out the best. I will definitely stick with the Werther’s. Love you❤️
I followed the recipe the first time and they were great!
The second time I omitted the caramel centers, and replaced with caramel bits mixed in with half of the chocolate chips.
Delish!
★★★★★
Thanks Jen! I’ll have to try it with the caramel bits.
I tried this recipe but made my own caramel (froze it to harden it for about 20 minutes beforehand) because I think homemade caramel is substantially better than store bought caramel. That was a MISTAKE! The caramel itself was delicious, but the caramel leaked out in puddles and was then soaked up into the cookie matrix. The cookies ended up being sickeningly sweet and looked like some kind of Frankenstein’s monster cookies. They spread like crazy too, although I put them in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. Should it be a critical requirement that a person use a convection oven to bake these cookies?
Thanks!
I made these following your recipe exactly and they are probably the best cookies I’ve ever made. Delicious!!
★★★★★
Hey Mona, I have to agree that these are the best! So happy you made them.
Isn’t this the same recipe in Martha Stewart’s “Cookie Perfection” cookbook?
Yes it is Jade, which is why at the bottom of the post I listed the recipe source as “Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection Cookbook”.
These are delicious, but mine spread way too much ): I made sure my butter was cold and eggs were room temp, and cooked on the appropriate temp with the temp change and rotation as noted. Any idea why this went wrong? I’m at 600ft elevation and it’s 72ish in my house.
★★★
Hey Savannah, if your cookies spread too much it’s most likely because they needed more flour, that is usually the case. Other possibilities could be that your oven temperature is off or your baking powder and baking soda are old. If you give them another try let me know. Also, if your cookies do spread too much, when they come out of the oven, take a small spatula or back of a spoon and gently push the edges in towards the center of the cookie to reshape the cookie.