The Famed Neiman Marcus Cookie
68 comments » 
Raise your hand if you’ve received the email forward about the woman who ate a a cookie at the Neiman Marcus cafe and asked for the recipe, the waitress said it was “two fifty”, the woman thought it was $2.50 and then saw her credit card was charged $250, so she mass distributed the recipe so that no one ever pays $250 for the recipe again. (Phew, that’s a mouthful!) I suspect that many of you are very familiar with this email and may have even made these cookies before. I have received the email countless times, but for some reason never felt compelled to try the recipe. While on vacation my Chief Culinary Consultant’s mom received the notorious email and asked if I wanted her to send it to me. I told her to and figured I would finally give it a try. I am so glad I did because this is an absolutely phenomenal cookie!
The “secret ingredient” in these cookies is oats. Not just regular old oats mixed into the batter, though – in this recipe the oats are blended into a flour-like powder and whisked together with the flour and other dry ingredients. I actually think that this is sheer brilliance; you get all of the wonderful, nutty flavor of the oats while maintaining the texture of a traditional chocolate chip cookies. The resulting cookies are chunky, hearty and substantial and actually feel heavy when picked up. The combination of semisweet and milk chocolate along with walnuts puts these over the top. I still love my favorite chocolate chip cookies (you can’t really ever replace your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, can you?), but these are certainly a fantastic alternative.
1 year ago: Chicken Pot Pie
2 years ago: Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Neiman Marcus Cookie
Yield: Makes about 30 (3½-inch) cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
2½ cups rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
4 ounces milk chocolate chips
1½ cups chopped walnutsDirections:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. 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.
3. 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 and beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. On low speed gradually mix in the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. With a rubber spatula fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
4. Roll the dough into 2-ounce balls (or about 2 heaping tablespoonfuls worth) and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Cookies should be lightly brown and set on the outside but still look a little undone in the middle. That's okay - they will finish setting up after you remove them from the oven. Let cool 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
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I do love these!
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Made these many times, and they are always good. No matter what.
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I’ve had these before! The recipe I got has some melted chocolate in the batter, even. What I like about the NM cookie is the texture you get from the ground oats, which I’ve found gives it a somewhat chewier feel.
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This is my go to chocolate chip recipe (sans nuts). I absolutely love it! Glad you tried it!
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Love these – I thought everyone tried these already for some reason. But I’d forgotten about them, so thanks for making them again!
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SO good – i haven’t had these in awhile. pics are great too!
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These are my husband’s favorite cookies. They test great frozen too! Sometimes I think they taste better frozen but my husband would disagree.
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grrr. i swore I would stay away from cookies this month.. now I have a dozen of these divine cookies on my counter waiting to cool. way to go. lol
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Look’in Good!
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I absolutely adore these cookies… But according to Neiman Marcus, this is not their original recipe. Are they saying that just to deceive us? Or are they jealous that this recipe is actually better than the one they say is theirs???
What do you think?? Check them out!!
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/service/nm_cookie_recipe.jhtml
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I was JUST telling my boyfriend about this email because my sister did something similar at a store. Got charged a crazy amount of money for a photo disc of her kids photos at a portrait studio. lol Anyway, I never felt compelled to try them either for some reason but it’s great to know that they are actually good! They sure do look lovely!
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These look awesome! I’ve been making a very similar recipe for 25 years. Mine has a big Hershey bar grated up in it instead of the milk chocolate chips. It adds a great flavor throughout the batter!
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do you have to grind the oats yourself? (i don’t have a food processor) couldn’t you just use oat flour? i wonder how much oat flour 2 1/2 cups of rolled oat makes??
oh and the cookies do look yummy.
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Wow. I am not a really a cookie person but after seeing this recipe and your photos I have to make these. These and the Doubletree cookies are the best.
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I have a recipe nearly identical to that chain mail cookie. Main differences: all brown sugar, coconut, and walnuts instead of pecans.
http://kitchentimes.blogspot.com/2006/09/chocolate-chunk-oatmeal-cookies.html
Funny that I’d never realized it until now. Did your cookie turn strangely airy and not taste as good after a day?
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I’m thinking one day I’ll make a batch and buy a batch to compare.
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Sounds like a recipe I have to try out!
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How funny…I’ve gottten that recipe at least a dozen times yet I never thought about actually trying it out.
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both the photos and the cookies look beautiful!
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I’ve never had these, never frankly been either in an area with that store or had the money to go there when we did live in an area with the store. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
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I have this recipe and they are delicious1
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The same letter/email/story went around with supposedly Mrs. Field’s secret recipe for years. The oats, which were the secret ingredient in that recipe too, were never an ingredient in her recipe. It’s a great cookie and I’ll bet yours turn out better than most, it looks fabulous, but who knows the real origin of the recipe. I worked for Mrs. Fields in the 80′s. The secret to Mrs. Fields was high quality ingredients, bake at 300, not 375 and don’t overmix.
Here’s her recipe, love to see your take on these some day.
http://www.debbifields.com/recipe.html
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Oh yes, the neiman marcus cookie! I made this many years ago before I got my kitchen-aide and almost busted the motor on my little hand mixer!! The dough is very think with all those oats, but it does deliver! It’s actually a great cookie!
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BEE YOO TI FUL cookies. I have the recipe somewhere but never gave it a try. You’ve convinced me to give these a shot. Your pictures are fab!
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The version that I have calls for an 8 oz. bar of Hershey’s milk chocolate to be grated and added to the batter. They really are fabulous (but it makes a huge amount!).
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I’ve made these before and they are really good!
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Hey! Just made these for the first time the other night and absolutely LOVED them. Could match up to my favorite CCC recipe too, and they are great the next day. good ideas adding oatmeal, and nuts. I’m a new blogger, would love for yo to check me out
http://rollininthedough.wordpress.com/
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I love these cookies and researched this story when I was writing my cookie book (coming out next fall – Cookie: A Cultural HIstory). This isn’t NM’s recipe at all but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming hugely popular.
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I just had breakfast and now I am hungry again. Those cookies look absolutely amazing!
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I love putting oat flour into cookies! It makes them taste so good!!
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There was never a Neiman-Marcus cookie: http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/cookie.asp
This story has been around in various forms for 50 years. Neiman Marcus never even had a cookie until they developed one in response to this rumour. Their policy is actually to give away recipes to anyone who asks, including the recipe to the cookie they eventually did create:
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/service/nm_cookie_recipe.jhtml
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I have received the Neiman Marcus email many times, but have never taken the time to make the cookies. After your review, I will definitely be trying it. I’m so interested to see the effect the ground oats have on the texture.
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I’ve made the Neiman Marcus cookies too and loved them but I guess there are different versions out there because mine (http://www.eatmedelicious.com/2007/11/cookie-love-ive-discovered-neiman.html) didn’t have oats! Now I want to try these ones out too. They look so good!
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Hi Jackquie,
Do you have a blender? You could always use a blender to grind the oats. I’m sure you could sub oat flour, but I’m not sure what the final amount would be. The next time I make these I will measure it out!
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Hi Lass,
Your cookie recipe sounds great as well! Mine didn’t turn airy and not taste as good – I was actually eating them almost a week after making them! I stored them in a Tupperware container.
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Thanks everyone for the great responses and for getting to the bottom of the “myth” of the Neiman Marcus cookies!
As an aside, I did cut the recipe in half and used milk chocolate chips instead of grated chocolate. Otherwise it’s the same.
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We have been making these cookies for years!! They are wonderful.
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Hi Michelle
I have a question about cooling the cookies: When you say “Let Cool Completely” Do you mean cool completely on the baking sheet or cool on sheet for a few minutes then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. Can you make it a little clearer. Thanks
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Hi Jackie,
You will want to let them cool on the baking sheets for about 2-3 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. I will revise the written recipe so that it is more clear.
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I haven’t made these yet but I’ve ground up the oats and it make 1 and a half cups for those asking the sub for oat flour. Anyone tried pecans instead of walnuts? I couldn’t remember which nut I needed at the store and ended up with pecans. I can’t wait until I get them baked!
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I am making these for a bake sale on Saturday!! I am so excited I think they will sell really well. Like most they have seen the email but have not made the cookie, so this will be there chance to try them!
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I wish I could thank you for this cookie recipe but after having made them the first time, there have been so many demands for them that all I seem to be doing these days is grinding up quick oats!
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I have been making these cookies a number of years. My daughter, son-in-law and three grands absolutely love them – even the neighborhood kids ring my doorbell to ask if I have or will be making some. I use a large size Hershey chocolate candy grated in my recipie.
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Hi, just following up. I made these cookies for friends for Christmas using your recipe. Everyone loved them. The recipe was right on. I really appreciate when they are. Just wanted to let you know. Since I am here in Texas, I had to use pecans
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Wow, this is the best chocolate chip cookie ever! Very soft and chewy, really nice. I’m not a big fan of mixing chocolate and cookies but this is a very nice one. Thanks for the recipe!
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This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I make anymore. It’s always so good, but I do experiment with the “chips.” The last time I made them, I used those tiny peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s as the chips (along with a few milk chocolate chips). They were phenomenal. I’ve also used the regular sized plain M &M’s. The tiny M&M’s don’t taste as good since they’re dark chocolate inside. I’m making them for Thanksgiving and using milk chocolate chips and dried cranberries (I only use milk chocolate chips — they’re so much better and creamier). I’m thinking of trying chocolate covered raisins or chocolate covered peanuts. Those sound good, too.
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Michelle on November 8th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Oooh love all of the combos you have tried!
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I made these cookies today and discovered on the 3rd batch that if I didn’t make them into a ball they browned better at 10 minutes and looked better. The ones I made into balls needed 12 minutes and they weren’t brown.
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thaks for the tip I MADE this cookies and I SALE IT in a great price
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What a delicious recipe, regardless of its source. Thanks for sharing!
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My husband’s grandma gave me this recipe so I could attempt to replicate the cookies that she made for him since he was little. There are only a few differences between the recipe she gave me and the one you have posted here.
Instead of two kinds of chocolate chips, the recipe I have says to use 12 oz. of chocolate chips and 4 oz. of a grated Hershey bar.
I either use a vegetable peeler or a cheese grater and I grate the 4 oz. of Hershey bar and fold it in to the dough after I have folded the chips and nuts in.
Also, they bake for 6 minutes, not 10.
I love the way your recipe is worded though. It’s much easier to understand! I actually just made a batch of these (the last pan is still in the oven), and I looked back and forth from grandma’s to yours, and I like your wording much better.
Kudos! I think I’ll be checking out your site more often. :-]
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I’ve been using the dough of this recipes for years as a base for “add-in” flavour combinations.
White chocolate chip, dried berry (blueberry, cranberry or raspberry) and macadamia
Candied ginger and orange zest
Heath Toffee chip and pecan
Butterscotch chip and toffee peanut
Peanut butter chip and raisins
Sky’s the limit with this one, folks!
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loved this cookie recipe! I didn’t have that much chocolate on hand so I just used 8 oz of mini bittersweet chips and they still tasted delicious. Thanks so much for the recipe!
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Thanks for finally writing about >The Famed Neiman Marcus Cookie | Brown Eyed Baker <Liked it!
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Just made these- SO GOOD. If you take them out of the oven when they look just a little underdone, they’ll stay moist and chewy! Thanks for the recipe.
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These cookies are amazing! I’ve always had a problem with cookies getting hard after only an hour of sitting on the counter. But these were so chewy and soft even after leaving them out on the counter 5 hours later! I believe i have found my new favorite recipe. Thank you!!
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