Have you heard the $250 chocolate chip cookie story? Its sort of a baking urban legend:
A woman goes shopping at Neiman Marcus and eats lunch in their cafe. She has a cookie for dessert and its the best chocolate chip cookie that she's ever had. She asks the waitress for the recipe, and her waitress informs her that the recipe is highly guarded, but is available for purchase. The woman asks how much, and the waitress says "Two Fifty" the woman happily purchases the recipe, but when she gets home sees that she was charged two hundred and fifty dollars. She calls Neiman's but they won't give her the refund since she has already seen their secret recipe. The woman is livid at being ripped off and so sends an email to everyone that she knows with the recipe, and asks them to forward it to everyone they know so no one pays for the recipe again.
I heard the story for the first time last year when a co-worker brought in these cookies. It turns out that its actually not true. Neiman's debunked the myth by posting the recipe on their website. Their recipe however, is completely different from the recipe that's passed around in the email. These are some of the best "non traditional" chocolate chip cookies that I've ever had. The recipe uses ground oats and I think this causes the cookies to spread less, making a thicker, chewier cookie. I added in dried cranberries to make the cookies more festive since I was baking them for Christmas.
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
12 oz.chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup dried cranberries, chopped
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Blend oatmeal and set aside (I blended it pretty coarsely)
Cream butter and both sugars, add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add in dry ingredients and mix well (I did this part by hand)
Mix in chocolate chips, walnuts and cranberries
Roll into balls (or use a cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart on baking sheet
Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden and cool on wire racks. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
printable recipe
I love traditional Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies, but I'm going to be saving this recipe. Its a nice alternative (you know that someone will be bringing chocolate chip cookies if you are doing a cookie swap, or an office party- but no ones gonna show up with these!) I can't beleive its already almost Christmas. I'm hoping that I'll have time to make at least one more fun thing before then, but my schedule is pretty packed with work, parties, and traveling home to New York. So if I don't blog again before then- Merry Christmas!
PS- I like to bake my cookies on parchment paper. I'm not even really sure why- just my mom told me it makes them turn out better. So I do it.
It's a good thing you do what your mom says. ; ) Mom also likes to bake cookies on a pizza stone. Those chocolate chips you used to make were legendary!
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