February is for cookies
And the official “new” New Year!
OM-Gosh! It has been a moment and I’ve missed writing my newsletter. I took a forced break from everything but the bare-bone essentials as my body betrayed me by letting in all the icky viruses one after the other. So, January became a brain fog and I’m taking it as a test run that did not yield the results I was after. So, February is the start of 2024 for me!
How the heck are you all? I hope the start of your year has been more upbeat than mine. To kick off the year right, we must first start with the only logical approach, dessert! But, more specifically cookies. Not just any cookie, but an ultimate version, that is so rich and decadent you can only eat one per sitting…ok, maybe two! Not only is this cookie the best version I’ve ever made, but it comes with a wicked story.
Good food is all about the stories, and this is a good one. It has intrigue, controversy, sleight of hand, and the things that urban myths are made from.
It all starts with a mom and her daughter eating lunch at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in Dallas, TX. The story goes that they ordered a chocolate chip cookie for dessert, and loved it so much that the mom asked for the recipe. The server said, “Sure, it will be two-fifty.” The woman believing the recipe would cost her $2.50 added the recipe charge to her bill. When she received her credit card statement the next month, much to her surprise, she had been charged $250.00. She asked for a refund and she was refused. So she did what any reasonable human would, baked the cookies, and shared the recipe with as many people as possible. It was passed around in an old-school Chain Letter fashion, telling her story and sharing the recipe for free. The only requirement if you received the letter was to “...pass it along to everyone you know.”
And, that is how I came upon this recipe many years ago.
This had been traveling around for many years, when around 1997, Neiman Marcus had enough and decided to curb the rumors by telling their side of the story, including, developing a completely different cookie recipe that they have published on their website as their “Chocolate Chip Cookie” recipe. This recipe does not have some of the key ingredients like oats and extra shaved chocolate that the original chain letter version has. In addition, the sugar amounts are much different. They also tell the story on their website that the woman’s claims that she paid $250.00 are untrue, and they want to squash the rumor once and for all. They claim it is an urban myth and the story was an “infamous hoax.”
You all can decide for yourselves which version is true, but if you ask me it’s a bit odd how different the recipes are. Below is the version I have been making for years, and if you are curious here is the version Neiman Marcus has posted on their website: https://www.neimanmarcus.com/editorial/nm-restaurant-services-cookie-recipe
This photo is courtesy of a Reddit post…the, maybe? original Chain Letter.
PDF of Chocolate Cookie Recipe
My NM Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield 24-36 cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup muscovado sugar (dark brown sugar can be substituted)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups oatmeal, ground fine in a blender or food processor
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 ounces dark chocolate, grated with a microplane
4 oz salted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped, optional
Flaky sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, place the softened butter and sugars.
Starting on low speed, and working up to medium, cream the butter and sugar together until the sugar “melts” into the butter. You should not be able to feel the grains and sugar if you rub between your fingers. One at a time, add in the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula between additions. Add in the vanilla extract
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix to combine.
Slowly add to the butter mixture on low speed, and mix just until you cannot see the flour anymore. Stop mixing immediately, don’t overmix!
Fold in the chocolate chips, shaved dark chocolate, and macadamia nuts. Using a medium scoop, drop level scoops of dough 2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Sprinkle each cookie with flakey sea salt and bake, one pan at a time, for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees halfway through. Cookies should be just starting to brown along the bottom edges but not on top. Cool for 5 minutes on a cooling rack then remove the cookies from the sheet pan by sliding the parchment from the pan. Eat while warm for the best eating experience!
Note: I find that trying to bake more than one pan at a time yields uneven cooking results. So I only bake one sheet of cookies at a time.
Chef Tip: Only bake off as many cookies as you will eat in one day. Scoop the rest of the dough and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Freeze until solid then put in an air-tight container. Bake off cookies as you desire them. Frozen cookies will take up to 15 minutes to bake.
