Famous Internet Cookies

Looking for a sure-fire crowd pleaser? How about a little something for the sweet tooth? Do you get lost in the forest of desert ideas? Then follow the Soup Lady's First Rule for Indecisive Bakers:

When in doubt, pull chocolate out.

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is famous as the centerpiece of one of the internet's first urban myth's: the stolen Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe. The story goes that a shopper at the store's cafe in Dallas was so impressed with the cookie that she asked for the recipe. After many rebuffs, the store reluctantly gave her the recipe, swore her to secrecy and then billed $250.00 to her credit card. In retaliation, the woman vowed to spread the the secret recipe all over the internet. The myth was debunked when N-M posted the store's real recipe on their own website, and it's free. But using the recipe posted here will give you something to talk about over the coffee cups.

The cookies pictured here were made by Brian Kane who says "these are maybe the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had." They were were dispatched to our ancillary test kitchen at Worcester Polytechnical Institute for taste-testing by a panel of volunteers from the second floor of Sanford Reilly Hall. Test results: the cookies were declared superfantastic. The panel of judges recommends placing the cookies in the microwave for a few seconds before consuming.

Famous Internet Cookies served on Stangl's Country Garden pattern FAMOUS INTERNET COOKIES 4 sticks butter 2 cups sugar 2 cups brown sugar 4 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 cups flour 5 cups oatmeal 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 8 ounces Hershey chocolate bar -- grated 24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips 3 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.

Blend the oatmeal by putting it in a food processor one cup at a time
and pulsing until the oatmeal is broken up into a finer flour-like
consistency.

In a large bowl or mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until
smooth. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well. Mix in flour, oatmeal, salt,
baking soda, and baking powder. Add the grated chocolate and mix well.
Add chocolate chips and nuts.

Roll the dough into golf-ball sized balls and place a couple of inches
apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes per batch.

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Country Garden is one of the more intricate patterns produced by Stangl. Introduced in 1956 and in production well into the 1970s, you think there would be more of it around, but it's pretty hard to find. I guess people are still hanging onto their original sets. When they're ready to let it go, The Soup Lady will be waiting to snap it up.Click here for a close-up of Country Garden. This peice was originally a tidbit tray. Note the hole drilled in the center where a handle would have been screwed in.

Comments

[Christine]

Those cookies do indeed look quite delicious! I may just have to add that one to my list of things to back over the next few weeks!

[Melanie Burman]

I got this recipe out of a South African magazine years ago. Apart from making cookies for Africa (literally) it is the best recipe ever. I lost the recipe recently, but thank goodness found it again - on the Internet!! However, I will have to pull out my calculator and metricate it.