Autumn is for 'Gilmore Girls': From coffee cake cookies to flannel, why the show's fall vibes make it a seasonal binge-watch

As the autumn leaves begin to fall, one TV classic invariably tends to find its way back into the hearts and onto the screens of its fans: Gilmore Girls.

The beloved show, which aired from 2000-2007 on the CW before it was brought back as a four-part revival on Netflix in 2016, centers on the close-knit relationship between single mother Lorelei Gilmore and her daughter, Rory.

Set in the quirky, fictional town of Stars Hollow, Conn., fans can’t seem to get enough of the show’s perpetual autumn vibes year-round. In 2022 alone, viewers watched more than 20 billion minutes of the series on Netflix, where it’s currently streaming, per the Hollywood Reporter. Many others are finding ways to bring the show's autumn magic to life.

That includes Malory Oniki, whose recent Gilmore Girls-inspired coffee cake cookie recipe went viral on social media, with 2.6 million views and counting on Instagram Reels and over 1.2 million views on TikTok since she posted on Sept. 1.

Oniki tells Yahoo Entertainment that she wanted to create a recipe reflecting the show’s cozy nature.

“The feedback has been great,” she says of the recipe. “There's no better way to get in the fall spirit than to cuddle up on the couch and binge Gilmore Girls with a coffee cake cookie in hand.”

Name a more iconic duo: Gilmore Girls and fall

Oniki is far from the only fan enjoying the show's fall feel — especially given that each season opens with a new school year.

“Autumn is back-to-school season, and Gilmore Girls begins with a back-to-school story. It also doesn't hurt that Stars Hollow exists in a kind of perpetual autumn. Everyone's always wearing flannel, wrapping their hands around warm cups of coffee and walking beneath trees that are just starting to turn orange,” Gilmore Girls superfan Nicole Dieker, who is a Vox columnist and author of The Larkin Day Mysteries, tells Yahoo Entertainment.

“Gilmore Girls was meant to be cross-generational from the beginning,” she says of its enduring legacy. “That is, in many ways, why it's still popular. The people who were Rory's age when the show first aired are now closer to Lorelai's, and the moms who empathized with Lorelai when they first watched the show may now have renewed sympathy for Emily [Lorelai’s mom and Rory’s grandmother, with whom Lorelai distances herself from after becoming pregnant with Rory as a teenager].”

Such relatable themes, like “fitting in at school, dealing with relationships, balancing family dynamics,” continue to resonate with fans, especially this time of year, explains Oniki, who says the beginning of fall tends to welcome new opportunities for growth and learning.

“Almost half of the episodes of the entire series take place during autumn, so it really only makes sense to associate the two together,” she says. “I think it is also a pretty slow-paced show, which makes it easy for casual viewing and for repeated viewing year after year.”

Additionally, Oniki says that “the show does a great job at showing a real, raw mother-daughter relationship that a lot of people can relate to. Lorelai and Rory are extremely close and do almost everything together, but they still have their fights and disagreements. That's a storyline that a lot of people can relate to, and if they can't, I think it's one a lot of people long for.”

Rory’s back-to-school fall fashion is a forever vibe

As Valerie Campbell, a key set costumer during the show’s original run and costume supervisor during its 2016 reboot, told In The Know, styling around New England fall was intentional, but not always easy.

“It was my job to make sure the actors stayed cool when they were wearing all the heavy layers,” Campbell, who’s garnered a following on TikTok thanks to her insider Gilmore Girls stories, said of shooting the show in California. “The moment they’d call cut we’d pull their heavy jackets, gloves, hats off and then right before the cameras rolled, we’d have to match them exactly as they had them.”

People's adoration for Rory's fall fashion is evident, as a new generation is rediscovering the oversized, cream-colored fisherman’s sweater she famously wore in the pilot episode, with the hashtag #rorygilmoresweater racking up more than 25 million views on TikTok.

Cook, or order in, for peak Gilmore Girls viewing

Oniki says fans of the show particularly connect with the Gilmore women as it starts to get cold outside — and, very often, that involves treats, gossip and comfy blankets.

“Particularly for fall, Rory and Lorelai spend a lot of fall nights inside watching a movie together with lots and lots of snacks,” she says. “I think that is what we all want to be doing this fall, so we have cozy movie [or] TV nights with lots of snacks while we watch them.”

That doesn’t always require making your own delights.

“Who needs recipes when you can order takeout?” Dieker says. “Do we ever see Emily, Lorelai or Rory cook, aside from that one episode when Rory tries to pretend she's Donna Reed?”

Dieker says the last time she watched Gilmore Girls with friends, “we ate Pop Tarts and Red Vines and enormous cartons of ice cream.”

How to bake Oniki's Gilmore Girls Coffee Cake Cookies

Courtesy of Mallory Oniki

The ingredients:

Cinnamon dough

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 1/2 cups flour

Streusel

• 1/4 cup butter, softened

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 – 1/2 cup flour

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• A pinch of salt

Icing

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

• 1 tbsp milk

• A splash of vanilla

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F2

2. Make the dough: Combine the butter, oil and brown sugar. Mix for a couple minutes until it is smooth. The mixture should be lighter in color and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until just combined.

3. Make the streusel: Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spoon or your hand. Start with 1/3 cup of flour. The mixture should stick together, but should also crumble when you run it through your fingers. If it isn't crumbling, add 1 tbsp additions of flour until it crumbles.

4. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop a ball of dough onto a lined baking sheet. Using the back of your cookie scoop or your fingers, make an indent on the top of the dough. Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of the streusel on the top of the cookie, into the indent.

5. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes

6. While they’re baking, make the icing: Combine the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk until it's smooth and runny

7. Once the cookies have cooled slightly, drizzle on lots of icing