This Salted Caramel Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookie Recipe will leave your mouth watering. The soft and chewy oatmeal cookies are swirled with salted caramel and loaded with butterscotch chips. I dare you to eat just one!
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for cookies but I simply have no willpower around oatmeal cookies. Zero, none.
I have several variations of these salted caramel oatmeal cookies, including cashew white chocolate (also completely 100% irresistible).
Butterscotch cookies were never really on my radar until lately. I actually went to the store to purchase them twice, not realizing I already had them in my pantry for these exact cookies.
I was not expecting to love these Salted Caramel Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies as much I do. But what was even more surprising? My husband is also obsessed with them!
He walked in from the gym one night and immediately ate 3 of them and told me how much he loves butterscotch. Ummmm WHAT? I’ve known you for seven years and not once have you ever mentioned butterscotch.
Always keeping me on my toes that one. I told his sister the story and she too was just as surprised as I was.
I’ve been hiding these cookies from him ever since.
There’s nothing fancy about these butterscotch oatmeal cookies, unless you count the salted caramel as fancy. It’s so easy to do though!
I prefer to use Kraft caramels, 20 of them to be exact. Melt them together with some milk which prevents the caramel from hardening when it’s baked.
The one thing you need to do is wait for the caramel to cool before adding it to the cookie dough, otherwise it will immediately melt your chips. So, I usually melt the caramel first while I am preparing the rest of the dough.
There’s one catch. You have to refrigerate the dough, have to. I recommend at a minimum that you wait at least one hour but the longer the better. I actually like to refrigerate them overnight so all the flavors absorb together.
However, the long you refrigerate, the firmer the dough. You’ll need to pull them out of the refrigerator about 15 minutes before baking.
This is a big batch of cookie dough. It will make about 28 large cookies (3 tablespoon cookie scoop) or 36 small ones (1 tablespoon cookie scoop).
These make perfect cookies to ship to family and friends, and with the holidays coming up, you’ll want to save this one for later!
Salted Caramel Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
- Prep Time: 75 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 27 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Salted Caramel Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookie Recipe will leave your mouth watering. The soft and chewy oatmeal cookies are swirled with salted caramel and loaded with butterscotch chips
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (220g) light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (143g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons (7.5ml) pure vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (300g) all-purpose Flour
- 2 ¼ cups (181g) rolled oats
- 2 teaspoon (10g) salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon (4g) baking soda
- 20 Kraft caramels, unwrapped
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) milk
- 1 bag (11oz) butterscotch chips
- Flakey sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- In a microwave-safe bowl, combine caramel bites and milk. Microwave in 45-60 second increments, stirring each time. Caramel will be very hot and can burn easily. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt. All the caramel to cool.
- Soften the butter in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Combine the softened butter with the brown and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until well combined, 2-3 minutes.
- Next add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue beating until well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, salt (1 tsp) and baking soda. Stir to combine and slowly add the dry ingredients into the dough, mixing on low speed until dough starts to form.
- Before the dough thickens, add the butterscotch chips. Beat a couple of times until they start to incorporate.
- Once the caramel is melted and smooth, add to cookie dough. Beat just until combined.
- Pre-scoop the dough using a large cookie scoop and place on a sheet pan. Sprinkle with flakey sea salt. Refrigerate for at least one hour. Remove each batch 10-15 minutes before baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes. The center of the cookie should be slightly under baked but not too gooey. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- These must be refrigerated for a minimum of one hour, but the longer the better.
- These cookies can be frozen once baked. Place on a cookie sheet with layers of parchment paper in between each layer. Once frozen transfer to an airtight container.
- When your cookies come out of the oven and they do spread or are misshaped, take a flat edge, such as a knife and press the edges of the cookie back towards the middle of the cookie, shaping it into a circle.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 293
- Sugar: 31g
- Sodium: 393mg
- Fat: 9g
- Carbohydrates: 48g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 37mg
I cant find caramel can I use caramel syrup instead?
Hi Jan, I don’t think caramel sauce would work, it’s too thin, but I haven’t tried is, so I am not sure. Do you have caramel bits?
Hi no I don’t have caramel bits but i really want to make these cookies so can I skip out the caramel?
I recommend following this recipe for my regular oatmeal cookies and swapping out the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips. The ratios of the dry ingredients are different since there’s no caramel but they’re still super good!
Thank you so much
These cookies are fantastic—completely addicting. I’m making my second batch today and am already trying to figure out how NOT to eat a dozen! My first batch made way more than 24 good sized cookies, which is not a problem. I cannot find Malden sea salt anywhere around here, or really any flakey sea salt, and thus my cookies were not quite as pretty. They were still delicious.
Thank you so much Natalie! I am so glad to hear that. I usually order it off Amazong but it lasts a long time
Hi. I make my own salted caramel and would like to use it in the recipe. How much should I use? 20 caramels would be about a cup melted? More?
Hi Stephanie- I would say it’s less than 1/2 cup
Thank you, I used 1/3 cup and they came out wonderfully.
Perfect! I am so glad to hear that.
Can you substitute caramel topping for the caramel bites? If so, how much would you recommend?
Hi Chelsea, I have never tested the recipe this way so I can’t say. I know that the sauce is a thinner consistency and not really meant for any type of “candy making” so it may not be a simple swap.
Step one has salt added twice. How much sea salt goes in at the beginning of step one vs. the table salt added at the end of step one?
Hi Cynthia- I see that now- that’s confusing! Thanks for letting me know. 1 teaspoon sea salt in added in the caramel and 1 teaspoon sea salt is added in the cookie dough. It’s updated to be more clear now.
Thank you! First batch just came out and they’re a big hit.
Awesome!!! These are one of our favorites!!