"$250" cookies

Today I'm making cookies.  Some of you are probably familiar with the "myth of the $250 cookie recipe" others may not even know what it is... so I'll explain.

I got an email one day that described a situation involving a woman having lunch with her daughter at Neiman Marcus.  For one of the common texts go here.  Basically, this woman and her daughter finish their lunch and want a cookie for dessert.  They like the cookie so much that they want to get the recipe, but the waitress tells them that she can't give it away, but they can buy it for "two fifty."  Of course, the woman doesn't realize that she's actually paying $250 for a cookie recipe until she gets the bill.  She then (to get retribution on Neiman Marcus) sends the recipe, in email form, to as many people as possible, telling them to forward it on to everyone they know.

This story never actually happened.  Neiman Marcus has, recently, started offering cookies (somewhat similar to this recipe but with some instant espresso in the mix) and offers the recipe free of charge to anyone that wants it. This email also went around for a while using "Mrs. Fields" as the over charging antagonist.  Apparently the original story goes all the way back to 1948 when the outrageously priced recipe was for a red velvet fudge cake, made by the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, that had cost someone $25.  Inflation has a lot to answer for...

Apparently, no one knows where this recipe actually came from... but I read about other people trying it and saying it was a darn good chocolate chip cookie.  So I figured I'd give it a try too.  I altered the recipe a little, so this is my variation of the recipe:

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$250 cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups blended oatmeal (or Oatmeal flour like I used)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant coffee
3 Tbsp Grated Cadbury chocolate (I used a few dove chocolate hearts I had left over from Valentine's day)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I didn't have any so I left them out)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder.
Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix.

In a separate bowl, add flour, oatmeal, salt, coffee, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix the dry ingredients then add to the butter/sugar.  Add chocolate chips, grated Chocolate and nuts.

Roll into balls and flatten slightly.  Place each about two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.

The above quantities makes about 56 cookies.

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I made these for a big group, so I ended up doing the full recipe which did yield right around 56 cookies.  The recipe is pretty darn delicious and I would definitely make these again.