A couple of weeks ago we published the first in a series of posts testing various chocolate chip cookie recipes. We began with the original, the Toll House chocolate chip cookie and announced a giveaway of Carolyn Wyman’s The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book. We are so pleased to be sending a copy to our winner, Kristen Perry. Thank you to all of those who entered!
Now that my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie has begun, I am finding great new recipes everywhere that I am looking forward to sharing with you. The second cookie in the series is the Neiman Marcus cookie.
Around the time when email was first becoming more widely used, it seemed as if there were a lot of chain letters and hoaxes being circulated. One of these ubiquitous forwards piqued my curiosity. It told the story of a woman who asked for the recipe for a cookie she ate in a Neiman Marcus café only to find on her bill that she was charged $250 for the recipe. The story goes that she was so outraged that she decided to share this recipe with as many people as she could. This story is, of course, totally false, but the recipe is still circulated widely.
The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie
I printed that recipe back in the 1990s after receiving one of those email forwards, but, because the recipe made so many cookies and I lived alone at the time, I never made them. Recently I stumbled across the recipe again on a couple of food blogs, but the bloggers had wisely cut the recipe in half. I knew that this was my moment to finally give this mythical recipe a try. The Neiman Marcus cookies were tender but also a bit denser than other chocolate chip cookies. The oat flour gives it a bit of nuttiness that complements the chocolate. These cookies, however, have less of the buttery, caramel flavor that the Toll House cookies do. I can see why people might believe that the recipe for these cookies was worth $250.
Neiman Marcus Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups rolled oats
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 4 ounces milk chocolate grated
- 1 ½ cups pecans or walnuts chopped, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Blend oatmeal in blender or food processor until it has the texture of flour.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the oatmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Cream the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in a stand mixer until sugar and butter are fluffy (3-4 minutes).
- Add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl, add vanilla, and stir again.
- Add half of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides. Add second half and mix until just incorporated.
- Stir in chocolate chips and grated chocolate (and nuts) by hand.
- Drop tablespoon-sized rounds of dough onto parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly brown. Cool on sheets for 2-3 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
