Caroline, Chicago, IL
Chocolate Chip Cookies are sort of like Thanksgiving Turkeys. Everyone wants to be famous for them and cooks often keep their secrets close to the chest. I was surprised to look back in my Desserts & Sweets Recipe index and see that I had not posted a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Although I am not 100% loyal this recipe, it is my standby and the one I make most often.
This recipe came to me via email, practically back when email was just invented. The print out is in my recipe binder and I just checked it to find along the bottom: America Online: Friday September 11, 1998. Funny, that was when that date didn’t mean anything out of the ordinary.
Perhaps you have seen this email chain. A woman claims that during a lunch at Neiman Marcus, she asked for the recipe to the delicious chocolate chip cookies. The server says it will be two-fifty to buy the recipe. She agrees, only to find that her bill includes a $250 charge, not the $2.50 charge she had envisioned. To get her money’s worth, she emails the recipe to anyone and everyone she knows and asks them to pass it along.
Well, I don’t know whether there is truth to it but the recipe is delicious and with the dozens of times I have made it, I have helped the angry woman get her money’s worth!!! The cookies are particularly different due to the ground oatmeal and shaved chocolate bar added in.
This recipe yields a ton of cookies. So, I would suggest cutting it in half for a normal sized batch or make it all and freeze the dough or give some away! I recently schemed up a new cookie gifting idea: Put wrapping paper around small oatmeal containers or Trader Joe’s coffee containers and stack up cookies inside. (Paper in photo is from my favorite, Snow & Graham.)
“Neiman Marcus” Cookies
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal
24 oz. chocolate cips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 8oz. dark chocolate bar, grated
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Measure oatmeal and then blend in a blender or food processor to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda. Add chocolate chips, shaved chocolate nuts and stir until combined. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes between 50-80 cookies.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Ah, yes, the Neiman Marcus cookies
. According to the NM cookbook, the whole thing is an urban legend. But who knows, right?? And I LOVE the gift box idea! Brilliant!
October 19th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
The cookie recipe IS delicious, but it is NOT from Neiman-Marcus:
http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/cookie.asp
Sorry to put an end to a perfectly enjoyable urban legend!!
Thanks for the recipe and the nice gift-giving idea!
October 19th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Hehe, you really crack me up trying the legendary email chain recipe!! The blended oatmeal sounds good in there, never tried that in a cookie.
October 19th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Thought you might like this: http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/service/nm_cookie_recipe.jhtml
;)
October 19th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
okay, i’m almost convinced to make these cookies and i love what you did with the old oatmeal canister. lovely paper!
October 20th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Oooh, I love those cookies. I remember making them back in 1998 when I first got the email. Looks like I’ll have to do it again soon! I remember them making a HUGE batch.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I can remember my mom emailing me this recipe as if she had just stumbled upon a million dollar secret.
Regardless of where the recipe originated, it’s a keeper. In truth, I’ve rarely run across a cookie recipe I didn’t like…although there was that cookie disaster last Christmas…
October 20th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Well, bless her revengeful heart as these cookies look scrumptious!
October 21st, 2008 at 11:43 am
What a great wrapping idea!
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I’m pretty sure that’s an urban legend, but in any event, I really want to try them. They look/sound fabulous!
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Pre e-mail? 1998? You’re a yung’un, dear! I first made the Neiman Marcus cookies — let’s see where is my cane? oh! and my glasses too — in, um, 1988. So there! It’s been the rounds! And they’re great — and definitely urban legend.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
This is beautiful, and what a great idea. I’m not much for chocolate chip cookies, but I’m absolutely in love with the packaging!
November 4th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I’ve made this recipe several times! I usually blend half of the oatmeal and keep the rest whole. They’re always a huge hit.
December 12th, 2008 at 1:01 am
I made this last year. However, my batter and the cookies came out dark brown. Not normal colored like yours. Maybe because I used 1/2 semi-sweet dark chocolate chips and 1/2 regular chocolate chips? As a note, I used macadamia nuts instead of the pecan or walnuts.
I will be making it again this year. You can’t go wrong with this one folks. Urban legend and all. It is STILL an amazing recipe.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Okay, Chocolate Lovers out there; listen up! Do I have a recipe for you! This great old recipe is from the folks at Hershey’s Chocolate. Chocolate and cherries just seem to go together and this recipe is more proof of that. When you serve these tasty squares to your friends, be sure to have a copy of the recipe handy. They are sure to ask for it. Or you can be secretive, if you want, and tell them it’s one of your vintage recipes that you just don’t share. But be warned, they will be expecting you to make them anytime you get together.