The Best Fall Cookie Recipes to Add to Your Seasonal Baking Bucket List
Including treats inspired by cinnamon rolls, pumpkin pie, hot cocoa, and grandma’s nostalgic cookies.
Preheat your oven now. After peeking at our best fall cookie recipes, you’ll want as little time as possible standing between you and your first bite. Featuring apple, cranberries, pumpkin, baking spices, and so much more, these fall cookie recipes will have you all set to slay at potlucks, bake sales, and cookie exchanges.
Jumbo Apple-Oatmeal Cookies
This fall cookie recipe is both jumbo in size (¼ cup each, between two and four times as large as our usual drop cookies!) and in seasonal flavor. In addition to the vanilla, oats, and apple pie spice that lend warmth, this is a true apple dessert. These oatmeal cookies are ultra-tender and tasty since they call for diced fresh apples and applesauce.
Bourbon Cranberry Cookies
When summer shifts into fall, we gladly refresh our summer vodka cocktail “wardrobe” with something a bit more fitting for the season: bourbon drinks. Then we keep that bottle handy to spike one of our favorite alcohol-infused desserts. The caramel notes in that spirit accent the sweet-tart dried cranberries, nutty oats, and rich semisweet chocolate pieces and ganache beautifully. The result? According to fans, “amazing and always a big hit,” since they’re “moist, chewy and delicious!”
Pumpkin-Spiced Whoopie Pies
Because lattes shouldn’t get all the glory…These tender whoopie pies—which fall between a cake and a cookie texture-wise—are infused with pumpkin spice, vanilla, and molasses-y brown sugar. The filling is where you’ll find the real deal: ¾ cup of canned pumpkin. We also call for more pumpkin pie spice, powdered sugar, and a luscious combo of mascarpone and ricotta cheese.
Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Like cinnamon rolls, but not the rising time required to make them from scratch? These icebox slice-and-bake cookies offer similar flavors, and they only ask for a brief 30-minute chill time in the fridge before you can bake. With cinnamon, brown sugar, and even a cream cheese icing drizzle, these breakfast-inspired cookies check all the roll boxes, just with a bit less fuss. One home baker raves, “My neighbor made these for us, and we ate them up so fast, I had to beg him for the recipe so I could make some more!”
Classic Snickerdoodles
Little can compare to the smell of a kitchen overflowing with the aroma of freshly-baked cookies, especially if they’re warmly spiced. Just like mom made early and often every autumn, these moist, pillowy, and sweet snickerdoodles are like a dessert and air freshener all in one. Vanilla and a cinnamon-sugar coating drive home the fall cookie vibes.
Gluten-Free Giant Ginger Cookies
Not every cookie recipe can be adapted to be a simple one-for-one swap to become a gluten-free cookie. But this is one that’s been tested and perfected, so you can trust that you won’t be wasting your time, ingredients, and money. Using our custom 4-ingredient gluten-free flour mix recipe as the base, you’re just a few staples away (molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves) from baking one of the best gluten-free fall cookies you’ll ever taste. Thank goodness they’re supersized!
Pumpkin Cookies with Candied Pepitas
Yes, we know it can sound like a risky proposition to suggest adding watery pumpkin purée or canned pumpkin to a cookie dough. But with a nice balance of flour and baking soda in the mix. These definitely rise to the occasion. Just be sure to chill the orange zest- and pumpkin pie spice-scented dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow it to firm up enough for cut-out cookies (that don’t bleed into each other).
Cinnamon-Walnut Cracker Bars
We’ve taken what is sometimes called “cracker toffee candy” or “Christmas crack” and pumped it up to bar cookie size. And although you might be more familiar seeing this on holiday cookie platters, we think they’re especially appropriate as a fall cookie option since they feature cinnamon and caramel; two flavors we associate with the season. Plus, since these are a no-bake option, they’re a brilliant choice for early autumn when we’re often treated to several of those lingering summer-like, steamy days.
Pecan Tassies
One BHG superfan says, “I've been making this same recipe for more than 40 years. It’s a Christmas tradition, but delicious anytime you want to make it. One of my favorites!” You’re less than 1 hour away from tasting why this has become an heirloom recipe for many families. Since the easy pecan pie-style tassies call for just 7 ingredients—including seasonal brown sugar and pecans—they’re oven ready in just 30 minutes. The bite-sized mini muffin tin format means that these fall cookies bake quickly as well.
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Cookies
Feeding a crowd or in need of a bake sale-sized batch of fall cookies? Try this aptly-named dessert, which is ultra-moist and practically melts in your mouth thanks to a full can of pumpkin. Cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and vanilla crank up the autumnal flair. Don’t just take our word for it that you should try them. “I made these last year for my kids' elementary school fall festivals,” one BHG reader says. “I had teachers at both schools ask me for the recipe and this year I've had several people beg me to make them again (which, a year later, means they were definitely memorable). They really are delicious.”
Test Kitchen Tip: If you don’t need 60 servings, try our “giant” modification which yields 26 larger cookies.
Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
We’ve landed at the one, the only, the classic: oatmeal-raisin! According to our Test Kitchen experts, this is quite possibly fall’s favorite cookie (well, our fans’ top pick for the seasonal cookie). One bite practically transports us back to those first few weeks of school being back in session. With hearty oats, molasses-tinged brown sugar, cozy cinnamon, floral vanilla, and chewy, sweet raisins, bonus mix-ins or “upgrades” need not apply. This fall cookie is perfect in its unadulterated glory.
Pumpkin Spice Spiral Cookies
The magical fall duo—pumpkin pie spice and canned pumpkin—strikes again in this mesmerizing fall cookie recipe. Fold half of the pumpkin into the cookie dough with the flour, butter, egg, sugar, and spices. Then showcase the other half in the pumpkin filling (the darker layer in the spiral). Since brown sugar, an egg yolk, and pie spice are the only other filling elements, the earthy, sweet flavor of the squash really stands out in that layer.
Related: How to Soften Cream Cheese Quickly for Smoother Cooking
Cathy's Frosted Maple Cookies
Maple syrup is stellar for more than topping pancakes and waffles. Pour a full cup into this easy fall cookie recipe for a big punch of seasonal sweetness. A splash of maple extract in the frosting drives home the seasonality of these brown sugar cookies.
Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups
As a preview of coming winter comfort, wrap up your fall cookie spree with these playful cookie cups. The bite-size desserts look like little mugs of warm cocoa magic—and they taste like that, too. Tucked inside the almond-scented sugar cookie dough, you’ll be treated to a luxurious chocolate ganache that comes together simply with heavy cream and your choice of chocolate (semisweet, milk, dark; any is delicious).
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