COOKIES WITH A STORY

I have come across the Neiman Marcus Cookie story a few times, whereby a lady at the Neiman Marcus Cafe asked for the recipe for the cookies she had just eaten, the waitress explained that there would be a "two fifty" charge, the lady presumed that this covered the photo-copying and said that that was fine.  When she got home she realized that they had charged her two hundred and fifty dollars for the recipe - so she e-mailed it to everyone she knew (requesting them to forward it to all their contacts) so nobody else would be stung like that!!!!!

With a back story like that I just had to try the recipe myself, and a very good recipe it is too..... not $250 good but very, very good.  The blitzed oats give the cookies a wonderful texture.

I got my recipe from http://www.browneyedbaker.com/, a really enjoyable blog, with fantastic photos.  I have used the american measurements, except for the butter which I have converted (I find measuring butter by cups far too messy!).  I give you the recipe as I made it, with a couple of tiny tweaks.


The Neiman Marcus Cookie

Makes about 25 cookies

2 1/2    cups of rolled oats
2          cups plain flour
1 tsp     baking powder
1 tsp     bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)
1cup/230g  butter
1 cup    granulated sugar
1 cup    brown sugar
2           eggs
1 tsp     vanilla extract
12oz     milk chocolate chips
4  oz     dark chocolate chips
1/2       cup hazelnuts


Preheat oven to 180 C,  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Blend the oats in a food processor to a fine powder. 
Using a medium to large bowl, combine the blended oats, flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (bread soda), and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, (3-4 minutes).
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
Beat in the vanilla extract.
On a low speed gradually mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Divide the dough into 2 oz balls ( about 2 tbsp worth) and place about 3 inches apart on the baking sheets.*
Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
The cookies should be lightly brown and set in the outside but still look a little undone in the middle - that's OK they will finish setting up after they are removed from the oven.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

*At this stage I put half my raw cookies on a tray in the freezer, and after a couple of hours bagged them up.
They are the best thing ever to have in the freezer as they can be baked for 15 minutes from frozen when unexpected guests arrive - really impressive stuff!!!!

*An ice-cream scoop is great for measuring out the dough for large cookies.


Enjoy.

Happy Mother's Day To You  All  :-}