Chocolate Chip Rolo Cookie Bars — 🍪😍🎉 Gooey caramel, chocolate chips, and buttery soft dough! Easy, one-bowl, no-mixer recipe that’s a guaranteed hit! Who can resist caramel and chocolate!
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Rolo Cookie Bars
These Rolo blondies are one the gooiest, richest, and most decadent treats I’ve made in a while. Which makes it one of my personal favorites. The more melted caramel, chocolate, and buttery soft dough, the better.
For these very soft, gooey, slightly chewy, buttery bars that are stuffed with Rolo candies and loaded with chocolate chips, I called upon my trusty blondie base. When I want an easy, fuss-free, one-bowl, no-mixer recipe that I know everyone will love, it’s my go-to. With 25+ versions and counting, it never lets me down!
It’s an easy recipe to memorize because everything is ‘one’. In the 1 bowl used, melt 1 stick of butter, stir in 1 egg, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, and 1 cup of flour. For this version, there’s 1 cup chocolate chips and 36 Rolos (the only thing that’s not ‘one’).
The hardest part of the recipe is unwrapping the Rolos unless you have a sous chef or an 8-year-old who will happily work for payment via the extra Rolos in the bag and the promise of sinking her teeth into one of these.
What’s in Rolo Chocolate Chip Blondies?
To make this easy Rolo blondies recipe, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Light brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Rolo candies
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Blondie Rolo Cookie Bars
As with all my blondies recipes, this recipe is super simple. Here’s an overview of the baking process:
- Melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave. Wait a bit to avoid scrambling the egg. Then, add the egg, brown sugar, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Stir in the flour and salt just until combined, and fold in the chocolate chips.
- Turn slightly more than half of the blondie batter into a square, 8-inch pan lined with aluminum foil and greased with cooking spray. Evenly arrange the Rolos on top of the batter, sitting them on their base rather than laying them on their sides, creating six rows of six Rolos. Drop the remaining batter in heaping tablespoons over the candy pieces, and use a spatula to smooth the blobs together. You won’t have complete coverage and that’s okay because batter expands a bit while baking and some of the balder patches ‘grow together’.
- Bake until the blondies are golden brown and the top and center are set.
- Cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, this recipe should be fine to double and bake in a 9×13-inch pan.
There’s really no substitution for Rolos in this recipe. A few readers have suggested using caramel M&M’s or caramel-filled Hershey’s Kisses, both of which might work.
It’s tough to tell when these bars are fully baked. A toothpick test is unreliable because you will likely hit melted chocolate or caramel. However, if you hit a patch of dough, the toothpick should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
These bars will keep fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Yes, leftover bars will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months! I recommend wrapping each bar in plastic wrap and storing them in a sealable bag. Thaw in the fridge or at room temperature when you’re ready to eat.
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Rolo Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Blondies
Equipment
- 1 Large, Microwave-Safe Bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- about 36 Rolo candies, unwrapped (buy the 12-ounce bag, you’ll use about 3/4 of it)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large, microwave-safe bowl add the butter and heat to melt, about 1 minute on high power.
- Wait momentarily before adding the egg so you don’t scramble it. Add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour, salt, and stir until just combined, don’t overmix.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Turn slightly more than half the batter out into prepared pan (about 60% or so, just eyeball it so that the bottom of the pan is completely covered, albeit thin coverage); set remaining batter aside.
- Evenly place the Rolos in the pan so that each Rolo is sitting on its ‘base’ rather than laying on its side. I made 6 rows of 6 Rolos each.
- Drop remaining batter over the Rolos in heaping rounded tablespoons. Use a spatula to smooth the ‘blobs’ of batter together. You won’t have complete coverage and that’s okay because batter expands a bit while baking and some of the balder patches ‘grow togther’.
- Bake for about 20 to 22 minutes, or until top is set in center and done; don’t overbake. Blondies firm up as they cool. A toothpick test is unreliable because you will likely hit melted chocolate or caramel, but if you hit a patch of dough, the toothpick should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Place pan on a wire rack to cool for at least 90 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Note – If you don’t have access to Rolos, unfortunately there are no substitutions.
- Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Caramel Dessert Recipes:
Carmelitas – For the serious caramel lover, these soft and chewy bars are dripping with caramel and stuffed with chocolate!
Seven Layer Bars — The classic bar everyone loves but even better with Rolos baked in!
Caramel-Stuffed Quadruple Chocolate Cookies — Soft and chewy cookies with four kinds of chocolate and so much gooey caramel! Insanely good!
Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars – Made with salted caramel PB (yes it’s a thing!) Soft, chewy, gooey and so irresistible!
Caramel Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Gooey Bars – Keep the napkins handy for these soft, gooey bars dripping with the best caramel-peanut butter sauce! So good!
Peanut Butter Caramel Twix Bars (almost no-bake) – DIY Twix Bars with a layer of peanut butter, and just dripping with salted caramel!
The 25 Best Caramel and Salted Caramel Recipes – The tried-and-true favorites are all here! If you need a caramel recipe, this collection has you covered!
Originally posted December 18, 2015 and reposted March 12, 2021 with updated text
These bars are THE BOMB! I was surprised that there was no leavening agent (except for the egg, I guess?). But wow. Delicious!!
These bars are THE BOMB! I was surprised that there was no leavening agent (except for the egg, I guess?). But wow. Delicious!!
Thnks for the 5 star review and I am glad they were the bomb!
Do you need to line the 8×8 with aluminum foil?
No, it’s optional for easier cleanup but not required.
Every year I try something different for our Christmas cookies trays and these are hands down everyone new favorite. If you haven’t tried these yet, you HAVE to… you won’t regret it!