Fall is truly a magical time of the year. When the weather outside starts to get just a little bit chilly and the leaves on the trees change into bright shades of orange and red, I always find myself wanting to spend time in the kitchen. There is something so special about turning on the oven, putting on a cozy sweater, and filling the entire house with the warm smell of sweet baked goods. For me, fall baking is all about comfort. It is about slowing down, enjoying the simple moments, and sharing sweet treats with the people we love the most. Also try these 30 Best Cookies for Fall & Thanksgiving Season
Jump to:
Today I am so excited to share one of my absolute favorite recipes for this wonderful season. We are going to make delicious harvest chocolate chip cookies.
These are not your average everyday cookies. They are packed with fun colors, sweet chocolate, and a little touch of tart fruit that makes them feel like autumn in every single bite.
Whether you are baking for a big family gathering, packing a sweet surprise for a school lunch, or just wanting a cozy treat to enjoy with a warm cup of tea while you watch the leaves fall outside, these cookies are going to become your new favorite go to recipe.
Why You Will Want to Make These Cookies
There are so many reasons to fall in love with this recipe.
- First of all, they look just like the season. When you pull a tray of these fresh out of the oven, you will see bright pops of orange, yellow, brown, and deep red candy pieces mixed right in with rich dark chocolate chips and ruby red cranberries. They look like you bought them at a fancy local bakery, but you can easily make them right in your own kitchen.
- Another wonderful reason to bake these is how simple the process is. You do not need any fancy tools or chef skills to get amazing results.
- If you can use a mixing bowl and a spoon, you can make these cookies turn out perfectly soft and chewy every single time. Plus, they smell incredible while they bake.
- That sweet smell of butter and vanilla will make your whole home feel warm and welcoming.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter: This gives the cookies that rich, buttery flavor we all love so much and helps them spread out nicely while they bake.
- Granulated White Sugar: This helps give the edges of our cookies that wonderful light crispness.
- Packed Light Brown Sugar: This is the secret to making cookies super soft and chewy with a lovely deep caramel flavor.
- Large Egg: This acts like glue to hold everything together and gives the cookie structure so it does not fall apart.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: This adds a warm, sweet background flavor that makes all the other flavors taste even better.
- All Purpose Flour: This is the main base of our dough that gives the cookies their shape and body.
- Baking Soda: This is a tiny helper that gives our cookies a little lift so they stay nice and soft instead of turning into flat crackers.
- Salt: Just a tiny pinch balances out all the sweetness so the cookies do not taste too sugary.
- Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips: These bring that classic, melty chocolate goodness that everyone looks for in a great cookie.
- Harvest Colored M&Ms: These bring the fun autumn colors of orange, brown, yellow, and red, plus a fun little candy crunch.
- Dried Cranberries: These give a bright pop of tart flavor and a chewy texture that cuts through the sweet chocolate and balances everything out.
Steps to Make these Harvest Chocolate Chip Cookies
Now comes the fun part. Let us head into the kitchen and bake a batch of these wonderful cookies together. Just follow these simple steps, and you will have warm, delicious treats in no time at all.
Step One: Preheat and Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a cookie baking dish with parchment paper.
Step Two: Mix the Wet Ingredients
- Grab a big mixing bowl. You can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer if you have one, or you can just use a sturdy spoon and a little bit of arm muscle.
- Beat together softened butter, white sugar, and brown sugar into the bowl at medium speed for about two minutes.
- Next, crack in the egg and pour in the vanilla extract.
- Keep beating the mixture until the egg and vanilla are completely blended in.
Step Three: Combine the Dry Ingredients
- In a separate medium sized bowl, whisk the dry ingredients ready - All purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Take a whisk or a fork and give them a quick stir just to make sure everything is mixed together evenly.
Step Four: Mix Everything Together
- Slowly add your bowl of dry flour mixture into your bowl of wet butter and sugar. Turn your mixer down to low speed, or use your spoon, and mix just until the flour disappears.
- Donot overmix
Step Five: Fold in the Add Ins
- Now combine semi sweet chocolate chips, colorful harvest candies, and dried cranberries, and dump them right into the dough.
- Use a spatula or a wooden spoon and gently fold everything in.
- Make sure you save a small handful of the colorful candies to press on the tops of the cookies later.
- Folding gently helps keep your ingredients evenly spaced out without breaking the candies too much.
Step Six: Scoop and Bake
- Use a spoon or a small cookie scoop to grab rounded portions of dough, about two tablespoons for each cookie.
- Place them on your prepared baking sheet leaving about two inches of space between each one so they have room to spread out as they bake.
- Once your dough balls are on the pan, take those extra candies you saved and press a few right into the top of each dough ball.
Step Seven: Cool and Enjoy
- When you take the pan out of the oven, do not try to move the cookies right away. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for about five minutes.
- During this time, they will finish cooking a little bit on the inside and firm up so they do not break.
- After five minutes, carefully move them over to a wire cooling rack so they can cool down completely.
- Once they are ready, grab a cold glass of milk or a warm cup of coffee and enjoy your wonderful homemade autumn treats.
Fun Variations to Try
One of the best things about baking cookies at home is that you can always change things up to match your mood or whatever you happen to have in your pantry. If you want to try something a little bit different with this recipe, here are some fun ideas you can experiment with.
If you love nuts and want to add an extra layer of autumn crunch, try tossing in a half cup of chopped walnuts or pecans when you fold in your chocolate chips. The nutty flavor goes so wonderfully with the sweet chocolate and tart cranberries.
If you want to lean even more into the fall spice theme, try adding a half teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a tiny pinch of nutmeg right in with your dry flour mixture. That extra touch of spice will make your kitchen smell even more like a autumn wonderland and gives the cookies a cozy warmth.
If you cannot find dried cranberries or just prefer a different kind of fruit, you can easily swap them out for dried cherries or even raisins. They give a similar chewy texture and sweet tart flavor that matches the chocolate and candy pieces so well.
How to Make Ahead and Store
Life can get very busy, and sometimes we want to enjoy fresh baked cookies without having to do all the mixing and measuring on a hectic day. The great news is that this recipe is very friendly for planning ahead.
If you want to save time later, you can make the cookie dough completely ahead of time. Scoop the dough into balls and place them on a tray lined with parchment paper. Put the tray into the freezer for about an hour until the dough balls are solid. Once they are frozen, you can transfer them into a freezer safe bag or container. When you are ready to bake, you can just take out as many dough balls as you want, let them thaw on a baking sheet for a few minutes, and bake them as usual. You might just need to add one or two extra minutes to the baking time since the dough started out cold.
If you have leftover baked cookies, storing them properly will help keep them soft and fresh for days. Let the cookies cool down completely, and then place them inside an airtight container. To keep them extra soft, you can place a small slice of plain white bread right inside the container with the cookies. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and stay soft and chewy for up to five days. You can also freeze the fully baked cookies for up to two months. Just let them thaw at room temperature before you eat them.
Baking is such a wonderful way to bring joy into your home and show love to the people around you. These harvest chocolate chip cookies are bright, colorful, incredibly tasty, and so easy to put together. From the rich buttery dough to the sweet chocolate chips, crunchy colorful candies, and tart cranberries, every single bite is a celebration of the autumn season.
More Fall recipes to try
- Easy Pumpkin Crinkle Cookies with Cake Mix
- Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
- Apple Fennel Shortbread Cookies - Fall Buttery Goodness!
- Apple Cider Whoopie Pies with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
Take some time this week to gather your ingredients, turn on your oven, and treat yourself and your family to a warm batch of these cozy cookies. Enjoy every single bite, and happy baking!
Harvest Chocolate Chip Cookies
INGREDIENTS
Dry Ingredients
- 1½ cup AP Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick softened to room temperature
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large Egg (at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Mix-ins & Toppings
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup M&Ms (orange, brown, yellow, and red) harvest-colored
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
INSTRUCTIONS
- Whisk Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream Butter & Sugars: In a large bowl (or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), beat the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth, creamy, and pale.
- Add Wet Ingredients: Add the egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture. Beat on medium-high speed for about 1 minute until completely combined and fluffy.
- Combine: Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing just until the flour disappears. Do not overmix!
- Fold in Add-ins: Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold in the semi-sweet chocolate chips, harvest M&Ms, and dried cranberries, reserving a small handful of candies to press onto the tops later.
- Chill the Dough (Crucial Step): Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (This prevents the cookies from spreading too flat in the oven).
- Preheat & Prep: While the dough chills, preheat your oven to 350F or 170C and Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Scoop: Scoop balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons each or a standard cookie scoop) and place them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Press a few reserved M&Ms and cranberries right into the tops of the dough balls.
- Bake: Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown and the centers still look slightly soft and underbaked.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes (they will continue to set). Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Butter Temperature: Make sure your butter is truly softened to room temperature (cool to the touch, but your finger leaves a slight indent). Melted or overly warm butter will cause the cookies to spread into a greasy puddle.
- Chilling is Optional but Recommended: Though you can bake right away, a 30-minute chill significantly improves the thickness, chewiness, and flavor depth of the cookie.
- The "Scoop Trick" for Perfection: Right when the cookies come out of the oven while they are still piping hot, take the rim of a round glass or cookie cutter and gently swirl it around any misshapen cookies to form perfectly round, bakery-quality edges.
- Storage: Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature with a slice of white bread to keep them soft for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months.
Ask Me Anything