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.
Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
- Oatmeal: the secret to this cookie is OATMEAL! And the secret to the oatmeal is popping it in the blender before adding it to the cookies to make a coarse flour out of it. Amazing texture and flavor!
- Flour: gluten in the traditional all-purpose flour adds a softness to the texture of the cookie to go with the whole grain oats
- Baking powder and baking soda: these help the cookies to rise and have a nice texture
- Butter: beloved butter makes for a cookie that has great color and lots of flavor
- Brown and granulated sugar: when you combine the two sugar your cookies brown up nicely and have great flavor
- Eggs: these help to bind all of the ingredients together
- Chocolate chips: long live all the chocolate, you can use the type of chocolate chips that you like or have on hand
- Hershey bar: this is the second secret ingredient to these famous cookies and it adds a subtle element to chocolate in every bite, I love this addition
- Chopped nuts: you can use what you like or have on hand, I normally use walnuts or pecans in this recipe
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.
- 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/scoop 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.
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.
Video on how to make Neiman Marcus Cookies:
Update: I’ve updated this post with a video and helpful tips and tricks to make these legendary cookies live up to the hype.
The story behind the famous cookie recipe:
The classic Neiman Marcus cookie came as a result of a hoax someone pulled against the Neiman Marcus Cafe. It was said that a woman went to the cafe and loved the cookie she ate so much that she asked for the recipe. The person said that they’d give it to her for “two fifty”. But when her bank statement came she realized that the recipe wasn’t sold to her for $2.50 like she thought, rather for $250. This story spread throughout the country and it became a big ordeal.
The funny thing is, the Neiman Marcus Cafe wasn’t even offering cookies on their menu at that time. So, in response to the hoax over a cookie that didn’t exist, the Neiman Marcus Group created the Neiman Marcus cookie.
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.
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.
More great cookie recipes:
If you’ve tried this Neiman Marcus cookie recipe or any other recipe on Barbara Bakes, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.
Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups oatmeal blended
- 2 cups flour
- ½ 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 ½ cups chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degree F.
- Add the oatmeal to a blender and blend into a coarse flour or powder.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, blended 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 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. (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 to 12 minutes.
- Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to racks to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Walnuts or pecans are a nice option for this recipe, if you are going to omit them add an additional 3 tablespoons of flour to the recipe.
Nutrition
The Neiman Marcus Cookie is a soft, chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that is perfect with a glass of milk. This recipe is sure to be one that the whole family will enjoy.
Dragon
Can't wait to try these cookies!
Kristen
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!
teresa
Mmm, I've made these before too and now I am craving them again. They turned out beautifully!
Katy ~
I've never made these, have only eaten them. Very good cookie!!
tiffany
If you brown your butter you get a nutty taste even if you don’t use nuts. I also toast pecans and chop them up. Makes them even better
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Tiffany – glad to hear the recipe works well with browned butter too.
Megan
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!
The Blonde Duck
For the allergic to chocolate duckie, would PB or butterscotch chips work?
Delectable Dining
Great tips! These look wonderful!
alice
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.
Reeni♥
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!
Debbie
I'm a Toll House cookie girl too!!! Those cookies do look very good though too…
Joyce
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
Vrinda
Who doesn't lov extra fiber ,lov oatmeal cookies..next time will try ur version by blending oats..yummy…
Gabe's Girl
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!
Cathy
I'm with you, I prefer soft cookies too. Love the combination of textures and flavors.
Mary
seem real nice , i love trying out new cookie recipes !
livestocreate
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!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Hah this is why I love your blog! you do things like this! 😛
Donna-FFW
MMMMM, these sound lovely, I love that the chocolate is grated.
Lynda
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!
Bunny
I've heard of the recipe but have never know anyone that made it, I'm glad you did, bookmarking this!