Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies are the stuff of legends. Urban legends. In summary, someone claimed to have requested and received the recipe from the department store and was billed for $250. Whether true or false isn’t our concern. All we care about is how we can’t get enough of this chocolate chip cookie recipe that’s really something special. (And we also have a recipe for a slightly different Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe that calls for ground oats rather than espresso powder. We may have been following a hoax, but it’s a darn good hoax at that. One that we’ve been pretending to fall for over and over and over again.Renee Schettler Rossi

A stack of Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies separated by pieces of parchment.
4.75 / 8 votes
These Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies, made popular through urban legend as the “$250 chocolate chip cookies,” are crispy, chewy, and downright delicious.
David Leite
CourseDessert
CuisineAmerican
Servings24 servings
Calories177 kcal
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time45 minutes

Ingredients 

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder, (optional)

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until the mixture is fluffy, 30 to 60 seconds.
  • Beat in the egg and vanilla and mix until well combined, 30 to 60 seconds.
  • In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer, reduce the mixer speed to low, and beat until combined, 15 to 30 seconds.
  • Add the chocolate chips and espresso powder and mix for 15 seconds more.
  • Using a 1-ounce scoop, or using a 2 tablespoon measure, drop the cookie dough onto the parchment in dollops about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into 2-inch circles; there should be room for 6 or 8 cookies at a time.
  • Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cookies are nicely browned around the edges.
  • Place the baking sheet on a wire rack to cool slightly. Transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.
Neiman Marcus Cookbook by Kevin Garvin

Adapted From

Neiman Marcus Cookbook

Buy On Amazon

Nutrition

Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 177 kcalCarbohydrates: 23 gProtein: 2 gFat: 8 gSaturated Fat: 5 gMonounsaturated Fat: 2 gTrans Fat: 1 gCholesterol: 19 mgSodium: 79 mgFiber: 1 gSugar: 15 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe?Mention @leitesculinaria or tag #leitesculinaria!
Recipe © 2003 Kevin Garvin. Photo © 2003 Ellen Silverman. All rights reserved.

Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Where has this recipe been hiding? A definite Testers Choice, this is just what you’d expect from a cookie Neiman Marcus would put its name on—rich, sophisticated, well-crafted, and superbly delicious.

I used Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips, which paired especially well with the instant espresso coffee powder, both adding depth and richness to these upscale cookies. I don’t know if it was just my thinking about the grandeur, luxury, and larger-than-life scale of Neiman Marcus, but the chocolate chips seemed not only just the right intensity and bitterness, but also just a bit larger than the usual semisweet chips from the grocery store.

First, I baked a batch for 20 minutes, and then baked another batch for a few minutes longer. The latter batch produced cookies that were crisper—more to my liking. For those who prefer a not-so-crisp cookie, remove them promptly from the oven at the 20-minute mark. Either texture, you’ll have a cookie you can proudly pull out for company, or serve at snack time at home with a tall glass of milk.

These cookies do keep well. I set aside a tin for an event I was hosting nearly a week later and the cookies showed little apparent loss of freshness, flavor, and texture. On a table of offerings that also included homemade chocolate cake and peanut butter cookies, these were the first to go.

These chocolate chip cookies are fantastic! Easy to make and they turned out perfectly. I didn’t soften my butter and omitted the espresso and the resulting cookies were the best possible combination of crispy and chewy. Everyone in our household loved them.




About David Leite

I count myself lucky to have received three James Beard Awards for my writing as well as for Leite’s Culinaria. My work has also appeared in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Yankee, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and more.


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Recipe Rating




24 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Angie,
    Made a batch yesterday. I use a KitchenAid Professional 550 and found my mixing times to be pretty close to double as noted in recipe. I’m a fan of scraping down the sides to achieve a well blended mixture. So, I mixed for time indicated, scraped down the sides of the bowl, then mixed for pretty much another amount of time as originally specified. I let the “look” of the cookie dough tell me how long to mix.
    I substituted semisweet chocolate “chunks” for the chips, so my cookies were a bit, well, chunkier than had I used chips. You’ll see than in the attached pic.
    Reno Dave

  2. 4 stars
    Not to be picky, but for clarity. I think at Step 4 you might want to toss the “dry” flour mixture into the stand mixer bowl along with the “wet” mixture. And, is 15 seconds enough time to fully incorporate? Not sure if this might have been noted by others.
    Reno Dave

    1. Good point, Reno Dave. I’ve updated the recipe to make it clearer. As for the timing, we generally do have our testers report on what worked for them, but if you make the cookies and find that it takes much longer, please do let us know. We value that feedback.

      1. 4 stars
        Angie, Thanks for updating recipe for clarity. Step 4 reads clearly now!!
        Next time I do the recipe, will keep track of what times work for me. Will let you know if it turns out much differently from the recipe as written.
        Reno Dave