30 Fall Cookie and Bar Recipes Every Baker Needs to Try
As soon as the temperature dips even the slightest bit below 70, you better believe we're ready for fall baking. While pies and cakes will always be seasonal staples, there's nothing like a warm cookie to welcome fall. Whether you're baking a batch for a football party or your church's Thanksgiving potluck, cookies full of pumpkin, apple, caramel, peanut butter, or pecan flavor are sure to win over your crowd. From desserts that play on your favorite flavor combinations, like our Caramel-Apple Cookies or our Cranberry-Almond Cookies, to sweets that fuse two classic treats together, like our Apple Pie Cookies or our Pecan Pie Cookies, our best fall cookies recipes have everything you're looking for this autumn season. The hardest part just might be picking which recipe to make...or keeping your cookie jar full once the family tries a cookie or two.
Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Recipe: Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Add an extra crunch to this slice-and-bake shortbread by coating both dough logs with turbinado sugar before slicing them into rounds.
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The secret to these crowd-favorite cookies is in the butter. It all comes down to the first (very important) step of browning the butter before you start baking.
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Apple Pie Cookies
Recipe: Apple Pie Cookies
Your typical apple pie gets a makeover in this bite-sized cookie. These pillowy, personal-sized treats are like miniature hand pies, and the pocket of apple pie filling is sure to make you think of your favorite Thanksgiving slice.
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Caramel-Apple Cookies
Recipe: Caramel-Apple Cookies
The flavor of your favorite state fair treat in cookie form, this dessert makes the most of apple and caramel.
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Candy Corn Cookies
Recipe: Candy Corn Cookies
Celebrate fall's favorite candy by topping our classic homemade sugar cookies with the festive treat.
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Brown Butter-Caramel Blondies
Recipe: Brown Butter-Caramel Blondies
Drizzle this sweet treat with homemade caramel for extra gooey goodness.
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Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies
Recipe: Fudgy Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cookies
A rich, delectable flourless treat, this rich dessert is essentially a cookie brownie filled with toasted chopped pecans and gooey pockets of melted chocolate.
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Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Nothing screams fall more than these scrumptious pumpkin spice cookies that pair well with a cup of hot chocolate...or a pumpkin spice latte from your favorite coffee shop.
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Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Recipe: Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Get our your piping bags and create the perfect fall treat. If it's past Halloween, just leave the jack-o'-lantern face off your design for a timeless fall pumpkin.
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Cappuccino Swirl Bars
Recipe: Cappuccino Swirl Bars
Good to look at, but even better to eat, these bars are surprisingly easy to make.
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Butterscotch Cookies
Recipe: Butterscotch Cookies
Butterscotch chips are just as easy to buy at the grocery store as chocolate chips. Bake them into this classic cookie recipe for soft chunks of caramelized buttery goodness.
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Nutty Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Recipe: Nutty Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
With a chocolate-peanut butter filling that will remind you of your favorite peanut butter cup, this nutty delight is the perfect fit for any fall gathering.
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Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
Recipe: Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
This blast from the past is just a delicious and simple to make as you remember. A no-fuss treat, the recipe comes from our February 1986 issue, but we brought it back to delight your taste buds all fall and winter long.
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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cakey-thick cookies are a cross between a pumpkin muffin and a chocolate chip cookie, making them the ultimate treat for chocolate lovers in the fall.
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Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Recipe: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Crisp on the outside and exceptionally gooey on the inside, it may be impossible to only eat one of these crinkle cookies.
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Peanut Butter Fingers
Recipe: Peanut Butter Fingers
These Peanut Butter Fingers play on the beloved combination of peanut butter and dark chocolate, and its complex sweet and salty combination will keep you coming back for another bite.
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Kitchen Sink Cookies
Recipe: Kitchen Sink Cookies
Sweet meets salty in this family-favorite recipe that incorporates chopped almonds, chocolate chunks, and crushed corn chips.
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Pecan Pie Cookies
Recipe: Pecan Pie Cookies
Not all occasions call for a full-on pie. With a shortbread crust and a pecan pie filling, these bite-sized pecan pie treats pack in all the best elements of your favorite fall pie.
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Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies
Recipe: Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies
These presidential family-approved cookies are stuffed with chewy, gooey ingredients.
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Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe: Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
The key ingredient for the best mint chip cookies? It's as easy as mint dark chocolate.
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Spiced Pecan Pie Bars
Recipe: Spiced Pecan Pie Bars
You can't go through the fall season without making these cinnamon pecan bars.
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Toasted Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe: Butterscotch-Toasted Oatmeal Cookies
Butterscotch chips perfectly compliment these oatmeal cookies.
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Cranberry-Almond Cookies
Recipe: Cranberry-Almond Cookies
This quick and easy dessert is a fruit-lover's treat of choice.
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Lemon-Almond Bars
Recipe: Lemon-Almond Bars
These bars are easy peasy lemon squeezy and mighty tasty too.
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Seven-Layer Cookies
Recipe: Seven-Layer Cookies
This impressive, flavor-packed treat couldn't be easier—or more delicious.
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Caramel-Stuffed Ginger Cookies
Recipe: Caramel-Stuffed Ginger Cookies
Take your ginger snaps to the next level by adding a caramel center.
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Raspberry Jam Thumbprints
Recipe: Raspberry Jam Thumbprints
You can substitute whatever preserves or jam you have on hand for the raspberry jam.
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Crispy Praline Cookies
Recipe: Crispy Praline Cookies
Get the flavor of your favorite New Orleans candy in a quick and easy cookie recipe with a short ingredient list.
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Easy Witch's Hat Cookies
Recipe: Easy Witch's Hat Cookies
You're just four ingredients away from this festive treat.
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WATCH: Fall Baking Cookies and Bars
When the air turns crisp and pumpkin has become a recipe staple that can only mean one thing: fall has officially commenced.
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Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe: Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies
This 4-ingredient peanut butter cookie recipe is a must-have for novice cookie enthusiasts and seasoned bakers alike.