Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe
The famous Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe! Blended oatmeal in the cookie dough is the secret ingredient that gives these cookies just a little more texture and body. A batch of homemade Neiman Marcus cookies, full of chocolate chips and nuts, is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser any time of day.

Urban legend has it that one smitten Neiman Marcus customer agreed to pay “two fifty” for the store’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. Imagine her surprise when she was served with a bill for $250.
The store actually released a version of their cookie recipe a few years ago. While similar to this one, it contains espresso powder and leaves out one very important ingredient.
The cookies are so tender, chewy and chocolaty, that they just might be worth their price tag. Luckily, my step-mom saved the original recipe and passed it on to me to share and I’m sharing it with you.
This cookie recipe goes beyond your typical chocolate chip cookie with the addition of blended oatmeal, chocolate shavings, and nuts. The extra step of blending oats is well worth it.
Update: I’ve updated this post with a video and helpful tips and tricks to make these legendary cookies live up to the hype.
How To Make The Original Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe At Home
Overall, this is a simple and straightforward cookie recipe. The only extra bit to perfecting Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies is blending up some oatmeal and adding some grated chocolate.
This cookie recipe follows the creaming method, which means you’ll start by creaming butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. If you have a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment on medium-high speed.
Creaming incorporates air into the butter, which helps your cookies stay light and fluffy. Serious Eats has a great article on the importance of creaming butter and sugar when making cookies.
Tip: To bring your butter to the perfect temperature for creaming, cut the butter into tablespoons and put it in your mixing bowl. By the time you’ve assembled all your other ingredients, your butter will be ready to cream.
I like to mix together the dry ingredients (blended oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda) before creaming, and gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
Mix until everything is just combined, being careful not to overmix, which can result in tough cookies. Finally, fold in your mix-ins: chocolate, more chocolate, and nuts.
At this point, you can refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Chilling creates even thicker, chewier cookies, as the cold dough won’t spread as much in the oven.
When you’re ready to bake, form balls with your dough and arrange on cookie sheets. I use a #40 disher to get even cookies that bake into perfect circles. If you bake a lot of cookies like I do, this scoop is a time saver and makes evenly sized cookies every time.
Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. Don’t worry about taking them out a couple of minutes before the cookies look fully set. Resting on the hot baking sheets will continue to bake the cookies all the way through. Then, move the cookies to a wire rack to cool fully.
At this point, if you don’t eat them all straight away, the chocolate chip cookies can be frozen for several months or stored in an airtight container on the counter.
Why Use Blended Oatmeal in Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Blended oatmeal is the key to the delightful texture of the original Neiman Marcus cookies. It’s the secret ingredient that the store left out of their published recipe.
It only takes just a couple of minutes to make blended oatmeal in your kitchen. Simply add oats to a blender and pulse into a coarse powder.
While oat flour is also a form of oats ground into powder, it’s not a great substitute for the oats in this recipe. Oat flour is much more finely ground than you will achieve in your home blender. It also may change the texture of your cookies.
When choosing oats for these cookies, I always opt for old-fashioned oats, but you can substitute quick-cooking oats if needed. Do not use Instant Oats.
What Else Can I Add to Chocolate Chip Cookies?
This is an incredibly versatile recipe. The dough itself is so tasty, soft and chewy that you can play around with your favorite cookie inclusions. The recipe includes the classics: chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, and nuts.
Of course, you can easily omit the nuts if you’re not a fan. Or, you can replace them with other candies, such as Heath Bar. Coconut chips also add a nice, tropical note. One reader replaced all of the chocolate with M&M’s for a colorful take on the classic chocolate chip cookie.
How do you like to change up your Neiman Marcus cookies? Let me know in the comments, I love trying new mix-ins!
Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe
Rich, chewy and soft Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies are studded with extra chocolate and chopped nuts to make the perfect sweet treat.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups oatmeal, blended
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 12 oz. chocolate chips (2 cups)
- 1 (4 oz.) Hershey bar, grated
- 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (I omitted these)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Blend oatmeal: Measure and process in a blender to a coarse powder.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars, on medium-high speed, until well light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well blended, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add flour mixture; mix just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and nuts, if using. (Optional: cover dough and chill 30 minutes - add a minute or two to the cook time if using chilled dough.)
- Roll into balls and place two inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. (Take the cookies out of the oven 1 or 2 minutes before the cookies are cooked, as they will continue to cook on the baking pans.).
- Let cookies cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to racks to cool completely.
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More Candy-Studded Cookie Recipes to Bake Now
I love the inclusion of shaved Hershey’s Chocolate in the Neiman Marcus Cookie recipe. In fact, I love any cookie with an extra crunch of candy. Here are some of my favorite homemade cookie recipes with candy mixed in:
- Over the Top Lemon Drop Candy Cookies. I bet you didn’t expect lemon drop candies to make such a fun and bright cookie topping perfect for springtime!
- Triple Chocolate Milky Way Cookies have it all: three types of chocolate in one Milky Way-filled package.
- Chocolate Toffee Cookies from That Skinny Chick Can Bake pair dense chocolate with crunchy toffee in a delightfully chewy cookie.
- Oatmeal Raisinet Cookies are a big step-up from classic oatmeal raisin cookies.
More chocolate chip cookie recipes you might like:
Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Toffee Cookies, Barbara Bakes
Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Barbara Bakes
Better than the Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookie, Crazy for Crust
Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies, Mom On Timeout
Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies, Wishes and Dishes
Can't wait to try these cookies!
Hi Barbara, you inspired me to my own Neiman Marcus cookie story tonight! http://whatcha-eatin.blogspot.com/2009/06/would-real-neiman-marcus-cookie-please.html
Yours look so yummy!
Mmm, I've made these before too and now I am craving them again. They turned out beautifully!
I've never made these, have only eaten them. Very good cookie!!
My SIL made these for the kids that helped out at a catering job not long ago. They are delicious and I have meant to make them ever since. Thanks for the reminder!
For the allergic to chocolate duckie, would PB or butterscotch chips work?
Great tips! These look wonderful!
They look delicious! I have always wanted to give these a try. I'm going to have to put them on my list. I'm with you, I prefer my cookies on the under-baked side. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I'm a tollhouse fan too, but I have been wanting to try this one. I like the oatmeal in here and I like mine a little undercooked in the middle too. It makes them so soft and extra yummy!
I'm a Toll House cookie girl too!!! Those cookies do look very good though too…
Thanks for visiting my blog and being the 100th follower. I see you have 100 too. I will now make it 101! Isn't this blog world so much fun? My house is now a wreck because I spend way to much time blogging lately but hey it makes me SMILE!
jOYCE
Who doesn't lov extra fiber ,lov oatmeal cookies..next time will try ur version by blending oats..yummy…
I am just catching up on your site. You have come such a long way! Everything looks delicious and just lovely. I am so happy to be a fellow reader of your blog!
I'm with you, I prefer soft cookies too. Love the combination of textures and flavors.
seem real nice , i love trying out new cookie recipes !
I was so excited to see another recipe with "blended oats"… That ONE ingredient makes such a difference in cookies – it's in the Doubletree Hotel cookie on my blog – but in much smaller proportions. Thanks for such a great recipe – can't wait to try it!
Hah this is why I love your blog! you do things like this! 😛
MMMMM, these sound lovely, I love that the chocolate is grated.
I haven't heard of these, but I'm certainly going to try them as I love oatmeal and chocolate together! thanks for posting these yummy looking cookies!
I've heard of the recipe but have never know anyone that made it, I'm glad you did, bookmarking this!