7 Ready-To-Bake Fall Cookie Dough Flavors, Ranked

Break-and-bake cookie dough is probably one of the best inventions since sliced bread. Because what do you mean I don't have to mix together a laundry list of ingredients and dirty multiple bowls to get a fresh-baked cookie at home? With break-and-bake, I don't even have to slice, scoop, or roll dough into a ball. I just transfer a pre-cut square from the package onto the cookie sheet, and voila. A delicious batch of cookies is ready in mere minutes.

It feels like a baking cheat code, and it's one I personally take advantage of year-round. There are plenty of cookie dough options lining grocery store shelves at any given time. But things get even more exciting when we're talking about seasonal doughs. And fall brings out some of the best of the bunch. Whether they're apple, pumpkin, or Halloween-inspired, autumn cookies offer up all those cozy flavors without the work. So you can get back to watching football, going on hayrides, or whatever else you like to do in the midst of sweater weather.

Personally, I was a little behind the ball this year when it came to picking up a handful of fall cookie doughs, waiting until almost Halloween to check out the inventory. But I was still able to get my hands on a solid assortment of seven different varieties. Now, it's time to reveal my rankings for which dough makes the absolute tastiest, chewiest, and most festive fall cookies.

Sweet Loren's has really exploded onto the cookie dough scene recently, and the brand sticks out because it does things the all-natural way. Its doughs are gluten-free, vegan, and free from many major food allergens. They're supposed to be cookies you can feel better about eating, but ironically, I didn't feel so great eating these pumpkin spice treats.

It's really the texture that put me off. The cookies are dry and chalky, and they have this strange way of sitting in your mouth as you work your way through them. They just don't taste or feel like normal cookies, which I imagine has something to do with the fact that they're not made the old-fashioned way.

The recipe includes dehydrated pumpkin, along with cinnamon and ginger, to achieve that pumpkin pie spice flavor. But instead, the spices take over, making these taste much closer to gingerbread cookies. They unexpectedly skip fall and head right to the holiday season. I will say that they have a nice crispness to them, but that's about the only thing I enjoyed. Between the odd texture and the lack of pumpkin flavor, these were easily my least favorite of the bunch.

Nestlé Toll House released an entire collection of fall-inspired cookie doughs all the way back in July, and dubbed it "Summerween." At the end of October, I could tell they were already being phased out, but I was able to pick up three of the limited-edition options, including this pack of Scooby-Doo sugar cookies.

I don't know where the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang is, but there are some ghoul sprinkles scattered across the tops of these sugar cookies. Well, that's what they're called, anyway. In reality, they're just a collection of purple bats, green dog bones, and what appear to be orange flowers. As for the taste, it's a cut-and-dried sugar cookie. It's pretty tasty, but just a classically sweet, mildly buttery cookie. The texture is good, too, with a tiny bit of crunch around the edges — and from the sprinkles — and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth center.

I could certainly gobble these up faster than Scooby and Shaggy could polish off a box of Scooby Snacks. But at the end of the day, they're really just normal sugar cookies with no real ties to fall aside from a few bat-shaped jimmies. Perhaps they would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for my meddling — and the fact that they were pitted against other cookies that actually embody the fall season.

I know I'm going to get some flak for the placement of these iconic cookies. Yes, I love them too. And I get just as excited as you probably do when you see them change colors and shapes as a new season rolls around.

For autumn, Pillsbury releases its shaped sugar cookie dough in multiple variations. There are ghosts, spooky cats, footballs, skulls, and even turkeys for Thanksgiving. But I decided to sample the most classic of them all, the pumpkin cookies. No, they don't actually taste like pumpkin. They taste like every other Pillsbury sugar cookie. They're sweet, with a flavor that's not too far off from Nestlé Toll House's sugar cookies, but with even stronger notes of vanilla and butter. Sometimes I don't even know what it is about these cookies that makes them so darn good. But they're pretty irresistible, especially when they're just a little gooey and undercooked in the center.

So, why aren't they sitting closer to the top of my ranking? Well, I somehow managed to find other cookies that are just as tasty but offer more unique flavors that are actually geared toward autumn. So, these Pillsbury classics will have to take a back seat for now. But don't worry, they're certainly not forgotten.

Clearly, we're stealing some of the same sprinkles from the Scooby-Doo cookies here — namely, those cute purple bats. But we're also gaining green sprinkles, ghost sprinkles, and butterscotch morsels, all baked into a chocolatey cookie.

I probably wouldn't have thought to combine a semisweet chocolate cookie with butterscotch chips, but I really like the pairing. Those little pops of caramel-like sweetness help break up some of the richer chocolate notes, and the soft, chewy texture is just about perfect. Then, of course, the frequent sprinkles add a little something extra, including a bit of crunch.

I think kids would love these cookies thanks to all those festive adornments, but adults can certainly get behind them, too. There's something about the butterscotch morsels that makes them feel nostalgic to me, and I have a feeling others might agree. So, while this isn't the absolute best fall cookie out there, it definitely stands out compared to the previous two basic sugar cookie options. It's definitely more treat than it is trick.

Chocolate cookies just like abuela used to make. This dough from Nestlé Toll House is actually made with Nestlé's Abuelita Mexican Hot Chocolate, which is known for its dark chocolate flavor accompanied by a sprinkle of cinnamon. I was curious to see how that translates into a break-and-bake cookie, and at first, I had some apprehensions. The dough is super sticky, and something about it reminded me of a Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie. Plus, I wasn't so sure about the addition of cinnamon. However, I was happy to be proven wrong.

These cookies are essentially an elevated take on a double chocolate cookie. You have that richer chocolate cookie base, which isn't unlike Nestlé's Trick-or-Treats cookies, paired with milk chocolate morsels. It's just as tender and satisfyingly chewy, but then the spiced flavor starts to creep in. I actually thought I was tasting more cloves than straight cinnamon, but that extra flavor note is what really sells this as a fall cookie. It unexpectedly wraps your taste buds in a warm hug, and I found it to be a really pleasant surprise.

I actually wouldn't have minded a touch of cayenne pepper, as some Mexican hot chocolate recipes call for. I know that might turn some people off, but I think a little kick of heat would make them even more irresistible and authentic.

These were the only apple-inspired cookies I was able to find, which is surprising considering the fact that apples have taken over every other baked good this fall. Target's Favorite Day brand is one of the few answering the call, and I'm glad it does.

The look of these cookies is definitely different from every other one in the taste test. They're much larger and far less flat, looking almost like a cross between an apple bar and a peanut butter cookie. The taste, however, is like an apple crisp in handheld form. It's a crumblier cookie, but it's still plenty moist, and you get some pleasant chewiness from the oats. There are also real apple chunks hiding throughout, and even in bites without them, you can still taste that fruity flavor, accompanied by just enough cinnamon. It's not overly sweet, which I actually liked. It makes the cookie feel like it could pass as either a dessert or some kind of breakfast pastry.

This was without a doubt one of my favorites. It's perfectly autumn harvest-themed and well-executed. But there was still one other cookie that managed to top it.

Just imagine Pillsbury's classic-shaped sugar cookies. Now, give them a pumpkin makeover and throw in some cream cheese-flavored chunks. That's these limited-edition cookies. You definitely get glimpses of Pillsbury's other popular cookies here. There's a similar flavor profile going on, and they share a similar consistency as well. You get just the lightest crunch when you first bite into one, and then it softens into a doughier center. The cookies do turn out pretty thin, but that doesn't take anything away from the flavor.

You have an almost sugar-cookie-like base with a mild pumpkin flavor and a few spices, primarily cinnamon and perhaps a hint of nutmeg. It doesn't smack you in the face with pumpkin spice flavor. Instead, it's a little more subtle. Then there are the cream cheese chunks. They're technically cream cheese-flavored confectionery chunks, but they still have that sweet tang to them. Paired with the pumpkin and spices, they give the cookies a taste reminiscent of pumpkin cheesecake.

Even with all that going on, though, one of the best parts of this cookie dough is that it's also safe to eat raw. Apparently, all Pillsbury's Ready to Bake cookie doughs are. And that's the best news for cookie dough lovers. We're all guilty of sneaking a taste anyway, at our own risk. But having the full green light to indulge makes this batch that much better.

I was able to pick up many of these cookie doughs at Target, which has a surprisingly extensive collection of varieties from Pillsbury, Nestlé Toll House, and its own Favorite Day brand. I also tracked down the Sweet Loren's Pumpkin Spice cookies at a Grocery Outlet location, of all places. Once I got them home, there was, of course, the matter of baking them all. But even with seven different doughs, the process was surprisingly easy. They all bake at around the same oven temperature and for a similar amount of time, so it was a pretty straightforward process.

As for ranking them, I focused on three major things: flavor, texture, and their connection to fall. I wanted cookies that were wonderfully sweet and buttery with an almost homemade flair. Texture can vary depending on how long you bake each batch, but most shared that same consistency of a slight crisp on the outside and a soft, almost doughy center. So, that was rarely an issue, with the exception of Sweet Loren's cookies, which I found a bit too dry.

Finally, I wanted obvious autumn flavors, not just a few random Halloween sprinkles. But nothing too over-the-top or heavily spiced, either. Those were the standards I used to determine which fall cookie dough deserved the top spot.