Learn how to make the best fall cookies with this easy recipe. These cranberry white chocolate cookies are flavoured with apple butter and cinnamon, and have pumpkin seeds, creating a fruity cookie that tastes like autumn.
These cookies are a variation based on the pumpkin butter cookies published in my ebook, All About Pumpkin. Using fruit butters like pumpkin butter, apple butter, or pear butter allows us to infuse these fall cookies with flavour without the water of apple sauce, pear compote or pumpkin purée which would compromise the texture.
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Ingredients To Make Fall Cookies
These apple butter cookies are a variation of my best chocolate chip cookies. Here's what you need to make these fall cookies:
- apple butter—do not confuse this with a compound butter! Apple butter is 100 % pure apple (maybe with a little sugar or spices) whereas apple compound butter is a cow's butter flavoured with apple. The two are not interchangeable!
- sugar—use mostly brown sugar with a little white granulated sugar for the most flavour and best texture
- white chocolate—I prefer to use chopped high-quality white chocolate
- pumpkin seeds—use shelled pumpkin seeds. Make sure they aren't old or rancid!
- salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using table salt, add half the amount to avoid making the cookies too salty
- leavening—we are using baking soda, not baking powder. Read about the difference between baking powder and baking soda if you aren't sure the difference
- flavour agents—you will need ground cinnamon and pure vanilla extract
- butter—use unsalted butter or add less salt to the recipe to make sure the cookies aren't too salty
- flour—I tested this recipe with bleached all-purpose flour, but unbleached should work too
- egg—I always use large eggs for all my recipes. If you use a different size of eggs, this may alter the texture and spread of the cookies.
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and amounts.
Substitutions and Variations
These fall cookies have a simple list of ingredients, and just a few variations or substitutions are possible:
- Apple butter - you can use any fruit butter to make these cookies, like apple, pumpkin, or pear.
- Nuts - these cookies are nut-free, made with pumpkin seeds, but you can replace them with sunflower seeds or even toasted walnuts or pecans.
- Cranberries - I love dried cranberries in this fall cookie because cranberry season is late fall and early winter, but you can also use dried currants, raisins, or even chopped crystallized ginger.
- Chocolate - I think white chocolate is the best choice for these cookies, but this recipe will work with milk or dark chocolate too. You can use chips or chopped chocolate bars.
Instructions For Apple Butter Cookies
Just like most cookie recipes, these autumn cookies are made using the creaming method with a stand mixer (or a hand mixer if you prefer), though by hand with a wooden spoon is also possible if you have the energy!
Step 1—Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (image 1) to evenly incorporate the salt, spices, and leavening. Meanwhile, combine the butter and sugars in the stand mixer fitted with a paddle attached (image 2) until creamy and fluffy, then add the egg and vanilla (image 3).
Step 2—Add the apple butter to the light mixture (image 4) before stirring in the whisked dry ingredients (image 5), followed by the add-ins (chopped white chocolate, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds (image 6).
Step 3—The cookie dough will be thick and sticky once mixed (image 7). Use a 1-⅓-ounce disher to portion out the dough into 50-gram scoops (image 8). Chill the scoops of dough for 15 minutes before baking.
Step 3—I like to roll the chilled cookie dough scoops between the palms of my hands to smooth the surface and even them out before placing them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (image 9). Bake until set (image 10).
Storage
Store the baked cookies in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze them for longer storage.
Top Tip
The cookie dough is very sticky after mixing, too sticky to manipulate it with your hands. This is why it's essential to use a cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough. Chilling the portioned cookie dough for 15 minutes allows you to roll each scoop between your palms to smooth it. The smoothed mounds of cookie dough will bake into a rounder, neater shape, as you can see in the photos above.
Other Drop Cookie Recipes
Looking for other recipes like these fall drop cookies? Try these:
If you tried this recipe for fall cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Fall Cookies
Ingredients
- 190 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 2.5 mL baking soda
- 2.5 mL ground cinnamon
- 115 grams unsalted butter
- 150 grams light brown sugar
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large egg(s)
- 10 mL pure vanilla extract
- 75 grams apple butter
- 130 grams white chocolate chopped
- 115 grams pumpkin seeds
- 90 grams dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line two or three large half sheet pans (13” x 18” x 1” | 33 cm x 45.5 cm x 2.5 cm) with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a big mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer), cream together the butter, the brown sugar, and the granulated sugar until it’s very light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and the vanilla, and mix well until the mixture is light and fluffy again. Then stir in the apple butter. Make sure to clean down the sides of the bowl as needed with a big spatula.
- Dump in the whisked dry ingredients, and incorporate them on low.
- Mix in the white chocolate, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries.
- Scoop approximately 50-gram portions of the sticky dough onto one of your parchment-lined sheet pans. I like to do all the scooping at once and place them all on one of the prepared sheet pans.
- Chill the portioned out scoops of dough in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm them up, then roll them into smooth balls with the palms of your hand.
- Place 6–8 scoops per cookie sheet, spacing them apart and staggering them.
- Bake the cookies one sheet pan at a time until the edges are set and begin to brown slightly (about 14 minutes). You might want to rotate the pan partway through the baking to ensure the cookies brown evenly.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the sheet pan while you bake the second pan. Store the cookies in an airtight container once they've cooled completely.
Notes
- This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
- This recipe works with any fruit butter, such as pumpkin, pear, or apple butter.
- Remember, fruit butters are made from fruit purée (compote or sauce) that is cooked down into a thick, concentrated spread. This is not to be confused with a compound butter made with cow's butter.
- Want to change this up?
- Replace the dried cranberries with chopped crystallized ginger, raisins, currants, or chopped dried pear or apple
- Replace the pumpkin seeds with toasted walnuts or pecans
- Replace the white chocolate with milk or dark chocolate.
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