The Maria Cookie

Wherever we have travelled, we have always been able to find a simple, round, dunking cookie that goes well with coffee or tea, the Maria cookie. For us, it has been an old and familiar travelling friend..

When I was a child, my mother would serve tea after school with a plate of these cookies if she didn’t have home-made cookies. They are round and usually had the name stamped into its top surface. The edges have a fancy design as well. Fun for taking tiny bites. It is made from wheat flour, sugar, palm oil or sunflower seed oil and is usually vanilla-flavored.

I am not sure what they were called then but I did a little research and learned why they are called Maria’s.

This cookie was invented in London to celebrate a royal marriage. The Marie biscuit was produced in 1874 by the London bakery Peek Freans in commemoration of Russia's Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna's marriage to Prince Alfredo, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Although the wedding took place at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg (Russia), these cookies were baptized with the name Marie Biscuit, in honor of the new member of the Royal Family, and to drink them with tea, that we all know is part of British culture.

The English quickly adopted Maria cookies as their favorite, a treat that we have found anywhere we have travelled. In Uruguay, a cookie sandwich was made with 2 cookies and caramel in the middle. Then it is rolled in coconut. In Portugal, two cookies would have a cream between them. There seem to be several variations on the names depending where we have been. Here in a Mexico, these cookies are called Marias.Read more