Neiman Marcus Cookies have earned their fame with good reason. Each bite delivers the perfect balance of crisp edges, chewy centers, and rich chocolate flavor!
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Indulge in the legendary Neiman Marcus cookies recipe that perfectly blends oatmeal, grated chocolate, and chopped nuts for a decadent treat that’s worth every calorie! These cookies have become famous for their irresistible texture and rich flavor that keeps everyone coming back for more.
The Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies 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 and is a huge hit as a homemade edible gift or to take to parties!
Jump to:
- Why You’ll Love These Neiman Marcus Cookies
- Recipe Ingredients
- The Famous Neiman Marcus Cookies
- Video: How to Make Famous Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe
- How To Make Neiman Marcus Cookies
- Recipe FAQs
- Expert Tips
- The Story Behind Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Why I Recommend Using Blended Oatmeal in Neiman Marcus Cookies Recipe
- More Amazing Cookie Recipes With Chocolate
- More Delicious Cookie Recipes to Consider
Why You’ll Love These Neiman Marcus Cookies
- Foolproof Results: This recipe consistently delivers perfect cookies every time, even if you’re not an experienced baker.
- Impressive Flavor Profile: The combination of blended oatmeal, chocolate chips, grated Hershey bar, and nuts creates a depth of flavor that ordinary chocolate chip cookies simply can’t match.
- Make-Ahead Friendly: The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for longer storage, making these perfect for busy moms who need to plan ahead.
- Crowd-Pleasing Appeal: These cookies have universal appeal — kids love them just as much as adults, making them perfect for any gathering or occasion.
- Bragging Rights: There’s something special about serving a “famous” recipe with a fun backstory that makes these cookies a conversation starter at any event!
🍪 When in doubt about what dish to take to an event, I honestly believe you can never go wrong with a cookie containing chocolate!
Recipe Ingredients
- Oatmeal
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs
- Chocolate Chips — use the type of chocolate chips that you like or have on hand
- Hershey Candy Bar
- Nuts — I normally use walnuts or pecans, but you can use what you like or have on hand.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
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The Famous Neiman Marcus Cookies
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 ounces chocolate chips 2 cups
- 1 Hershey bar, grated 4 ounces
- 1 ½ cups chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Add the oatmeal to a blender and blend into a coarse flour or powder.2 ½ cups oatmeal
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, blended oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.2 cups flour, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon 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.1 cup unsalted butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup light brown sugar
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well blended, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 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.)12 ounces chocolate chips, 1 Hershey bar, grated, 1 ½ cups chopped nuts
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Video: How to Make Famous Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe
How To Make Neiman Marcus Cookies
Step 1: 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.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: 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.)
Step 4: Roll into balls and place two inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a preheated oven. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to racks to cool completely.
Pro Baking 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.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can! The original recipe specifically calls for a Hershey bar, but any good quality milk chocolate will work. The key is to grate it rather than chop it, as this distributes tiny flecks of chocolate throughout the dough for an amazing flavor experience.
Chilling is optional but recommended! Chilled dough will produce slightly thicker cookies with a more concentrated flavor. If you’re in a hurry, you can skip this step, but even a quick 30-minute chill will improve your results.
Look for golden brown edges with centers that look just slightly underdone. They’ll continue cooking a bit on the hot baking sheet after you remove them from the oven. This ensures perfectly chewy cookies that aren’t overbaked or dry.
Absolutely! You can freeze them in two ways. Either freeze the baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months, or roll the dough into balls, freeze on a baking sheet until solid, then transfer to a freezer bag. When ready to bake, just add 1-2 minutes to the baking time—no need to thaw!
Expert Tips
- The Secret: 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!
- Measure Your Oatmeal Before Blending: Measure the 2½ cups of oatmeal before you blend it, not after. The volume changes when blended, and proper measurement ensures the right cookie texture.
- Room Temperature Ingredients Matter: Make sure your butter and eggs are truly at room temperature for the best incorporation. Cold ingredients don’t blend as smoothly and can affect the final texture of your cookies.
- Don’t Overmix: Once you add the dry ingredients, mix just until combined. Overmixing develops the gluten in the flour, which can make your cookies tough instead of tender.
The Story Behind Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies
The classic Neiman Marcus cookie recipe 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 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, but 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 — oatmeal.
Why I Recommend Using Blended Oatmeal in Neiman Marcus Cookies Recipe
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 an extra minute 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 Amazing Cookie Recipes With Chocolate
I’m not sure we can ever have too many recipes for cookies that have chocolate in them. Here are some awesome ones that always get gobbled up quickly at our house or wherever I take them!
- Monster Cookies: The best parts of your favorite cookies and make one giant conglomeration. So delicious and everyone loves them.
- Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies: Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the best part is that you don’t need to fire up your oven!
- Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies: Brown sugar and higher oven temperature is the secret to thick, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies every time.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes to Consider
Did you try this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ rating below and share it on Instagram.
Jeanette Blair
I substituted one cup of Skor bits for the chocolate chips. They were lush
Melissa Griffiths
it’s 2.5 cups oatmeal, ground, not 2.5 cups ground oatmeal, that would indeed make them too stiff
George Harris
Can you clarify this further? I measured 2.5 cups of Old Fashioned Oatmeal, blended them in my Vitamix, and added the entire mixture to the recipe. My final cookie dough seemed too dry, as it was really crumbly and coarse–although they tasted great. The final cookies also came out more stiff than chewy. I didn’t check to see if the amount of blended oatmeal was greater than 2.5 cups, I just added the entire amount. Should I have done instead measured 2.5 cups of the blended oatmeal and added that instead of adding the entire amount? It seems counterintuitive that 2.5 cups of oats would result in a greater amount when blended.
Melissa Griffiths
You are correct. You measure the oats and then blend them and use all of the blended oats, you might have just measured them a little heavy this time, I’d just go a little lighter on your cups next round!
George Harris
Thanks! I’ll make another batch this week and report back to you.
Ginger
I don’t see an answer to the question of freezing the cookie dough. Can you provide some clarification for that? Thanks!
Michelle
I like this recipe for the ground oats, the baking powder and soda combo, two sugars. But I can’t leave out the espresso powder. It adds something special to the flavor.
Carrie Schulte
Please send me the recipe using the expresso powder.
Stefanie H
has anyone tried to freeze and bake later? if so…how?
Samantha
I wonder if you could blend the flours and the grated chocolate together first the proceed?
Patty
I made this cookies and maybe needed to use a different oats. I used rolled oats and may have not blended them enough. My cookie was good but a little on the dry side. Maybe try to add an extra egg yoke next time. I will try again. I also added some shredded coconut, loved it.
Maria
Have made these for over 20 years for my kids and now my grandkids. Always a huge hit!!! I reduced the oatmeal to 2 cups and measured before blending. Just always worked best for us. Saw the comment about adding coconut – think I might try that!!! YUM!!! Got the Neiman Marcus thing back in the day, but found out recently that the story was a hoax and neiman marcus came up with their own version without oatmeal and using the coffee (yuck!!) as a counter action. They didn’t even sell cookies back then.
Joan Allison
Mine have been dry. I think i put in 2 1/2 cups of oats after grinding not the before grinding amount.
Melissa Griffiths
That would make a difference!
R
you DO realize this is not the recipe, RIGHT?
Melissa Griffiths
Do you have the original recipe? I’d love to see it!
Lisa
I was just thumbing through an old community cookbook published in 1993 – three island cookbook Glenn’s Ferry Idaho. This recipe was there exactly the same! It even had an introduction with how the contributer (she made it sound like it was herself) paid the 250 for the recipe when she went to the neiman Marcus cafe, thinking the waitress was saying 2.50. So she wanted to share the recipe with everyone when they refused to refund her.
Melissa Griffiths
That’s so fun, thank you for sharing your find!
Barbra
Hi, when I make chocolate chip cookies using a scoop, they never quite flatten out, they kinda remain in a semi-mound. I have watched many videos of people making them and using scoops and they flatten. Do you know what I could be doing wrong?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Barbra – a couple of things to check. Is your oven temperature accurate? Are you packing too much flour in the cup when you’re measuring your flour. https://www.barbarabakes.com/how-to-measure-flour/ I love using scoops and if I know a dough doesn’t spread much when baking, I’ll sometimes use the flat bottom of a cup to flatten the cookies slightly. I haven’t had to do that with this recipe though.
Barbra
Thanks. Can you clarify the amount of hersheys is it 14 ounces?
Lyn
When u scoop your cookies put them in the fridge just to firm up then preheat your oven to what ever temperature is required put cookies in to oven for 3 to 4 minutes then take them out of the oven put another tray on top of them and push down in the center of the tray and push down on the corners also this is a equal level to flatten for all the cookies on the tray return to oven and bake for required amount
Keith
Can instant oats be used instead of old fashioned oats? Fixing to give these a try.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Keith – I haven’t tried it with quick-cooking oats but it should work as a substitute although you may need to use less since they’re already ground up a little bit. Instant oats are often pre-cooked in small packages and would not be a good substitute.
Sana
Hi! I used instant oats 1:1 and they came out perfect!
Sana
I should also mention I have used the original recipe as well with old fashioned. I actually liked the instant version better.
Allison
Made these yesterday for a group of men and omg did they loved them. Every single cookie was demolished. I grew up on these cookies…I remember my mom making them for me and my brother when we were young and it was a real treat! Even my picky teen who hates oatmeal snuck a few. I used an ice cream scoop so the cookies were rather large. Wouldn’t change a thing about this recipe.
Barbara Schieving
So fun to hear the cookies were a big hit. Thanks Allison!
Sandra
I used to make these without blending the oats, since I didn’t have a blender or food processor, and I always added coconut. They were pretty amazing that way. This was about 20 years ago. Now, I have a food processor, so I plan to try doing it the right way!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Sandra – congratulations on the new food processor! Coconut sounds like an awesome addition too.
R Boyd
We add toffee brickle to ours and they are delicious.
Barbara Schieving
Sounds like a delicious addition – thanks for sharing!
Jennifer Smith
Should I sift the dry ingredients?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Jennifer – you can whisk the dry ingredients together, but rarely is it necessary to sift the dry ingredients together anymore. Today’s flours are so well refined that sifting isn’t really necessary.
Jennifer Smith
Great. Thank you. Beat cookies ever!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks!
Jennifer Smith
These cookies were great!!! Why no espresso powder?
Barbara Schieving
I’m not a coffee drinker and don’t like coffee-flavored desserts, but you could certainly add it if you prefer, 1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder.
Jennifer Smith
So I made the original Neumann Marcus recipe that you reference but I like your recipe with the oatmeal better. This is now my official cookie recipe. Thank you!!!!!
Barbara Schieving
That’s so fun – thanks!
Jennifer Smith
Can I just use oat flour instead of blending oats?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Jennifer – I haven’t tried it. My concern is it might be too finely ground and make the cookies heavy, but you could certainly try it. Let me know if you do.
Mary
Thank you for this recipe. I really liked this recipe and followed it exactly with chilling the dough. I used my nutribullet to grind up oats. Butter I left out to room temp, it did not turn light and fluffy but I made sure to blend well. Very easy, parchment paper a must. I used ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips 60% cacao, they are bigger chips. I will do this recipe again.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Mary – those Ghiradelli chips sound like a great addition!
Lisa Napier
I put in crunchy peanut butter because I didn’t have any nuts. I put half peanut butter and half butter. I also ground up a couple of white chocolate Easter bunnies that were left over from Easter. It all worked really well and the cookies were great!!
Barbara Schieving
What fun additions – thanks for sharing Lisa!