Our Favorite Fall Cookie Recipes

By The editors of MidwestLiving.com
Updated August 17, 2020

Whether you make them for an afternoon snack or a weekend tailgating party, these 20-plus cookie recipes will bring autumn's scents and flavors into your home.

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Caramel Apple Cookies

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Chopped apple, pecans, apple juice, apple pie spice and more combine for a hearty, delicious cookie. The frosting and nuts add just the right touch of sweetness and crunch on top.

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Miss Rosa Lee’s Oatmeal Cookies

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Nothing fancy here; this is the perfectly chewy lunchbox classic, pebbled with walnuts and plump raisins. A combination of vegetable oil and butter ensures a chewy texture and rich flavor. This recipe comes from Patty Pinner's cookbook Sweets (crownpublishing.com).

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Anita's Cranberry Scones

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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.

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Rene's Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies

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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.

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Gingersnap Gems

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The recipe for these sweet and spicy cookies comes from the Warren family in Stanley, Kansas. The gingersnaps are a favorite at family gatherings.

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Chocolate-Cranberry Biscotti

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Whether your brew is coffee or tea or just a glass of milk, take a break with a tempting homemade biscotti. 

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Peanut Butter Apple Cookies

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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.

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Cranberry Candy-Bar Cookies

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These gooey bar cookies start with a German chocolate cake mix. Melted caramels and cranberry sauce form a moist middle layer.

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Avalon's Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

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Avalon International Breads in Detroit sells these drop cookies.

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Peanut Butter Munchies

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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."

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Hunka Chocolate Cookies

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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.

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Crisp Cherry-Almond Bars with Marshmallows

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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.

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Sour Cream Pumpkin Bars

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OK, so they're not exactly a cookie, but these pumpkin bars are some of our favorite fall treats. A little whole wheat flour adds fiber and nutrients. 

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Fat Molasses Cookies

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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.

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Spiced Apple Drops

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An apple a day tastes even better in cookie form, especially with frosting on top!

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Quadruple Ginger Cookies

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To make ginger juice, Patty Erd of the Spice House in Evanston, Illinois, squishes coarsely chopped fresh ginger in a clean garlic press.

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Snickerdoodles

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Cinnamon and sugar coat these traditional crackled-top cookies. For a pumpkin-flavored version, try Pumpkin Doodle Doo Cookies.

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Mother Knows Best Carrot Cookies

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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."

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Cinnamon Cardamom Crisps

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Great with coffee or an afternoon snack, these cookies combine the fall flavors of cinnamon and cardamom, with sliced almonds on top.

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Salted Peanut Squares

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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.

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Dream Jumbles

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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.

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Chocolate Lovers' Oatmeal Delight

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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.

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Healthy Chocolate Chippers

Wheat flour, flaxseed, applesauce and dried fruit add good-for-you ingredients to the traditional chocolate chip cookie.Healthy Chocolate Chippers

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By The editors of MidwestLiving.com