Stuffed, 'Dessert' Duchess Cookies Brand Expands On Long Island

ISLIP, NY —Duchess Cookies are more than a regular cookie, owner Sofia Demetriou says. The stuffed, gooey cookies that the Woodbury resident has been creating for years are "your favorite dessert, dressed up as a cookie."

New Duchess Cookies storefronts are slated to open this month in Islip Village, Patchogue Village and Oceanside. Other locations on Long Island will follow, as the company rolls out a major owner-operator expansion. A Plainview shop opened last December, and even though it was during the pandemic, there were lines of customers waiting to buy cookies.

"People love comfort food," Demetriou told Patch.

"Our whole concept is every dessert turned into a cookie, so there's a lot of nostalgia. There is something for everyone: we are recreating your favorite dessert."

The cookies come in 150 flavors that are available on a rotating basis, with nods to classic desserts like apple pie, blueberry cheesecake and Italian rainbow cookies.

Demetriou and her husband run Duchess Cookies, baking out of a Ronkonkoma factory that then distributed the cookies to the stores. She's been been baking for 15 years, and comes from a family with a century of history in the baking business.

Demetriou opened her first Long Island bakery in East Meadow in 2014, and the gooey stuffed cookies she created "went viral," she says.

Now she's expanding the brand, licensing the products to 20 new stores in New York, New Jersey, Florida, California and North Carolina. She's enjoying being hands-on, helping to establish the brand, the look of the stores and of course, the cookie recipes.

Some of the Long Island locations will be small, to-go only spot, and others, like Oceanside will have seating. Patchogue is slated to open on May 14, and Islip by the end of May.

Duchess Cookies is the creator of something called a twizzle: two cookie flavors, swirled together, and then stuffed.

"It lets us experiment and create even more flavors," Demetriou explained.

"We aren't just recreating flavors, but giving our interpretation of it."