Making Mealtime Meaningful: Discover how we're giving back with the 12T Cares program →

Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie

Well worth the hefty price tag.

hearts
When you share or print a 12 Tomatoes recipe,
you're making mealtime meaningful.
100% of the Share to Care sponsor fees fund meals for families in need. Learn More
CLICK ANY LINK BELOW TO JOIN OUR CAUSE!

Most everyone has heard the story – that a woman enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies so much while eating at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in Dallas that she asked for the recipe and was told by the waitress that she could have it for “only two-fifty.” But when her bill arrived, it was for nearly $300. So it was a $250 cookie recipe. However, the story is more of a myth than anything…

That myth endured, though, so in 1997 Neiman Marcus actually came up with a cookie recipe and gave it out for free. While I don’t know that it’s a recipe worth a $250 price tag, it is a wonderful cookie – a chocolate chip cookie amped up with nuts, ground oats, and chocolate grated right into the batter.

The original recipe calls for Hershey’s chocolate but you can use whatever kind happens to be your favorite. It gives the overall cookie a subtle chocolate flavor but there’s plenty of melty chocolate chunks too. The other thing that makes these unique is that the dough doesn’t just rely on wheat flour for texture, it also uses ground up oatmeal, which gives the cookies a nice chewy bite.

It’s a cookie that feels a little more special than your basic chocolate chip, but it’s not really any extra effort. With a soft and chewy texture and a bounty of semi-sweet chocolate chips and crunchy nuts surrounded by subtle cocoa flavor, it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine paying a couple hundred to get your hands on this recipe.

Yield(s): Yield 24 cookies

10m prep time

10m cook time

4.8
Rated 4.8 out of 5
Rated by 87 reviewers
hearts
When you share or print a 12 Tomatoes recipe,
you're making mealtime meaningful.
100% of the Share to Care sponsor fees fund meals for families in need. Learn More
CLICK ANY LINK BELOW TO JOIN OUR CAUSE!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups oatmeal
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, grated
  • 1 1/2 cups pecans or walnuts, chopped
Preparation
  1. Place rack in top third of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars with an electric mixer until creamy. Scrape down sides of bowl, add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
  3. Grind oatmeal in a blender or food processor until fine. Combine oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl and gradually add to butter mixture. Beat until just combined.
  4. Grate chocolate bar using a microplane grater and add to dough along with chocolate chips and nuts. Mix just to combine.
  5. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from New York Times Cooking.


Subscribe to 12 Tomatoes