Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies

Before I even moved out on my own, I knew I wanted to have my own recipe box just like my Mom's.  Even more, I wanted all of the delicious recipes I had grown up with, made with loving care (among other things) by my mother.  So, for about a week I sorted and copied loads of recipes to give my recipe box a good start.  My mom actually gave me some of the recipe cards written by both of my grandmothers, as well as one of my great grandmother (who I never met!).  There's plenty of nostalgia every time I go searching for something to make.

One of the recipes I copied was the Neiman Marcus Cookie.  This was not something we happened to make often at all, but I always loved the ingredients.  I think we never made them due to the number of the ingredients - we were always missing something.  Because Nick and I have been doing some cookie testing for our wedding, I figured it was a good time to bring this recipe back into the rotation.  The name comes from the actual Neiman Marcus department store.  Turns out this is their signature chocolate chip cookie that people always ask and rave about.  Having never heard about it from anywhere other than my mother's recipe box, I will take their word for it!  There is a story on the internet that says the reason this recipe got out was because the store over-charged ($250 rather than the $2.50) for a single cookie, but many claim that its false.  Regardless of how the recipe got out - I am just happy its out there because these are some delicious cookies!

Neiman Marcus Cookies

When I prepared a list for thing to buy at the store I saw I needed blended oatmeal.  However, blended oatmeal is not something you actually buy - you make it using a blender.  A good thing to have sorted before you search the oatmeal area over and over again!

Blended Oatmeal

The Necessities...

• 2 cups butter
• 4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 cups blended oatmeal (you will need more than 5 cups of regular oatmeal to make 5 cups of blended - surface area and all of that sciencey stuff!)
• 24 oz chocolate chips - I went for the milk chocolate Ghirardelli - my favorite!
• 2 cups brown sugar (I used dark because I like the flavor more)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 8 oz chocolate bar (grated) - yes I used Ghirardelli, but the recipe actually calls for Hersey
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups of chopped nuts (totally optional and pick your favorite!
• Coconut - that is an Erica addition

I halved the recipe because my little card says these amounts make 112 cookies, but I think something got lost in translation there.

The Ingredients

To begin, I creamed the butter (that I allowed come to room temperature) and both sugars.

About to cream...

Once those reached a creamy consistency I added the eggs and vanilla.



Again, I mixed it all together until creamy.



Meanwhile, I combined the dry ingredients (the flour, blended oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda) in a separate bowl.

Dry Ingredients

Slowly I added the dry ingredients to the creamy - there was a lot of dry so this took more than a few additions...



 

 

Action Shot

After the dry ingredients were all added, I manually stirred in the chocolate chips, the grated chocolate and coconut.  I had some coconut left in the kitchen so I figured it would work perfectly with the flavors in these cookies.

Adding the good stuff

After a quite a bit of elbow grease I combined all the ingredients.

Cookie Dough!

Using an ice cream scoop I rolled the dough into balls and placed them about 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.  Finally, I popped the sheets into a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Ready for the oven

I love these cookies!  So many different flavors and textures in each bite that work so well together.

Cooling

There is plenty of chocolate in these cookies, but the oatmeal tones down the flavor a bit.

Cookies!

The next time I make these I may have to add more coconut, because I thought it worked perfectly in these cookies!