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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
7 min
15/01/2026
You know the classic cookies, be it Osmania biscuits or your usual chocolate chip cookies. But did you know there are more varieties from different countries? Like the Italian biscotti with its many flavours or the glamorous French macaron. What goes into these unique sweet treats, what is their history, and why are they a cultural icon? Let’s find out.
Cookies are far more than quick sugar fixes or tea-time companions when you take in their tales. Behind every crumbly cookie bite lies a story shaped by trade routes, royal kitchens, simple bakers, and ingenuity. From cookies born out of leftovers to those crafted for kings, these baked treats quietly reflect the local culture, climate, and lore. Some are meant to be dunked, some to be sandwiched, and some simply to be admired before eating. This article takes you on a journey through cookies around the world, which are an irresistible comfort across continents.
These are cookie sandwiches from Argentina, made with twin crumbly cookies with a sticky dulce de leche filling, usually rolled in coconut. The name ‘alfajor’ comes from the Arabic word ‘al-hasú’, which means filled, referring to the nature of the cookies. This sweet treat comes from Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain and Portugal), which was brought to the South Americas around the 15th century. It took a while to adapt and fuse with local flavours, and by the 17th century, it cemented its place as a sweet staple in the country and beyond.
A Dutch speciality, you could somewhat call this a sandwich cookie too, for stroopwafels are made with two large waffle discs that have a syrupy and buttery filling between them. ‘Stroopwafel’ means ‘syrup waffle’, which just about sums up the dish. It can be enjoyed on its own as a snack or dessert or alongside coffee. It comes from the Gouda (yes, the namesake cheese) city of the Netherlands, made by an ingenious baker called Gerard Kamphuisen. He made this sweet treat using leftovers from his bakery – breadcrumbs mostly mixed with syrup to make something that was a lot like the modern stroofwafel.
A symbol of Parisian luxury, macarons are an exquisite treat made with egg whites, sugar and almond powder with a sweet buttercream filling between their crunchy, crumbly and colourful shells. The roots of this sweet treat, however, are in the Middle East. The use of nuts, sugar and eggs was introduced to Italy, then France, via the Arabs who ruled the region for a significant time. There’s also something called ‘macaroons’, which are quite different from the colourful modern treat that macarons are. Macaroons are made with sweet shredded coconut, condensed milk, vanilla essence, and salt.
Care for a Lebanese cookie, for maamoul is one in its semolina and ghee-rich goodness. Shaped into small mounds and filled with dates, walnuts, or pistachios, it’s baked across the Levant, especially Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq, most often for religious holidays. The dough is subtly sweet, sometimes scented with rose or orange blossom water, and is pressed into carved wooden moulds that mark each filling, then baked. It is eaten plain or lightly dusted with sugar. Maamoul is shared with guests and loved alongside bitter coffee or unsweetened tea.
Perhaps the best case of these is those buttery cookies in a round tin – yes, the same tin that became a store for your grandmother’s spools and needles. These cookies are grouped under the Danish term ‘småkager’, which covers almost all kinds of Danish cookies made with wheat flour. They come in different shapes and toppings, using marzipan, chocolate, dry fruits, and nuts. Historically, småkager developed alongside Denmark’s strong dairy culture, where high-quality butter became central to baking. Many classic varieties, like vaniljekranse (vanilla wreaths), brunkager (spiced brown cookies), and hindbærsnitter (raspberry slices), are closely associated with Christmas, though they are enjoyed year-round.
Italian biscotti (plural of biscotto) are traditional Italian almond biscuits, originally from Prato, Tuscany, served with coffee and wine. The name comes from the Latin ‘biscoctus’, meaning ‘twice-cooked’, because the dough is baked once as a log, sliced, then baked again to produce a dry, crunchy texture perfect for dunking. It also gives them a longer shelf life. In Italy, ‘biscotti’ can refer to many kinds of cookies, though abroad it especially denotes these twice-baked almond sticks also called cantucci or cantuccini. They date back to the Roman times, where they fed travellers and soldiers.
These are classic German holiday cookies, spiced and sweetened with honey, that pop up at Christmas markets and winter festivals across the country. Often baked on thin oblaten wafers and finished with a sugar glaze or dark chocolate, these gingerbread-like cookies are packed with festive spices like cloves, anise, nutmeg, coriander, and cardamom, plus nuts and candied fruit. They come in a variety of shapes resembling hearts, horses and witch houses, with roots stretching back to medieval spice routes – Ulm in 1296 and Nuremberg in 1395. Whether dunked in coffee or nibbled straight from a festive stall, they’re one of Germany’s most beloved cookies.
Best known to the world thanks to the viral tiramisu and the traditional English trifle, ladyfingers are actually Italian longish biscuits. They are light and sweet sponge biscuits shaped like slender fingers, known in Italian as savoiardi and in French as boudoirs. They trace their origins to the late 15th century at the court of the Duchy of Savoy in northern Italy, where they were created to honour a visiting king and became a symbol of refined courtly baking. Their airy texture is thanks to whipping eggs with sugar and folding in flour, making them ideal for soaking up liquids without falling apart.
Fortune cookies enjoy their popularity thanks to pop culture and films, and the hidden ‘fortune’ reading inside their crisp, vanilla-flavoured wafer cookies. It’s commonly served at the end of meals in Chinese-American restaurants worldwide. Despite their strong association with Chinese dining in the U.S., they are not traditional in China; their modern form likely developed in early 20th-century California. Early versions were inspired by Japanese ‘tsujiura senbei’ crackers sold near shrines in Kyoto, but when Japanese immigrant bakers in San Francisco began serving sweetened, fortune-filled versions, the cookie became a unique American fusion treat.
Ending this list on a desi note, nankhatai are also shortbread cookies, especially popular in northern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Their name comes from the Persian words ‘naan’, meaning bread and ‘khatai’, meaning biscuit, reflecting their transformation from a bread-like treat to a crisp, crumbly cookie. According to popular history, they were born in Surat when a Dutch bakery’s leftover bread inspired desserts tinged by European and Persian influences. Flavoured with cardamom and often garnished with nuts, nankhatai is a tea-time staple across the country and is still enjoyed with chai today.
From dunk-worthy cookies to perfectly stacked sandwich delights, these baked wonders prove that a little flour, fat, and sugar can really knead their way through centuries of tradition. Every variety has a story mixed in, of cultures that mingled, travelled, and rolled with change, leaving behind crumbs of history worth following. Small in size but big on flavour and meaning, cookies remind us that life’s sweetest lessons often come bite-sized.
