There is a story to this cookie! It’s about a woman who enjoyed the cookies at Neiman Marcus so much, she paid – by inadvertently asking for it, $250 for the recipe. Neiman Marcus got so many requests for this cookie that they developed a recipe and gave it away free. That’s the gist, but – this is a chocolate chip cookie that brings us back to the less hectic days in life. A comfortable everyday cookie, a Christmas Treat for any day of the week and any time of the year – The $250 Cookie!

This recipe makes a lot of cookies. I got over 100. Perfect for when my kids drop over in a few days! I made 2 trays using the full portion of a tablespoon scoop (purple handle). With the remaining dough, I just split the scoop portion in half. They were still pretty big though, but that’s okay, they will be perfect for dunking in a cup of coffee or glass of milk or on it’s own.

There is nothing fancy about this cookie recipe, it’s just a comfortable – oatmeal, chocolate etc, cookie. Slow things down and make this cookie. You can make all the dough portions, freeze the excess and bake as you need over the next few weeks (months if you can resist). A toaster oven works really well when you only want to bake a few for yourself!

There are numerous variations you could do to customize it to your family’s tastes. You could add nuts, coconut, candies, chips, use a combination of milk and dark chocolate etc. I didn’t add nuts (due to allergies in the family) as the original recipe suggested. It’s a good base to build from if you choose to, but it’s a comfortable (that’s the third time I’ve used this word in this post) cookie as is. As always – enjoy!

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2½ cups oatmeal, I used the quick cooking kind – not instant
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
12 ozs chocolate chips, I used dark Ghirardelli chips as I had them
14 oz milk chocolate bar, grated – I placed it on the cutting board and using my knife made thin shavings and then chopped with a knife
1½ cups chopped nuts – optional

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375f – line 2 baking trays with parchment – set aside
Using a mixer or by hand, cream together butter and both sugars
Stir in the eggs – one at a time, and the vanilla.
Grind the oatmeal in a processor and combine with the flour, salt, baking powder and soda
Add the flour – in additions, to the butter mixture, mixing well by hand or mixer (the dough starts to get heavy here and may give you difficulty, so stick with the mixer if you started with it)
Add the chocolate chips and the grated chocolate (and/or up to 1 cup of anything else you want)
Mix just to combine
Scoop or drop by tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, on the lined trays 
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes (10 minutes was the recommended time and results in a softer cookie, longer makes it crispier)
Let cool on the trays before trying to move them to a rack or you may have to eat the broken cookie
Sample one (or two) and enjoy!