12 Cookie Ideas for This Fall Season

Pie Crust Cookies recipe — The Spruce / Leah Maroney

Fall is the time of year when leaves change color and appetites shift toward warming spices and comfort foods. With ingredients like maple, pumpkin, cinnamon, and pecans, these cookie recipes give you a tasty inspiration to find this fall's go-to treat.

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01 of 12

Maple Flake Shortbread Cookies

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

This recipe is made from a shortbread dough, which thanks to its generous use of butter, results in a light, crispy crumb. However, what really makes this a great cookie for the fall are the maple flakes, which are made from freeze-dried maple syrup.
02 of 12

New Orleans Pralines

The Spruce / Stephanie Goldfinger

Pralines can be firm or soft, but American recipes tend toward the soft side. Pecans are a classic ingredient in pralines, and their buttery taste and texture lend themselves well to the butter and cream used in this creamy pralines recipe.
03 of 12

Turkey Cookies

The Spruce / Leah Maroney

These turkey cookies are a creative way to use any leftover Halloween candy. If there’s a peanut allergy, or if you don’t want to use the peanut butter cups called for in this recipe, you can nest your decorations in a thick chocolate ganache instead.
04 of 12

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

The Spruce / Jessie Sheehan

The whoopie pie is a fixture in the bakeries of the Pennsylvania Amish, and for good reason—it’s a delicious treat, made with icing sandwiched between two cake-like cookies. This recipe calls for vegetable oil, but you can also use another neutral-tasting oil, like sunflower or safflower oil.

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05 of 12

Classic Snickerdoodles

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

You may remember a snickerdoodle for its peculiar name, but you’ll make it over and over again for its delicious flavor. The original recipe simply uses cinnamon, but why not try swapping it for pumpkin spice?
06 of 12

Simple Pecan Butterball Cookies

The Spruce

These pecan butterball cookies require a minimal number of ingredients, so they're a great, fuss-free treat. If you'd like an aromatic boost, blend cocoa powder or cinnamon into the confectioners' sugar used for rolling these cookies.
07 of 12

Pie Crust Cookies

The Spruce / Leah Maroney

Fall is the season for pie, so it's only natural to work these pie crust cookies into your regimen. If you want to make a cookie that nearly resembles a deconstructed pie, mix in either apple butter, maple extract, or chopped pecans to your icing batter before drizzling it over the top.
08 of 12

Soft Pumpkin Cookies With Brown Butter Icing

The Spruce / Cara Cormack

Simple and beautiful, these pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing are just as great for a get-together as they are for making with the kids. Make these even easier and more fun to decorate by using a piping bag for the icing.

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09 of 12

Apple Cookies With Raisins

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

This apple cookie recipe combines almost all of the quintessential fall ingredients, including raisins, apples, and vanilla. If you’d like to mix up your choice of dried fruit, swap the raisins for dates, prunes, or apricots.
10 of 12

Pecan Pie Cookies

The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

Pecan pie cookies make everyone’s favorite autumn pie a personal-sized treat. If you’d like a more scrumptious result, buy your pecans whole and as fresh as possible before chopping them up to use for the topping.
11 of 12

Molasses Crinkle Cookies

The Spruce / Diana Rattray

Molasses is a unique sweetener with a warm, complex flavor. You can experiment with what sort of molasses you use for this cookie recipe as some are stronger in flavor than others.
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Butterscotch Cookies

The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

Butterscotch may look and act like caramel, but its taste is distinct as it’s made with brown instead of white granulated sugar. These butterscotch cookies are great served with butterscotch schnapps for an after-meal treat.