The Cookie Mill’s Richard Milford, from Sway, gives his deep dish cookies a festive twist

A BAKER who grew up in the New Forest is giving his luxury deep dish cookies a festive twist - with flavours including chocolate orange, white gold gingerbread and cocoa and marshmallow.

Richard Milford, from Sway, set up The Cookie Mill in 2018 after completing a course at Leiths School of Food and Wine in London.

He describes his product as a “deeply indulgent cookie pie” that is “best thought of as a dessert”.

“These are premium baked goods,” he said. “If you like a soft, gooey cookie, then you’ll love them. You can warm them up and serve them with ice cream - they’re more of a pudding than just a cookie.”

Richard is flat out with Christmas orders at the moment, and with flavours like Let it Snow - coconut and white chocolate stuffed with marshmallow - and The Nutcracker - chocolate cookies stuffed with Nutella, Rice Krispies and chopped hazelnuts - their popularity is not hard to fathom.

Richard (34) studied music at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham, but after freelancing in music production he changed career path.

“I always loved cooking, so went to London and worked in restaurant kitchens,” he said. “It was definitely not for me. There’s that saying, ‘If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen’ - I definitely couldn’t stand the heat.

“I wanted to do my own thing, so I went to Leiths to refine my skills and after that I started to experiment with my own recipes back home in Sway. It took around a year for my business to come to fruition in 2018 - I found I had a USP because at that time deep dish cookies weren’t really a thing here.

“I’d created a killer cookie recipe and it was eye-catching because not many people had seen it before.”

A year later in 2019, Richard moved to Tring in Hertfordshire with his wife Toni and into a professional kitchen, where he increased his flavour range and worked incredibly hard to make a name for himself.

“It’s been very difficult at times, but if you have confidence in your product and a great relationship with your customers you’re half way there.

“But it’s not just about making cookies - you need photography skills to be able to capture the magic of your product, you need to manage social media, you need to be an accountant and a recipe tester.

“There have been many challenges along the way, but that has meant I’ve not grown too quickly; I’ve slowly developed.”

Richard has had help along the way from Toni and his brother, Alan, who have mucked in with website building and promotion through social media, as well as being on hand at events.

Richard also sells vegan and gluten-free cookies, which he insists taste just as good as his original recipes.

“I didn’t want to release these until I’’d perfected them,” he said. “To me you can’t tell the difference, and that was my aim.”

The Cookie Mill produces 12 flavours throughout the year, including triple chocolate and salted caramel, lemon meringue pie, white chocolate and raspberry, dark chocolate chunk and apple crumble.

Richard introduces seasonal flavours along the way, and has just started branching out with brownies.

“In fact, I was told by someone whose son recently tasted my brownies that they were so good they made him want to cry - so I think I’ve found my strapline!”

For more information about The Cookie Mill or to place an order, visit thecookiemill.co.uk