Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Published November 26, 2012. Updated April 19, 2024

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Salted Caramel Chocolate Crinkle Cookies stuffed with a layer of decadent chewy caramel and finished with a blizzard of powdered sugar! Talk about decadent holiday cookie—everyone will be asking you about these. 

Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Hello Christmas Cookie Season!! I’m obsessed with cookies so this gives me one more reason to love the holidays. I created this recipe to be a no refrigeration necessary recipe. A lot of chocolate crinkle cookie recipes require that the dough be refrigerated 2 – 4 hours before baking, I don’t have time for that. Mostly I just don’t have the patience for that especially when I know what awaits me.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I love the idea of of biting into what you think is a standard chocolate crinkle cookie, with chewy chocolate dough and sweet dusted powered sugar, only to delightfully discover a melty bomb of salted caramel hidden in the middle! It’s a huge hit for a Christmas cookie exchange because it’s different from the usual suspects, and always a pleasant surprise.

If you prefer you can omit the coarse sea salt from the recipe if you are not a fan of salted caramel. I personally am unequivocally in love with the addition. These taste like caramel brownies in cookie form. They are intensely delicious! If you are baking them for someone else you’ll have a hard time wanting to gift them after all. If you wanted to go all out with these cookies you could even toss in some semi-sweet chocolate chips and toasted nuts.  Enjoy!

Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

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Do you need to refresh your Christmas Cookie recipe stash? Traditions are one of the best parts of the holiday season, but if you’ve been making the same Christmas cookies for a decade… it’s time for some new recipes. Here are a bunch of my favorite Christmas cookies!

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5 from 4 votes

Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies stuffed with a layer of decadent chewy caramel and finished with a blizzard of powdered sugar! Talk about decadent holiday cookie!
Servings: 24
Prep20 minutes
Cook22 minutes
Ready in: 42 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, set aside. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, whip together butter, granulated sugar and light-brown sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until combine. Mix in vanilla. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combine.
  • Scoop dough out 2 tbsp at a time and roll into a ball. Press one caramel into the center, sprinkle top of caramel with a small pinch of coarse sea salt then fold cookie dough around caramel and salt (make sure the caramel is fully covered with dough around all sides). Shape into a ball once more then roll in powdered sugar*. Align cookies on Silpat lined or buttered cookie sheets and bake in preheated oven 11 - 13 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool (note that the caramel will set after it cools, I liked these cookies best warm for soft gooey caramel). Store in an airtight container.
  • *I gave my cookies a generous coating of the powdered sugar before baking, but when they baked a lot of the powdered sugar baked and dissolved into the cookie anyway. So I found you can coat the top again with powdered sugar after baking (which is not pictured) to get a prettier cookie. If doing so roll in powdered sugar once before baking (doesn't need to be generously), then bake them and allow to cool and dip the tops of cookies in a fresh batch of powdered sugar (so there is no cross contamination) and shake off some of the excess. If you want to do it that way I would recommend using 1/2 cup powdered sugar for rolling before baking and reserve 1/4 cup in a separate bowl to dip and coat the tops after baking.
  • Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

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120 Comments

  • Anonymous

    I would love to make these for a family Christmas this Friday…just was wondering I know you said that the carmel in the center gets hardened, but does it harden so much that it would break teeth? Just concerned as I know I won’t be able to bake them right before I head out. Thanks! They look AMAZING!!

    • Jaclyn

      No, it basically returns to the same consistency it was before baked maybe just a little bit chewier, it just doesn’t stay stretchy and gooey unless they are warm =). If you want a caramel that will be softer you could use a rolo candy in the middle or someone else mentioned they used the caramel hersheys kisses. I hope you enjoy them!

  • Anonymous

    I made these last week and used the hersheys caramel kisses in the center…. OHHHHHHH SOOOOOO YUKMMMMY!!!

    • Jaclyn

      Personally I don’t like to freeze most of the bake goods I make but if you do, yes these should freeze fine – similar to they way a chocolate chip cookie freezes. Just be sure to bring them to room temp before serving =).

  • Anonymous

    Made these yesterday and they are amazing! The dough was also sticky for me, but I worked with a lot of powdered sugar on my hands, on the spoon and pressed the cookie into a bowl of powdered sugar when pressing the caramel into it. Thank you, great recipe and easy to follow!

  • Anonymous

    I made these yesterday.there is none left …lol really good but I did have to put the dough in the fridge for 20 min..

  • RenĂ©

    Just made these, they’re cooling as I write this. They look good, but I might add more powdered sugar for that “snowy” look. I actually made them with Splenda and rollos, (I know counter-productive), because that’s what my parents had in the cupboard. Still worked well! Thanks!