The $250 Neiman Marcus Cookie
This recipe for Neiman Marcus cookies hails from the popular email chain that flooded the Internet for years. The cookies are made with ground oats, chocolate chips, grated chocolate and chopped walnuts.
In the event that you have never seen the email chain regarding Neiman Marcus cookies, here’s a recap:
Supposedly, a woman ordered a cookie at the Neiman Marcus cafe and loved it so much that she asked the waitress if she could have the recipe; waitress said it would cost “two fifty”. The woman assumed it was $2.50, said okay, and the waitress gave her the recipe. When she saw her credit card bill, however, the charge was $250. She was so irate that she decided to distribute the recipe so that no one would ever pay $250 for the recipe again. The company has since debunked the rumor (and even published its own chocolate chip cookie recipe), but the recipe that accompanied that email became insanely popular.
I suspect that many of you are very familiar with this email and may have even made these cookies before. I received the email dozens of times before I actually gave the recipe a whirl. I’ve never eaten a Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie, but I sure do love this version!
The “secret ingredient” in these cookies is the oats. Not just regular ol’ oats mixed into the batter, though; what makes these Neiman Marcus cookies so special is that the oats are blended into a coarse powder and whisked together with the flour and other dry ingredients. This is absolutely brilliant – you get all of the wonderful, nutty flavor of the oats while maintaining the texture of a traditional chocolate chip cookie.
The original Neiman Marcus cookie recipe that was circulated calls for grating a Hershey’s chocolate bar; the first time that I made these, I simply replaced that line item with milk chocolate chips. Oh, I was totally missing out! I’ve since made them the correct way and those little bits and swirls of milk chocolate make these extra-special. Definitely do not swap that out! (You can, however, use finely chopped milk chocolate in place of the Hershey’s bar, if you’d like.)
The resulting cookies are chunky, hearty and feel quite substantial when picked up. The combination of semisweet and milk chocolate along with walnuts puts these over the top. The Neiman Marcus story may have turned out to be a myth, but out there somewhere is someone who needs to be thanked for this recipe!
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One year ago: Apple, Gruyere & Sage Scones
Two years ago: Muddy Buddies (a.k.a. Puppy Chow)
Four years ago: Pumpkin Bread
Five years ago: Pancake Cupcakes with Maple-Bacon Frosting
Six years ago: Chewy, Fudgy Triple-Chocolate Brownies
Watch How to Make Neiman Marcus Cookies:
The $250 Neiman Marcus Cookie
Ingredients
- 2½ cups (202.5 g) rolled oats
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (220 g) light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounces (340.2 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- 4 ounces (113.4 g) milk chocolate, grated or finely chopped
- 1½ cups (175.5 g) chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Blend the oats in a food processor or blender to a fine powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together the blended oats with the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips, grated chocolate and walnuts.
- Roll the dough into 2-ounce balls (or about 2 heaping tablespoonfuls worth) and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake one sheet at a time until the edges are set but the center still looks undone, about 10 minutes. Cool the cookies completely on the baking sheets. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days (they can also be frozen for up to 2 months).
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on September 21, 2009.
the neiman marcus cookies are great! This recipe is just not the recipe for neiman marcus cookies. I’ve made these cookies a dozen times, but I’ll use a different website next time to make sure I get the right proportions. This recipe came out much drier than normal. Needs more butter (or if you’re in a creative mood you can add honey). Drier here means that they also stay taller than cookies should be.
My get a little dry. Any suggestions? Thx
Hi Mary, You could increase the brown sugar and decrease the white sugar. Let me know how that works for you!
Wonderful cookie. One of the best chocolate chip cookie recipes I have come across.
I have been making these for years but misplaced my recipe I thought I would use this one because it’s half the recipe I used to make. I haven’t compared recipes but three people spit these cookies out because they were so bad.
I blame the baker not the recipe. Used this one for quite some time and get rave reviews every time.
I just tried these for the first time. I’m not going to lie, the Hershey’s bar was a nightmare to grate, but these cookies are AMAZING. I did not change one thing. I used old fashioned oats & measured 2.5 cups before putting them in the food processor, not after like some recipes require. I rolled 2 inch balls and baked at 375 convection (auto adjusts to 350) for exactly 10 minutes. AMAZING!!!
I always weigh my measurements to make the next attempt easier (I really wish the U.S. would get with the metric system! :) This is what I used:
284 g all-purpose flour
209g sugar
164g light brown sugar
The rest I measured by cups. Thanks again for this recipe!!
I’ve made these cookies many times and they’re delicious. However, since I don’t love chocolate chips, I used only one cup chips and substituted the rest with chopped Hershey bars (I double the recipe) and the chocolate is creamy and delicious. My family loves them.
Can you add peanutbutter to this recipe
Hi Carol, I think you could! Might need to play around with the amounts (I haven’t tried it).
I have never added peanut butter to this recipe, as I find it often has a drying effect. But I love using half chocolate and half peanut butter chips in my cookies. They would be excellent with all peanut butter chips, or with Reece’s Pieces in them!
I think the woman who created this recipe’s name was Lan To. She was purportedly a grad student, and this was a research project. I took this recipe back in the 90’s and ran with it, ending up with my perfect chocolate chip everything cookie.
The first time I saw this recipe published was back in the early 70’s. It was published
in the Springdale Morning News. The story is the same except the lady that was charged
called the Neaman Marcus restaurant and tried to correct what she thought was a
mistake and Neaman Marcus refused to refund the money to her and that was when she
told them that she would make sure they would never charge anyone like that again and
the recipe and story was published in papers across America. I lived in Springdale, AR
at the time in the early 70’s.
I have made these cookies many times over the years and they have always been good
This is NOT the Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe and the lady that claimed she was charged and it wasn’t a myth is not accurate either. Been going to the Neiman’s bakery in North Park for almost 40 years (the bakery is no longer there now) as well as the Zodiac room restaurant at the flagship store in downtown Dallas, and never, ever did this recipe have nuts or oatmeal and no one was charged for the recipe, because THEY DIDN’T HAVE A CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE til that email circulated and they decided to make a recipe!! lol
Neiman’s only bakes at the Zodiac room in downtown Dallas anymore, and all those cakes you can buy off their website are no longer made by Neiman’s themselves, but an independent bakery in Dallas.
You will find the correct recipe on the Neiman Marcus website.
Enjoy your cookie recipe, but it’s not the Neiman Marcus cookie.
The original recipe is on Neiman Marcus’s website and contains instant expresso coffee powder and no rolled oats or walnuts.
This is not a myth. My friend just went to that cafe and the very same thing just happened to her. When she contacted Neiman Marcus accounting department they told her to live with the mistake because they were NOT refunding her charge account no matter what because she done saw their recipe.
This recipe is far older than the email chain. My grandmother first recorded it into our family cookbooks back in the 50s (I’m not saying she created them; she called them the same name), so it is likely older than even that. Shoot, I’d doubt they were even called Nieman Marcus Cookies to begin with. One of the more enduring baking mysteries of our time.
And it still holds up very nicely after all these years. :-)
It surprises people when my kids say my Dad’s cookies are the best. Instead of nuts I sub 3/4 cup of oat and honey granola and process that also increase oatmeal to 2-3/4 instead of 2-1/2 cup.
I keep the chips to 12oz but change them all the time. White chocolat/Carmel white chocolate/ butterscotch. Toffee/milk chocolate I never use semi sweet as kids prefer other flavors. Thank you for such a great changeable recipe!
I have been making these cookies for years. My family loves them & my nephew regularly requests “my” cookies. I will also add shredded coconut and/or Craisins or other kinds of nuts. I love the texture and hardiness of these. The original email that I saw was a double version. When I make the full batch, I freeze 1/2 ( they keep very well in the freezer)!
I work at a lovely appliance store. We have several live kitchens displaying each brand in a kitchen set up. I am very blessed to be able to cook and bake and demonstrate the appliances – not to mention get the juices flowing for prospective buyers in the showroom!. I just made these cookies for our showroom guests with amazing success! I did embellish a bit by adding a little cinnamon, used less white sugar and more brown sugar equaling 2 cups, added toasted coconut and heath toffee bits. Just a wee amount of those. I baked them for 10 mins at 350 CONVECTION. They turned out beautiful & WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS!!! Some of our guests were brave enough to ask for the recipe – which I shared, even with my embellishments. Definitely a keeper recipe.
these
i made these and followed step by step and they ended up flat and basically just chocolate chips with a VERY thin breading.
That happened to me when my butter was too warm and it was a hot day to boot. I did some “cookie science” research and when they say room temperature butter it should be around 59 degrees F. Also the friction created by creaming warms it up so you add 1 cold egg to bring the temperature back down and then add the room temperature egg.
Best cookies ever
I am from Costa Rica and receive the mail with the story and the recipe, I have had it for quite some time and today I did it for the first time and they were delicious, thank you very much to whoever distributed it.
I add toffee chips to my recipe. Has people asking what’s that they’re tasting
I LOVE this recipe! This batch, I am going with the choc. chips, shaved choc., pecans and caramel chips. They shall be called “Turtle Cookies”!!!! LOL
Hi time!
I had made this cookies and they are incredible awesome 👏🏼 I
I think you’re a little bit close on the story of the Neiman Marcus cookies. I cut the recipe out of the newspaper about thirty years ago. The woman was a journalist who had taken her daughter to lunch at Neiman Marcus her daughter like the cookies and asked what was in them. There was a disclaimer on the menu which said you would have to pay for the recipe so she said it was hers to share and she would.
So if I wanted to make the cookie dough into balls and freeze them..would the cooking time be the same? Same temperature? Do I let them thaw first? I always make this recipe and everybody loves them!! Thank you for sharing!:)
Hi Courtney, Same temperature, bake from frozen, and add a couple more minutes. Enjoy!
Why Unsalted butter? I always have Salted butter on hand.
Thanks!
Hi Lisa, Using unsalted butter and adding your own salt gives you total control on the amount of salt in the recipe, as salted butters have varying amounts of salt. You can use your salted butter, but I would omit or significantly decrease the salt called for in the recipe.
This recipe was on the oats box 40 years ago..Not sure how it is Neiman Marcus has rights to it.
Right! This is NOT the recipe. The correct recipe is on the Neiman Marcus website. This is an old, old, old chocolate chip cookie recipe everyone’s grandmother & great grandmother used to make all the time.
I grew up eating this cookie. The Neiman’s recipe is totally different and makes small batches.
I have the Neiman Marcus cookbooks and I combined the elements from the two recipes to get the perfect cookie. I cannot tell you how much difference the Espresso powder makes!
I made this recipe and it was very good. I would cut back on the sugar though and the amount of chocolate chips. It is a very sweet rich cookie. It bakes perfectly in 10 minutes ( ball size was about 1.5 inches per cookie. I made the original recipe posted. It is this recipe basically doubled and it gave me 114 nice sized cookies.
I made these cookie last Christmas for presents to family and friends, and they really loved them!!!! I got the receipt out of a cookbook my mom had!!! But they are a great tasting cookie!!!!! Love them and can’t wait to make them again!!!!!
Thanks Joni E. Ellis
I have made these cookies for the past 30 years and they are great! I double the vanilla and chocolate chips. All the kids during the holidays ask to make sure I’m going to make them. They are good! I am the Original Cookie Monster!
These cookies are great! One of my very favorite! I suggest when you make them just double (or triple) them right from the start! Thanks!
This recipe is old news. I don’t understand the sudden fuss about it. Internet folklore. It’s not new. It’s been floating around for years. I could send you a picture of this recipe from my grandma’s recipe book that her and her friends put together probably in the 50s. The version you have here has been halved compared to my grandmas version. All the same otherwise though.