Our Favorite Fall Cookie Recipes
Try all three! [1]
Caramel Apple Cookies use the flavors of fall— chopped apple, pecans, apple juice, apple pie spice and more— for a hearty, delicious cookie. The fruit and grain-filled Banana-Oat Breakfast Cookies are a great snack to start the day. Traditional shortbread infused with lemon zest and topped with lemon icing combine in our Lemon on Lemon Shortbread Cookies.
Anita's Cranberry Scones [7]
Coarsely chopped cranberries spread the sweet-tart flavor throughout this tender scone, a winner at the Warrens Cranberry Festival recipe competition. A sweet almond frosting complements the berries.
Rene's Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies [11]
Coconut adds chewiness to this full-of-chips cookie. The recipe is from Rene's Bakery in Indianapolis, one of the most popular Indy bakeries.
Gingersnap Gems [15]
The recipe for these sweet and spicy cookies comes from the Warren family in Stanley, Kansas. The gingersnaps are a favorite at family gatherings.
Gingersnap Gems [16]
Coffee break [19]
Whether your brew is coffee or tea or just a glass of milk, take a break with one of our tempting baked goods flavored with chocolate, cranberry or coffee.
Chocolate-Cranberry Biscotti [20]
Latte Checkerboards [21]
Peanut Butter Apple Cookies [24]
Looking for a healthier cookie? Shredded apple, whole wheat flour, canola oil and wheat germ reduce saturated fat and add whole grains and flavor to peanut butter cookies.
Cranberry Candy-Bar Cookies [28]
These gooey bar cookies start with a German chocolate cake mix. Melted caramels and cranberry sauce form a moist middle layer.
Peanut Butter Munchies [32]
A Hanover, Kansas, reader sent the recipe for these chocolate cookies with peanut butter centers to a Midwest Living® cookie contest. A judge described them as "regally rich chocolate with a peanut butter kick."
Hunka Chocolate Cookies [36]
This recipe will satisfy chocolate lovers' cravings, with semisweet chocolate pieces, unsweetened chocolate, melted white chocolate and melted semisweet chocolate. Just a half a cup of flour goes into this fudgy delight.
Crisp Cherry-Almond Bars with Marshmallows [40]
Dried fruit and crunchy almonds bring antioxidants and omega-3s to these bars made from two kinds of rice cereal--regular and chocolate flavored--in our version of marshmallow-cereal bars.
Sour Cream Pumpkin Bars and Oatmeal and More Cookies [44]
When the afternoon hungries strike, cookies and other treats come to the rescue. We've added whole grains to some of these recipes so they're more nutritious. Take them to a potluck or out tailgating, too.
Fat Molasses Cookies [49]
Packed with flavor from molasses, ginger, cinnamon and brown sugar, these cookies look especially nice when cut with a scalloped or round cutter and sprinkled with coarse sugar or crystallized ginger.
Fat Molasses Cookies [50]
Snickerdoodles [53]
Cinnamon and sugar coat these traditional crackled-top cookies. For a pumpkin-flavored version, try Pumpkin Doodle Doo Cookies.
Snickerdoodles [54]
Mother Knows Best Carrot Cookies [58]
These cookies are almost like a miniature carrot cake. Top them with orange frosting and finely shredded orange peel for a cookie that's as beautiful as it is delicious. This recipe is from Nancee Allan of Centertown, Missouri, and "dates back to the 1940s at least," she says. "My mother, Helen Kaufmann, and our next-door neighbor, Georgia Mae Wenkle, used to bake a lot of desserts. This was one of our favorites."
Cinnamon Cardamom Crisps [62]
Great with coffee or an afternoon snack, these cookies combine the fall flavors of cinnamon and cardamom, with sliced almonds on top.
Salted Peanut Squares [66]
Stir together just 6 ingredients for this easy-to-make treat. Peanuts top a rich layer of butter, marshmallows, peanut butter-flavored pieces, sweetened condensed milk, and peanut butter.
Snowballs and Nutjammers [70]
The Cole family of Wadsworth, Ohio, bakes these each year for friends and family. The tradition started more than 50 years ago when Phrania (Fran) Cole and her sister, Ann, began baking cookies as affordable gifts. With the Snowballs, the Coles like the tang of black walnut and the snowy look that comes from powdered sugar. The Nutjammers are another old favorite. You can choose from two fillings when you make these tiny, turnoverlike treats.
Snowballs recipe [71]
Nutjammer Cookies [72]
Halloween Cutouts [75]
These sour cream cookies, cut into pumpkin shapes and decked with orange-butter frosting, come from a longtime Wright's Bake Shop recipe in Reed City, Michigan.
Halloween Cutouts [76]
Delectable Date Cookies [79]
A whisper of honey flavors these treats, from the Gettysburg Bakery in Gettysburg, South Dakota.
Midwest bakery favorites [83]
When Midwest Living® readers were asked to nominate their favorite hometown treats, we received hundreds of suggestions, including the cookies pictured at left. Clockwise, from front: Peanut Logs, a frosted bar from Linton, North Dakota; Swedish Dream Cookies, a pecan- and coconut-dotted cookie from Clay Center, Kansas; Amish-Style Sugar Cookies, a puffy sugar cookie from Ossian, Indiana; and Power House Cookies, a North Dakota cookie that packs together chocolate pieces, coconut, raisins, walnuts and oats.
Peanut Logs [84]
Amish-Style Sugar Cookies [86]
Power House Cookies [87]
Kimmy's Fancy Sandwich Cookie [90]
Kim Kordich of the Cole family in Wadsworth, Ohio, likes writing words or putting holiday symbols on these little sandwich cookies. The cookies taste wonderful filled with jam, preserves and even frosting.
Dream Jumbles [94]
Chocolate, raisins, pecans, almonds, brown sugar—this recipe has it all, in an easy drop cookie. They are a dream to eat as well as to make.
Dream Jumbles [95]
Chocolate Lovers' Oatmeal Delight [98]
Crisp on the outside and fudgy on the inside, these treats are easy drop cookies that feature semisweet chocolate pieces as well as peanut butter flavored pieces. Unsweetened cocoa powder punches up the chocolate flavor.
Healthy Chocolate Chippers [102]
Wheat flour, flaxseed, applesauce and dried fruit add good-for-you ingredients to the traditional chocolate chip cookie.
More great fall desserts [106]
Click below for more delicious Midwest Living fall recipe ideas.