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Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
Community cookbooks are like culinary time capsules, collections of tried-and-true recipes beloved by home cooks. While I only have four community cookbooks on my shelves (so far), some of my favorite recipes come from the pages of these vintage gems, from Four-Ingredient Bierocks to crowd-pleasing Funeral Potatoes. While thumbing through the pages of the books a few weeks ago, I noticed there is one famous recipe they all had in common: Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies.
What Are Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies?
Neiman Marcus Cookies.
Patricia Kaowthumrong
Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies Recipe features all of the usual suspects of chocolate chip cookie—butter, brown and white sugars, eggs, vanilla, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda—but also calls for chocolate chips, nuts, blended oatmeal, and a grated Hersey bar.
The recipe was born from a 1990s urban legend. The rumor is that a woman, who was smitten with a chocolate chip cookie she had at a Neiman Marcus Cafe in Dallas, asked for the recipe and was told it would cost “two fifty,” which she assumed meant $2.50 but claims she was charged $250 on her credit card for the recipe. As a result, she shared the recipe via a chain email, leading it to be published everywhere from newspapers and magazines to community and family cookbooks.
However, the tale was debunked by Neiman Marcus, which clarified the swanky retailer didn’t sell recipes at the time. Nonetheless, the myth spread widely and in response to the chocolate chip cookie recipe’s popularity, Neiman Marcus eventually released an official one that includes espresso powder as a secret. Meanwhile, the “urban legend” recipe—featuring ground oats, chopped nuts, and grated chocolate—gained its own following for its rich, chewy texture. Both versions have become beloved by home bakers and the cookies themselves have become a sweet legacy of a modern folktale.
Are the Neiman Marcus Cookies Worth Making?
This recipe was published in Boulder Community Hospital’s Sage and Savory cookbook.
Patricia Kaowthumrong
Yes! While the recipe requires more work than I prefer when whipping up cookies—you have to grate the chocolate and grind the oatmeal in a food processor—but it’s worth the labor. Once I bit into one of the freshly baked chocolate- and nut-studded cookies, I knew I’d make the recipe again and again.
How to Make Neiman Marcus Cookies
Ingredients for Neiman Marcus Cookies in the stand mixer.
Patricia Kaowthumrong
A lot of the Neiman Marcus Cookie recipes out there yield 12 dozen cookies, but include a note that the recipe can easily be halved. Some recipes feature chopped walnuts, such as the Allrecipes’ aptly titled Urban Legend Chocolate Chip Cookies submitted by Rene Kratz, while others call for your choice of nut (pecans are my pick). This version of the recipe from Sage & Savory: A Wise & Flavorful Approach to Low-Fat Cookery—a collection of recipes published in 1994 by Colorado’s Boulder Community Hospital in honor of devoted volunteer Louise Heuston—has a time-saving step to blend the oatmeal and the chocolate together in the food processor. That means you don’t have to shave the chocolate with a grater, which was my least-favorite part of the recipe!
Neiman Marcus Cookies
Makes: 12 dozen cookies (Halve the recipe to make about 6 dozen)
- 2 cups butter or margarine
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs (or 1 cup egg substitute)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 5 cups blended oatmeal
- 1 8-ounce Hershey bar, cold, grated
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 4 ounces chocolate chips
- 3 cups nuts, chopped
Cream together butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and vanilla.
In a blender or Cuisinart, blenderize oatmeal and Hershey bar.
Combine flour, oatmeal, Hershey bar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix with butter and sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes.
Neiman Marcus Cookies Tips and Variations
- Watch the bake time. While the recipe above notes to bake the cookies for 12 minutes, I only kept them in the oven for 10 minutes—which seemed like the perfect amount of time. They came out golden brown with an amazing crispy, yet slightly soft, texture. But you might want to leave them in for less time, if you prefer a softer cookie.
- Skip the food processor. For fans of chewy, extra-chunky cookies, don’t blend the oatmeal.
- Buy a big chocolate bar. If you plan to hand grate the chocolate, avoid the mistake I made and buy a big chocolate bar (eight-ounce). I purchased a few individual-size chocolate bars, which are way more challenging to grate because they break into pieces easily and melt quickly in your hands.
- Share the recipe. The cookies are so delicious that several friends have already asked me for the recipe. Let’s keep the legend alive!
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