Soooo, I was looking for a cookie recipe that I hadn’t tried before…I wanted one that was soft and chewy and more like shop bought cookies… Not long ago I received an anonymous email entitled:
‘Neiman Marcus Cookies’.
To be honest I have no idea who Neiman Marcus are…I live in the UK. Apparently they’re a big US store…and they really upset one of their customers!
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| My homemade cookies with the Neiman Marcus recipe… |
I have no idea of the authenticity of this story, snopes.com does say that it’s all an urban legend and that Neiman Marcus has developed a cookie since in response to the rumour, so don’t feel badly about the shop…but hey, this is how I got it, the name it’s known under and the recipe is great! So I’ll give it to you, just as it came to me…with an added testimony of my own: I made these cookies, to the recipe below…and they are good! They keep really well, which is just as well, because as the recipe says it makes about 112 cookies! NB use a big mixing bowl!
So here it is just as I got it:
‘A little background:
Neiman-Marcus, if you don’t know already, is a very expensive boutique shop (they sell a typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00)
My daughter and I had just finished lunch at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas, USA . Because both of us are such biscuit lovers, we decided to try the ‘Neiman-Marcus cookie’. It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe. The waitress said with a small frown, ‘I’m afraid not, but you can buy the recipe.’
I asked how much, and she responded; ‘Only two fifty – it’s a great deal’
I agreed to that, and told her to add it to my bill.
Thirty days later, I got my Visa statement, and the Neiman-Marcus charge was $285. I looked at it again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two sandwiches and about $20 for a scarf. At the bottom of the statement, it said, ‘Cookie Recipe – $250.00’. That was outrageous!
I called Neiman’s Accounting Department and told them the waitress had said it was ‘two fifty’, which clearly does not mean ‘two hundred and fifty dollars’ by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money because according to them; ‘What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your money.
I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Texas. I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and The Texas Attorney General’s office. I was basically told: Do what you want. Don’t bother thinking of how you can get even, and don’t bother trying to get any of your money back’
I said, OK, you’ve got my $250, and now I’m going to have $250 worth of fun. I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an e-mail account gets a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus for free. She replied, ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that.’ I said, ‘Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you RIPPED ME OFF!’ and slammed down the phone.
So here it is! Please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 for this, and I don’t want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another penny from this recipe!’
NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be halved as this makes heaps)
2 (500 ml) cups butter
680 g chocolate chips
4 (1000 ml) cups flour
2 (500 ml) cups brown sugar
2 tsp. (10 ml) Bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp. (5 ml) salt
2 (500 ml) cups sugar
500 g Grated Cadbury chocolate
5 (1250 ml) cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. (10 ml) baking powder
2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla
3 cups (375 ml) chopped nuts (optional)
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. Add chocolate chips, grated Chocolate and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees (180 ˚C).
The above quantities make 112 cookies. Enjoy!
The Last Krystallos 