Makroud el louse are flourless Algerian cookies consisting of almonds, eggs, sugar, and a flavoring of orange flower water. Baked until lightly browned, these cookies are typically tossed in powdered sugar in order to be completely coated. Once consumed, makroud el louse should melt in the mouth.

It is recommended to serve these cookies with a cup of tea or coffee on the side.

Argentinian alfajores are sandwich cookies consisting of two round, crumbly sweet cookies with a dulce de leche or milk jam stuffing between them. The combination is then coated with a layer of chocolate or sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.

The name alfajor stems from the Arabic word al-hasú, which means stuffed or filled. Although the cookies can be found throughout Latin America, they are originally from Andalusia, Spain. When the Spaniards came to America, they brought their foods and traditions along the way, and with time, almost every country in Latin America has adapted the Spanish alfajor to make it their own. 

Though they are thought to have originated in ancient Phoenicia, melomakaronas are nowadays a typical Greek Christmas treat. These delicious semolina cookies are traditionally flavored with honey, orange zest, cinnamon and other spices, olive oil, and cognac.

Immediately after baking, melomakarona cookies are doused in honey syrup, then sprinkled with ground walnuts. Although some argue that another Greek treat that goes under the name finikia refers to a slightly different dessert, occasionally fried and served without walnuts, today both names are used interchangeably.

Usually accompanied by a glass of milk or a cup of hot tea or coffee, chocolate chip cookies are well balanced between salty and sweet in flavor, tenderly chewy in texture, and filled with small melting chocolate pyramids, bringing a generation of Americans back to their childhood.

The origin story of these sweet treats is incredibly interesting, almost as the cookies themselves. The Toll House Inn was a popular bed-and-breakfast in Whitman, Massachusetts, bought by Ruth Graves Wakefield and her husband in 1930. Ruth's cooking was so good that the inn gained an excellent reputation in a short span of time. 

These delicious Dutch cookies consist of a very thin layer of syrup, sugar, butter, and cinnamon that is sandwiched between two thin wafers. Stroopwafels were invented in the late 18th century in the city of Gouda, and many sources give credit to a baker named Gerard Kamphuisen as their inventor.

In the Netherlands, stroopwafels are traditionally consumed with tea or coffee, and it is a custom to place a cookie on top of the cup and let it steam for a few minutes, so that the cookie is heated and the syrupy layer softens.

Marranito or puerquito is a traditional pan dulce (sweet bread) variety. These pan dulce cookie-like small cakes are shaped into pigs and flavored with ginger. They're made with a combination of flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, baking powder, baking soda, butter, salt, sugar, molasses, buttermilk, and eggs.

The marranitos are baked until golden brown, and it's recommended to accompany them with milk or hot chocolate when served.

The dainty petticoat tails gained their peculiar name and distinctive shape by resembling the pieces of fabric used to create the elaborate 16th-century petticoats, including that of Mary Queen of Scots, who was reputed to have been particularly fond of these sweet, buttery shortbread biscuits.

However, another less romantic theory claims their name could've been derived from petits cotés, the old French term for little biscuits. Regardless of their real origins, petticoat tails remain a Scottish favorite until this day. 

Speculaas are spiced cookies mainly made in Belgium and the Netherlands, although they are also popular in Germany (Rhineland and Westphalia), Luxembourg and northern France. With an intense fragrance of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger, the cookies are traditionally baked on the eve of St Nicholas Day, celebrated on December 5 and December 6.

Before going to bed, the children put their shoes by the chimney, and if they behaved well, they are rewarded with speculaas in their shoes. There are a few theories on the origin of its name - one says it derives from the Latin word speculum, meaning a mirror, referring to the mirrored images that the cookies are decorated with. 

Commonly found throughout Austria, Hungary, and Germany, vanillekipferl are traditional, sweet, crescent-shaped cookies consisting of flour, sugar, butter, and vanilla. The cookies often contain ground nuts such as hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts.

According to a popular theory, the cookies were invented in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the empire's army defeated the Turkish army at Vienna in 1683, the city's bakers celebrated the victory by shaping the kipferls into crescents - mimicking the characteristical shape found on the Turkish flag.

Today, vanillekipferl are especially popular around Christmastime, when they are dusted with powdered sugar or dipped in chocolate.