Name: Sea salt caramel cookies
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 53 min
Ingredients: ½ cup (120g) brown butter; 3 ½ tbsp (40g) granulated sugar; 1/3 cup (70g) brown sugar; ½ tsp salt; 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 ¼ cups (160g) all-purpose flour; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp baking powder; 1 bar Ghirardelli Sea salt caramel chocolate (138g); Pinch of flaky sea salt

Jump to Recipe·5 from 1 review

If you have been searching for the perfect cookie, you just found it. These sea salt caramel cookies are pure perfection.

When they say the quality of the ingredients matters, it is 100% completely true.

Today we made the best cookies we have ever made, with delicious Ghirardelli sea salt caramel chocolate, European brown butter, and a touch of flaky sea salt.

I’m so picky when it comes to cookies, I always find something missing, or I feel like they are not good enough, until I made this today. My fiancé is the BIGGEST caramel dessert fan, and loves cookies. That’s why I decided to make him salted caramel cookies.

We followed our recipe for milk chocolate cookies that we uploaded to the blog in December and just changed it a little.

Add to your shopping list!

Butter: We are using unsalted butter to control the saltiness of the dessert; we are going to be adding salt in the cookie dough, so it would be salty instead of sweet. For this recipe, we browned the butter; it’s a step that takes 8 extra minutes, but it’s so worth it as it changes the flavor of the cookie completely.
Sugars: a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar. One for chewiness, the other for a crispy cookie.
Vanilla extract: Use your favorite good-quality vanilla extract for a luxurious taste.
Egg: should be at room temperature. Make sure to take it out of the fridge for at least 1 hour before you start baking.
All-purpose flour: We are using common-use flour.
Leavening agents: a mixture of baking soda and baking powder.
Salt: We are using sea salt for the cookie dough and flaky salt to finish the cookie after it’s been baked.
Ghirardelli salted caramel chocolate: one of my and my fiancé’s favorite chocolates.

How to make brown butter

For so many recipes online, you will see it calls for brown butter. You must brown the butter. It adds a deep caramelized nutty flavor that makes any cookie or dessert taste 10 times better.

When you brown butter, the water is going to evaporate; that’s why you start from a weight, and it reduces significantly. Depending on the butter you use, that number of pounds lost increases; that’s why I always recommend you brown more butter than it says in the recipe to have the exact number you need. Then weigh the butter you have left to make sure you have the right amount. For this recipe, I browned about 150 grams of butter to have 120g of brown butter.

How to brown butter

Start by placing the butter in a large, light-colored pan. The reason we want it to be light-colored is so we can control the color and avoid burning it.

Start by melting the butter over medium heat. Once it starts to bubble, keep an eye on it. Make sure to stir constantly so it doesn’t burn. It takes about 8 minutes, depending on how strong the heat is. You know the butter is ready once the whole kitchen smells like delicious caramelized nutty butter.

Recipe elaboration in order

Brown the butter; it needs to cool before using.
Prepare the cookie dough.
Add the chocolate pieces.
Shape and refrigerate
Bake

How to prepare salted caramel cookies

We need to start by browning the butter, so there is enough time to cool before we use it. We are going to mix it with sugar and salt for 3 minutes. Then, we add one room-temperature egg and whisk again.

For the dry ingredients, we change from a whisk to a spatula. Add leavening agents and flour and combine using a spatula. If you feel like the dough is slightly warm, refrigerate it for 5 minutes before adding the chopped chocolate. I like to make the pieces big, so it holds the caramel inside and don’t go everywhere.

Once you add the chocolate, scoop the cookies and place them into a prepared tray with parchment paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven and bake them until beautifully golden brown. Add a sprinkle of flaky sea salt for the perfect finishing touch.

Best tips to prepare the best cookies

Preparing the best cookies in the whole universe should not be difficult; that’s why I’ll teach you everything I know about this cookie recipe so you can make the perfect cookie and always succeed.

Brown the butter, do the extra step if you want an amazing cookie. It will add a nutty caramelized flavor that is needed in this recipe.
Add salt to the cookie dough. If you are not used to adding salt to your desserts, start now; it will make them taste even better. Salt is not only used on savory dishes, but it’s also used on sweets to and for a good reason.
Make sure to refrigerate the dough slightly if it feels warm to the touch before adding the chocolate; we don’t want the chocolate to melt everywhere before we even bake it.
Don’t chop the chocolate into small pieces. Do big pieces so the caramel stays inside the chocolate and doesn’t spread all over the cookie dough.
Refrigerating the cookie dough is needed. It lets the ingredients get to know each other, it gives you a cookie with more flavor, and it also prevents spreading. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Right after you bake the cookies, grab a big jar or cookie cutter, and swirl the cookie around so it has a round shape. Cookies always come out of the oven in different shapes. Swirling them around will make them round and beautiful. Make sure you do this right after they come out of the oven, or they will break.
Let the cookies rest in the pan for 10 minutes after they have been baked; they can easily break if you try to grab them when they come out of the oven.
Don’t over-bake them; over-baked cookies don’t taste that good. You must cook them until the edges are golden brown. They will have time to set as they cool.

Baking tools you need

Light colored large pan, to brown the butter.
Spatula, to stir and combine.
Whisk, for mixing the wet ingredients.
Cookie scoop, for easy portioning.
Knife and cutting board, to chop the chocolate bark.
Cookie cutter or jar, to swirl the cookie after baking.
Baking tray and parchment paper, to bake the cookies.

Can I freeze cookie dough?

Yes! Sometimes you want to enjoy a cookie and don’t want to make cookie dough; that’s why having frozen cookie dough is the best way to do it.

Make sure to freeze the cookie dough portioned already, because we are not going to defrost it to bake.

Scoop the cookie dough and place it in a tray with parchment paper. Freeze for 2 hours. After 2 hours, place the half-frozen cookie dough inside a freezer-safe bag. Make sure to add the name of the food (salted caramel cookies), date, and time it needs to be baked.

They are safe in the freezer for up to 3 months. After 3 months, they can get freezer-burnt or have freezer taste.

Store leftover cookies

If you baked cookies and have some extras, you can easily store them in a food-safe container, add a layer of a kitchen paper towel at the bottom to absorb any moisture.

They are safe to eat for 4 days. Before eating, make sure to warm it up slightly to enjoy the melted chocolate and caramel.

That’s it! I hope you enjoy this delicious cookie recipe, and if you do, let me know in the comments. If you try this recipe, please leave us a review. You can easily do it by selecting as many stars as you think this recipe deserves and adding a small comment. Don’t forget to follow our new Facebook page after our old page was hacked, and I’ll see you later with a new recipe!