37 Fall Cookies to Serve for Halloween Parties, Thanksgiving Dinner or Any Old Weekday

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, make ahead, kid-friendly
• Serves: 12

“Call me basic, but I’m certain this is a match made in autumnal heaven,” former PureWow senior food editor Katherine Gillen writes. She’s right—the rich, tangy topper cuts through the sweetness and spice of the pumpkin cookies like a charm.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour (plus chilling time)
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, beginner-friendly, special occasion-worthy
• Serves: 36

“Making the signature spiral in these cookies looks intimidating, but the dough is very forgiving,” Gillen assures. “Use a piece of parchment paper to help roll everything into a tidy package, and you’ll be good to go. I also used vanilla paste in both the dough and glaze (I just love those vanilla bean flecks), but vanilla extract works too.”

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 16 to 18

“Yes, at their core, they’re a good old chocolate chipper,” Gillen admits, “but they’re also a little bit special, thanks to boozy bourbon and brown butter.” The latter ensures extra nuttiness and caramel-y splendor in every crumb.

• Time Commitment: 55 minutes
• Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 32

This vibrant pick has Thanksgiving dessert written all over it. “The dough is stiff on purpose to help hold the thumbprints while baking,” Gillen explains, “so you may have to knead it by hand slightly before scooping. And while their namesake implies otherwise, I prefer using a measuring spoon to indent the cookies for a uniform appearance.”

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 12

Sugar, spice, everything nice and store-bought caramel (looking at you, lazy bakers) make these fall cookies irresistibly simple. “For a less decadent but equally delicious cookie, you can omit the caramel and bake for a few minutes less,” Gillen adds.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 36

Kick citrus season off right with these supremely tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookies. “They’re easy to make, but it’s even easier to eat five in one sitting,” Gillen warns. “Feel free to swap clementine for another type of citrus—like Meyer lemon or blood orange—if you prefer.”

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 12

PSA: You won’t need a mixer to pull off these cakey delights. “Make sure you’re using plain canned pumpkin purée and not pie filling,” Gillen notes. “The latter contains added sugar and spices, and you’ll be adding your own” in this recipe. In fact, you’ll be creating a homemade blend of pumpkin pie spices to really capture those key, cinnamon-laced flavors everyone associates with fall, but you can use the store-bought kind if you’d prefer.

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, make ahead, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 15

Why wait until Christmas? Cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg and molasses fit right in at the fall table. Pro tip: “To maximize the chewy texture, make sure to not overbake these cookies,” Gillen says. “Since the dough is dark, it can be tricky to check for doneness by color alone. Instead, look for puffed, crackly tops and just-set edges.”

• Time Commitment: 55 minutes
• Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion-worthy, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 32

Behold: a Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar in cookie form. Bonus? These fall cookies are a cinch to prepare ahead. “Chill the dough for up to a day before scooping them, or if you like to work far in advance, you can scoop the dough into balls and freeze them for up to a month before thawing and baking,” Gillen says. “You can also bake the cookies and freeze them up to a month before serving.”

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 5 minutes
• Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion-worthy, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 24

The biscotti’s namesake is a New Mexican cookie flavored with cinnamon sugar and anise. These are just as spicy-sweet, but a little crispier and begging to be dunked in coffee. “You’ll form the dough into one big log for the first bake, then slice it while it’s still warm to produce the characteristic oblong shape,” Gillen explains. “A final trip to the oven dries out the cookies so they’re satisfyingly crunchy.”

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 5 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, one bowl, gluten free
• Serves: 12

Celebratory, foolproof and gluten free, these cookies don’t need to be eaten in December to be adored. “Macaroons are typically bound with egg whites, but to drive the coquito vibe home, I substituted sweetened condensed milk,” PureWow food editor Taryn Pire explains. “You can also cook down the condensed milk into dulce de leche before adding it to the coconut for a drier, more caramelized final product.”

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 12

Just because summer is in the rearview doesn’t mean the iconic combo of graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow goes out of style. “The recipe relies on graham cracker crumbs as the main dry ingredient,” Gillen explains. “The result is somewhere between a regular graham cracker and one of those chewy oatmeal sandwich cookies you used to eat in grade school.”

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, beginner-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 24

The magic of this sugar cookie recipe lies in its versatility. Swap a heart cookie-cutter for a ghost-, bat- or pumpkin-shaped one, use spooky colors in the glaze and you have a Halloween treat for the books. “It’s best to stick to two colors (three, max) to avoid a muddy result,” Gillen notes. “More mixing will have a softer, more marbled effect; less mixing will yield bright streaks of color.”

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 15

Pumpkin takes a backseat in favor of another fall favorite that guarantees an extra-moist, super soft cookie. “When the structure is set but the cookie’s not quite done,” recipe developer Erin McDowell explains, “you put the marshmallow on top and it melts over the whole thing in the oven. Because it’s a jumbo marshmallow, it stays chewy, so you get this nice pull effect when you break one in half.”

• Time Commitment: 3 hours and 10 minutes (includes chilling time)
• Why I Love It: make ahead, beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 24

I’m betting you have nearly all the necessary ingredients in your kitchen right now. Icebox cookies are a gamechanger year-round because you can prep the fuss-free dough, refrigerate or freeze it, then slice and bake whenever your schedule allows. Feel free to top these with melted chocolate as well.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 50 minutes
• Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 30

These fit the bill for Christmas Eve and a random lazy night alike. “When pecan brittle is just thrown into a cookie as is, it will liquefy and cause the cookie to be a hot, oozy mess,” cookbook author Rebecca Firth explains. “To fix this, the brittle is anchored with some melted chocolate and turned into a bark.”

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 24

It doesn’t get more autumnal than this, folks. Soft and tender on the outside and creamy and tangy on the inside, these fall cookies are an easy home run for newbie bakers. Might I suggest finishing them with coarse cinnamon sugar?

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, special occasion-worthy, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 30

Closer to Florentines than the thick, chewy oatmeal cookies you may be used to, these are supremely crisp and caramelized. They’re delicious plain, but also slathered with dark chocolate or even in ice cream sandwiches. P.S.: They’ll also keep for days in an airtight container.

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, make ahead, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 24

Equal parts fudgy, cozy and spicy, this simple chocolate cookie is gussied up for fall and winter alike. “It’s essentially a double chocolate chip cookie that we dust with cinnamon sugar spiked with cayenne,” writes actor and cookbook author Danny Trejo. “This makes it taste like a chocolate version of the old-fashioned Red Hots candy.”

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 24

There may not be any fresh lemon in this dessert, but it still tastes like citrus season to me. Chalk it up to mouth-puckering, store-bought lemon cake mix, which unites with frozen whipped topping and eggs to create a shockingly simple batter.

• Time Commitment: 25 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, kid-friendly, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 10

I can’t decide what I love most, the simple ingredient list, the quick cook time or the cookies’ indulgent size. “Extra brown sugar makes these cookies crackly and chewy,” McDowell explains. “They’re rolled in cinnamon and granulated sugar, which causes delicious caramelization to occur on the bottoms.”

• Time Commitment: 3 hours
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 35

These sweet, delicate fall cookies are impressive as is, but the dulce de leche filling? Edible jazz hands. I’m particularly in awe of the vanilla sugar coating, a mix of vanilla bean seeds and sugar blitzed in a food processor until fluffy.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, beginner-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 12

The nostalgia is strong with this one. “For the ultimate chewy texture, be careful not to overbake the cookies,” McDowell urges. “When the edges are just golden, they’re ready. The silky vanilla cream can be piped with a piping bag if you’re fancy, but an offset spatula does the job just fine.” (I’ll be going with the latter, TYVM.)

• Time Commitment: 2 hours
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, make ahead, special occasion-worthy
• Serves: 24

Can you believe these Insta-worthy stunners are only nine ingredients away? Matcha powder gives the cookies a verdant hue and offers a toasty, earthy foil to the sweet-tart cranberry jam filling. A peekaboo hole in the top cookie makes them even more gorgeous without demanding much extra effort.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, special occasion-worthy, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 12

Roasty, bold instant espresso powder puts this otherwise standard chocolate chipper firmly in fall cookie territory. Take it from me: Don’t skip the 30-minute rest in the fridge. It’s the trick to getting the dough to spread just right in the oven.

• Time Commitment: 3 hours and 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 24

Pistachio is super trendy right now, so these simple icebox cookies are right on the pulse. Best of all, the recipe can be prepared ahead with only seven ingredients (and that’s including salt). Try marbling some cold pistachio butter into the dough before chilling it.

• Time Commitment: 3 hours
• Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 24

Nothing elicits cold-weather comfort like a confectioners’ sugar-dusted crinkle cookie. This one is packed with molasses, a flurry of warming spices and gooey caramel (store-bought, not homemade—you’re welcome) to sweeten the deal.

• Time Commitment: 4 hours and 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, make ahead, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 24

If you’re up for a baking project, here it is: You’re about to make your own puff pastry. “It’s basically like making pie dough with a few folds at the end,” McDowell explains. “When you’re shaping them, they’re dipped in sugar so that in the oven, as they puff up and show all their layers, they also get deeply caramelized.”

• Time Commitment: 20 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, <30 minutes, kid-friendly, dairy free, gluten free
• Serves: 18

Leave the flour in the pantry and the milk in the fridge—sugar, peanut butter and egg hold down the fort for this impossible-to-mess-up dessert. Not only will they keep in your freezer for up to three months (if you don’t devour them all on sight), but they can also be made vegan by substituting a flax egg for the real thing.

• Time Commitment: 25 minutes (plus chilling)
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 24

Frosted sugar cookies but make ’em fashion. A slick slathering of dulce de leche (yes, store-bought is fine) takes these simple handhelds up a notch, and a layer of festive sprinkles does the same. To prep them ahead, let the finished cookies sit out for 12 hours until they lose their stickiness and turn stackable.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy, make ahead
• Serves: 12

“These cookies are inspired by the centuries-old method of making Turkish coffee, which is distinctively strong, dark and often flavored with cardamom pods,” explain the authors of The Modern Spice Rack. Add pistachios, macadamia nuts or walnuts crunch, or finish the fall cookies with dried rose petals.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 24

Pantry staples + chocolate chips + soft caramels = the easiest upgrade to your go-to cookie recipe. If you’re feeling extra decadent, chop up any leftover Halloween candy you have on hand and add it to the dough. (I’m betting Butterfingers would be extra delicious.)

• Time Commitment: 2 hours and 20 minutes
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 12

“These buttery cookies have a hint of nuttiness and a touch of salt, which makes their slightly sour cranberry filling even more delectable,” McDowell asserts. If you feel like cutting corners, substitute store-bought jam for the filling. I’m thinking cranberry, plum, apricot or orange varieties would all taste stellar.

• Time Commitment: 2 hours
• Why I Love It: no bake, beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 6

A simple cinnamon-vanilla whipped cream elevates store-bought gingersnaps in a flash, not to mention a drizzle of premade caramel sauce. To enjoy ASAP, skip the chilling step and nosh on them right after filling. They’ll be crunchier that way than if you let them sit in the fridge.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 5 minutes
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 16 to 20

“I love shortbread in any form,” cookbook author and celebrity chef Ina Garten admits, “but this one with cinnamon and ‘apple pie’ spices is extra special. Not only are these cookies delicious but the house smells wonderful when you make them.” Their star shape merely gilds the lily.

• Time Commitment: 3 hours and 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 24

Crunchy pecans, indulgent brown sugar and a one-two punch of maple syrup *and* maple extract make these fall cookies unforgettable. Don’t let the time commitment deter you: Most of it is dedicated to hands-off chilling.

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: make ahead, beginner-friendly, gluten free, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 24

Are you a fan of Girl Scout Samoas? These are like a chocolate-free, extra caramel-y version of those (although they would taste wonderful dipped in chocolate and finished with flaky salt). “You spoon a little bit of the sauce on the outsides as they’re baking and it slides down the macaroons like a glaze,” McDowell explains, “but it loses its stickiness in the oven.”