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

  • Natalie Spencer

    Hi!

    I just found this recipe on pinterest, and I’m super excited to bake them! We are having an early Thanksgiving this year with my fiance’s family, and I am responsible for bringing a chocolate dessert. I love to bake, and especially new recipes!

    Because I will need to bake the cookies before we travel, I was wondering if when we were ready for dessert, if I could pop them in the microwave for 10 secs or so, if that would help soften the caramel inside.

    Thanks! :)

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      I think that would probably work just fine. If you use rolos though then you might not need to do that.

  • Marybeth Knight

    My mouth’s watering already! Crinkles have been a staple of my family’s holiday cookie tradition, but adding the salted caramel is genius! I can’t wait to try!

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  • Anahi

    Btw it would end up being 3 1/2 oz of baking chocolate and 1 tbsp of butter reduced. Just in case anyone else was having my same problem :)

  • Anahi

    Can you substitute the cocoa powder for baking chocolate? If so, how many ounces should I use?

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      You probably could if you reduce the butter slightly but the problem is I’m not sure how many ounces it would be exactly, sorry I wish I knew the conversion. You may be able to search the web for it.

      • Anahi

        It’s okay! Thank you for replying! I actually found out how to do it on joyofbaking.com. There’s a list of ingredients and how you can substitute for each! :)

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  • MissNewEngland

    Wow … these are way too good to use store-bought caramels, which to me are too hard and too sicky sweet. Caramel is so easy to make (even salted caramel) … if you freeze it and break it into chunks, it works perfectly in this recipe and has a less sweet fresher taste.