Annie's Chamorro Kitchen

These have got to be the best cookies…EVER. Soft, chewy, and full of chocolaty goodness, it’s like Heaven in your mouth when you bite into this cookie.

This recipe is actually something I’ve seen circulating the internet for years. You may have heard of it — it’s called the Nieman Marcus $250 Cookie Recipe.

According to urban legend, someone bought a cookie at a Nieman Marcus store. He (or it could have been a “she”) liked the cookie so much that he asked the cafe clerk for the recipe. The clerk replied that the customer could have the recipe, but he had to purchase it. The customer agreed to pay for the recipe, only he did not look too closely at his receipt when he paid for it. Later, the customer realized that he paid $250 for the recipe. From that day on, the customer vowed to share the recipe with everyone so that his $250 purchase would be worth it.

I don’t know how true that story is, but whomever the real author of this cookie recipe is, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for creating and sharing a treasure!

Here’s the recipe. It’s a bit of a process, but it’s well worth it, I guarantee. You can easily halve this recipe. I make it as-is and give some to friends and neighbors. We make rather large cookies, and we’re still able to get about 5 dozen cookies out of this recipe.

Give it a try. I know you’ll love it as much as my family and I do. 🙂

The $250 Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 5 cups oatmeal
• 1 (8-oz.) Hershey bar
• 4 sticks (or 2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups chopped nuts (I like walnuts)
• 24 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Measure out the oatmeal then place in a blender or food processor. Grind the oatmeal until you get a fine flour-like consistency. Set it aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar.

3. Mix in the eggs and vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture.

4. Add half of the gound oatmeal, half of the flour, the baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the egg-butter mixture. Mix on low speed just until combined. Add the rest of the oatmeal and flour; mix to combine.

5. Mix in the nuts and chocolate chips. You can omit the nuts if you don’t like nuts in your cookies.

6. Form balls of dough (about two tablespoons of cookie dough per ball); place the balls of dough roughly 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.

7. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes after you take them out of the oven, then remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

8. Serve with a tall glass of milk and ENJOY!