Meet your new favorite treat, gooey Rolo cookies, soft chocolate cookies with a melty caramel center. They mix up fast, bake beautifully, and disappear even faster at parties.
These cookies are all about contrast, a tender, chocolatey cookie wrapped around a creamy caramel Rolo that stays irresistibly gooey. Our kids love the surprise inside, and grown ups do too.
If you are planning a cookie platter, try these alongside Peanut Butter Cup Cookies and Candy Bar Brownies for a fun mix.
Why we think you’ll love it:
- Simple. Perfect for baking with kids or new bakers.
- Fast. With a 5 minute prep these cookies are easy to fit between school pick ups and dinner.
- Party perfect. These caramel filled cookies travel well and look cute on any dessert table.
Gooey Rolo Cookies Ingredients
- Chocolate cake mix (1 box) – Provides the dry structure, cocoa flavor, and sweetness so you get consistent, bakery style cookies with minimal measuring.
- Butter (½ cup) – Adds richness and tender texture, helping the cookies stay soft while carrying chocolate and caramel flavors.
- Vanilla extract (1 teaspoon) – Rounds out the chocolate and enhances the caramel notes in the center.
- Cream cheese (8 ounces) – Creates the signature gooey, creamy crumb that keeps these cookies soft even after cooling.
- Egg (1) – Binds the dough and adds moisture for a soft, chewy bite.
- Powdered sugar – Used for rolling and dusting, adds a delicate sweet finish and keeps dough from sticking.
- Rolos – The surprise caramel center, melty and indulgent when baked.
How to Make Gooey Rolo Cookies
PREP. Preheat oven to 350.
BATTER. Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until fluffy. Mix in cake mix. Chill for 30 minutes.
ROLOS. Grab a Rolo and insert into rolled cookie dough making sure it is covered. Place in a bowl of powdered sugar and placed on greased cookie sheet.
BAKE. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Add sifted powdered sugar on top if desired.
Kristyn’s Recipe Tips
- Chill the dough until it is easy to handle and not sticky, this helps the cookies keep their shape and the centers stay neatly tucked inside.
- Flatten each dough ball, place a Rolo in the middle, and pinch the seams closed to fully cover the candy and prevent caramel leaks.
- Bake just until set at the edges, then let them rest on the sheet, carryover heat keeps the centers soft without drying the cookie.
- If Rolos aren’t your favorite you can get a pack of caramels from the candy aisle and use those instead. Just make sure that whatever size caramel you use that your cookie dough ball completely covers it.
Gooey Rolo Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box Chocolate Cake Mix
- ½ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 egg
- powdered sugar
- Rolos
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until fluffy. Mix in cake mix.
- Chill for 1 hour.
- Scoop dough with cookie scoop into a bowl of powdered sugar. Roll around and then flatten dough, place a Rolo in the middle and fold the dough around the Rolo.
- Place cookie dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Dust powdered sugar over baked cookies, if desired. Let cool.
Notes
- Chill the dough until it is easy to handle and not sticky, this helps the cookies keep their shape and the centers stay neatly tucked inside.
- Flatten each dough ball, place a Rolo in the middle, and pinch the seams closed to fully cover the candy and prevent caramel leaks.
- Bake just until set at the edges, then let them rest on the sheet, carryover heat keeps the centers soft without drying the cookie.
- If Rolos aren’t your favorite you can get a pack of caramels from the candy aisle and use those instead. Just make sure that whatever size caramel you use that your cookie dough ball completely covers it.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe FAQ
Store the cookies at room temperature, tightly covered for 3-5 days. After this time period the cookies will most likely become hard.
Freeze in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks, thaw before enjoying!
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This post was originally published November 2012.
Delicious! Messy and fun to make. This is such an easy recipe. You can’t make a mistake. Thank you!
This recipe was a huge hit with both my husband and 4 year-old. Thanks for sharing!
Yay!! Love that! Thank you so much!
Thank you Lil’ Luna for all you do to make our holidays yummy! Love this recipe.
Make them, you must!🥰
These really are so gooey and delicious! They are the perfect combo!
This recipe is so easy to make and super flavorful! It tasted so delicious! Will surely have this again! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing gooey rolo cookies recipe! Highly recommended!
These are the most delicious cookie recipe ever. The rolo in the center is perfection!
There is nothing better than biting into a warm cookie & biting into a rolo at the same time!! Super gooey & chocolatey!!
We love rolls. They even taste better in the the middle of a chocolate cookie.
Can’t be easier to make a fancier cookie. Such an easy way to add a center to a cookie.
Yes please! One of my favorite candies in a cookie. Yum!
These cookies are so good!!!
I made these cookies because they sounded great, but I’d never actually had an ooey gooey cookie before. My husband took them to work and his co-workers are demanding more, they say they are the best cookies they’ve ever had! Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe!
You are so welcome! I am glad to hear that!! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I made these for our holiday cookie bake off at work and won the prize for most creative!! They were amazing!
Woohoo!! Glad you won! Thank you for sharing that!
Hello Kristyn, thanks for your recipes. Could you please tell me if your okey.googey cookies are a wet cookie, I would love a crisp cookie I could make w/ a boxed cake mix. Appreciate any input. Rr
They are not a wet cookie. Just gooey 🙂 Thank you for checking my recipes out 🙂
Thanks for the delicious recipes
You are so welcome!! Thank you for stopping by!
Just made the yellow cake cookies. Delicious! And so easy. Will be trying them in many different flavors and those chocolate Rolo ones looks delicious. Thank you for this yummy treat!
You are welcome! I’m so glad you liked them, Brenda!! I have made this cookie in so many cake mixes and they are all so delicious. 😉 Have a great week!
Sooooooooooooooooooooo good! I made them and they are the best thing I had ever made!
Did you use the full size Rolo’s or the minis? These sound totally delicious
I used Regular Rolos but minis would work as well. 😉
I made these over the weekend and they were soooooooooooo good
So glad you liked them, Mary. Thank you for stopping by! 😀
I love your website so much u are awesome and have amazing idea and recipes….
Think it would be alright to freeze half the dough? Otherwise, I will be FORCED to eat the WHOLE batch! 🙂
Just brought these to church and had none left to take back home. These are very good and people love the caramel bite in the middle.
So glad they were a hit! Hopefully the were easy to make too! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Love the Rolo recipe and want to make it for a cookie swap this weekend! Just wondering approximately how many cookies one recipe will make???
I made 16 from my batch, but the cookies were quite large.- not a bad thing though I liked how they turned out.
I made 38-40. I used just enough dough to cover the Rolo and they were perfect… making more now!
Love your blog. Just discovered it from the contest entry. New fan and can’t wait to browse through to discover some awesome finds here.
Oh my gosh, these are great! I’ve been trying to come up with a chocolate rolo cookie, and this is a great recipe!
Can you give us a hint to which printables they are?
YUM!! We had those at a family party and I have been looking for the recipe ever since!
Thanks for sharing!
XO,
Jourdan