These easy Rolo Cookie Bars combine oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with gooey caramel for the ultimate simple dessert.
If you love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and have a weakness for caramel, these Rolo Cookie Bars are about to become a favorite.
They have everything you want in a good cookie bar: a chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie base, melty chocolate, and pockets of warm, gooey caramel from Rolos baked right in the middle.
Honestly? These have been some of my favorite cookies to come out of the oven in quite some time.
They’re easy enough for a weeknight dessert, but delicious enough to bring to a party, potluck, or holiday gathering. If you’re a cookie person in the slightest, I have a feeling you’re going to love these as much as I do.
A Few Tips for Making Rolo Cookie Bars
- Don’t turn them into individual cookies. You might be tempted to scoop the dough into individual cookies, but don’t. The caramel melts out everywhere, and it gets pretty disastrous.
- Let them cool if you want clean slices. If you eat these warm from the oven, they’ll be just as ooey and gooey as they look in the pictures. But if you’re planning to cut them into bars for serving or packaging, let them cool to about room temperature first. Once they’ve cooled, they’re much easier to slice neatly.
- Stick with Rolos. I really recommend using Rolos for this recipe rather than swapping them for another caramel-filled chocolate candy. In my experience, other candies don’t hold up quite as well in the oven. The caramel can melt out and incorporate into the cookie dough instead of staying in those delicious little pockets. And while caramel baked into the cookie dough is still pretty yummy, the whole point here is those surprise bites of gooey caramel.
How to Make Rolo Cookie Bars
The full recipe is below. It’s fast and easy and doesn’t use any weird ingredients.
The hardest part? Deciding whether you’re going to wait for them to cool or eat one while they’re still warm and ridiculously gooey.
(I fully support the second option.)
More Easy Cookie Bar Recipes
- Best Sugar Cookie Bars
- Sugar Cookie Lemon Bars
- Caramel Cheesecake Cookie Bars
- Cheesecake Cookie Bars Recipe
- Candy Cane Cocoa Cookie Bars
Rolo Cookie Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup Rolo candies, unwrapped
- Optional: 1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Prepare a 9×13 baking dish by lining it with parchment paper.
- Using a stand mixer or by hand, mix the butter, brown sugar, and eggs.
- Add in the milk, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt, and oats, and mix well.
- Stir in the chocolate chips, Rolos, and pecans.
- Spread the dough in the prepared baking dish, and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. The edges should be set and golden brown, and the tops of the bars should look mostly "dry."
- Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting.
Nutrition
Other Notes
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ashton, the creator of the popular food blog Something Swanky, was the resident baking contributor on Somewhat Simple in 2012.
I’m so disappointed. I tried this recipe twice. Using exactly what you listed and following your instructions. They both came out more cake like than cookie. So so disappointing.
I am so sorry it didn’t work out for you – that is so disappointing!
These look delicious! Any idea if they freeze well? I’d love to make them ahead of time to get a jump on holiday baking.
I’ve never frozen them, but if you try it, I’d love to hear how it worked for you!
Made these last night for a fundraiser bake sale. They are just to die for! Like chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with caramel!! Yum yum yum!!!!
That’s awesome! I’m so glad they were a hit!
Could Rolo’s be substituted with any other similar candy, such as Snickers or a chopped Heath bar? (Lots of Halloween candy leftover!)
They turned out pretty good with the Delightfuls but they were smaller than I expected so not a huge pocket of caramel but still very tasty!
Well that is good to hear! At least the caramel didn’t turn out rock-hard or anything! Thanks for stopping by!
Mine are in the oven now! Can’t wait!! I know you said not to stray from real Rolos but I just bought the new Nestle Toll Toll House “Delightfuls” caramel filled baking morsels; hope they work well too
How did they turn out Keri? I am curious to know if the “Delightfuls” worked!
what can i use instead of rollo bites candy in India i do not get them please let me know some common alternative
zarina
I am not sure- perhaps any small chocolate candy with caramel would work.
This recipe looks so delicious! I am a huge fan of Rolos so I will definitely try this recipe out! Thanks for sharing!
These were underwhelming.
Might try 1 more time.
I used the mini rolo’s that are already unwrapped.
Next time will try the full size.
Hi! I made these and used the recipe above and found that they lacked a little sweetness. I compared your “oatmeal mix” recipe to the above recipe and found that the Rolo recipe has no white sugar. Since I didn’t have the oatmeal mix, done I followed the above recipe. Please let me know. THANK YOU!
I am beyond excited to bake these! They just look too delicious to not try out!
YUM! I just have two questions after reading: If you use your quick oatmeal cookie mix that is already pre-made, how much would you use? and second, could you make them into cookies if you just wrapped the dough around one rolo? Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Hi, I just made these, So good! Mine didn’t come out quite as yummy looking as yours. Mine are more like brownies, still taste amazing, just trying to figure out what I did differently. 🙂
Hi,
Can’t wait to make these….but how do I save this recipe ?? am I just missing something ?
Enjoy all!!!
You can actually make rolo cookies, they are the most delicious things in the world!!
http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Rolo-Cookies-473644?columns=5&position=2%2F20
Hi there, thank you for this delicious recipe. Any way we could make this eggless or without the egg white? Thanks xx
Can you change the oats to rice crispy’s cereal?
What happens when you half the sugar? I always do on all the recipes since we live at 9000′ feet and it is necessary due to altitude. Thanks.
Is there any way that I could print off the R for Rolo Cookie Bars ?
Take a screen shot then print the picture or just save it.