Cookie Cravings: Mama Bear’s Cookies

The humble chocolate chip cookie is having a bit of a moment: According to one report by market research firm Data Intelo, the global chocolate chip cookie market is projected to reach over $30 billion by 2032. In New Hampshire, a handful of new cookie-focused bakeries aim to tap into that demand — and satisfy even funkier flavor cravings.

Here are three places that will make your sweet tooth sing.

• Mama Bear’s Cookies (profile below)
• Maddi Hatter Cookie Company, Bow
• BenjeeS Cookies, Keene

Mama Bear’s Cookies, Sullivan

Just about a mile and a half off Route 10 in Sullivan, you’ll find a little yellow cabin with crooked windows, an off-kilter roof, and the word COOKIES spelled out in giant white letters over the pink door. Inside, rather than a Hansel and Gretel-style trap, you’ll find piles of palm-sized stuffed cookies that the owner of Mama Bear’s Cookies, Bianca Alicea, calls “overindulgent.” In fact, she’s yet to meet someone who can finish a cookie in one sitting. 

 Although Alicea always stocks fan favorites like dark chocolate peanut butter and lemon blueberry, the cottage also has four new flavors on the menu every week. 

“I’m part Italian and part Latina,” Alicea says. “(I throw in) those influences along with something that may be a familiar flavor profile.” For instance, her Italian side influenced her decision to make a pistachio and cherry cookie (stuffed with caramel for a modern twist). Her Latina side was responsible for the churro-inspired cookie that comes with a chocolate or caramel dipping sauce. 

The name Mama Bear also comes from Alicea’s personal life. She got into the cookie-making business after selling her jewelry business in Rhode Island and moving to New Hampshire for a slower pace of life in 2019.

Mama Bear’s Cookies owner Bianca Alicea calls her signature stuffed treats, like the above pistachio sour cherry caramel cookie,“overindulgent.”

“I was exceptionally successful in Rhode Island. I am extremely grateful for that,” Alicea says. “I moved (to NH) and said, ‘OK, my life cannot just be 12-hour days of work.’ ”

With their now-adult son out of the house, Alicea and her husband decided to start fostering children. “It’s hard. The kids want to call you mama or mommy,” she says. “You want to set that boundary: They have a mom and are just with us for a little bit.” It was Alicea’s husband who came up with the phrase Mama Bear as an alternative title.

Now, fostering and the cookie cottage are Alicea’s full-time focuses, and a portion of each sale is donated to Feeding Tiny Tummies, a nonprofit that provides meals to children in need. She also donates physical product to the group, especially during the holidays. “Come Christmas time, we donated a hundred cookies in total,” Alicea says. “We wanted to make sure that the kids had cookies to give Santa.” mamabearscookies.shop