The Best Salted Caramel Chunks Recipe (Perfect for Baking)
These salted caramel chunks are soft, chewy, salty, and actually survive the oven. Perfect for any cookie that needs melty caramel pockets.
Ingredients
200 g sugar
120 g heavy cream
120 g brown butter
2 tbsp Maldon salt
Instructions
1. Melt the sugar
Add the sugar to a saucepan on medium heat.
Don’t stir — just let it melt on its own and swirl the pan if needed.
Cook until it turns deep amber.
2. Remove from the heat
Take the saucepan off the heat before adding anything else.
This stops the caramel from burning or exploding.
3. Add the heavy cream (slowly!)
Pour the cream in little by little.
It bubbles like crazy — that’s normal.
Whisk until the bubbling calms down.
4. Add the brown butter
Still off the heat, add the brown butter and whisk until smooth and glossy.
5. Put it back on low heat (1–2 minutes)
Return the pot to low heat and cook for 1–2 minutes, just until it thickens slightly.
You’re not making hard candy — you want a soft caramel that will freeze well.
6. Pour + salt
Pour the caramel onto a tray lined with oven paper.
Right after pouring, sprinkle the Maldon salt on top.
Let it sit a couple of minutes so the surface sets.
7. Freeze
Put the whole tray in the freezer until the caramel is completely solid.
8. Chop into chunks
Once frozen:
Lift the slab
Chop it into small chunks
Keep the chunks stored in the freezer until baking
They must stay frozen when you mix them into cookie dough — that’s the trick that makes them oven-proof.
Troubleshooting
My caramel turned grainy
That means the sugar crystalized.
Next time:
don’t stir the sugar while it melts
only swirl the pan
keep the heat steady (medium)
Once it’s grainy, you can try reheating it on low until it melts again.
My caramel burned
You went past amber into dark brown.
Caramel burns in seconds, so:
lower the heat
watch the color, not the clock
remove it from heat as soon as it’s amber
Burnt caramel tastes bitter — just start over.
It exploded when I added the cream
Totally normal for it to bubble, but:
you must take the pot off the heat before adding cream
add the cream slowly
whisk constantly
This controls the reaction and keeps it smooth.
It separated into oily liquid + chunks
That happens if:
butter was added before the cream
the caramel was too hot
you reheated it too aggressively
To fix it:
Put it back on low heat and whisk until smooth.
It’s too soft to chop
It didn’t freeze long enough.
Give it more time — it needs to be rock solid to cut.
The chunks melted inside my cookies
Two reasons:
The chunks weren’t frozen when you added them to the dough
You didn’t freeze the dough balls before baking
Both are 100% required for caramel chunks to stay in place.
The caramel leaked out
Same causes as above, but also:
your chunks may be too big
Cut them smaller next time.
The caramel tastes too salty
Use a light sprinkle of Maldon, not a thick layer.
Maldon salt is strong — a little goes a long way.
The caramel is too hard
You cooked it too long in the “back on the heat for 1–2 minutes” step.
Reduce that time and the caramel will freeze softer.