Neiman Marcus cookies

Since Will, my dear husband, was going to visit his Dad and brother. Well, let me start over-- he was really going to see the Virginia Tech spring football game and is just so happens his family lives 20 minutes away from the Hokie stadium. At any rate, I had to bake some cookies to send to Vern and Jay. (And yes, I have to bake something sweet whenever we see them-- it keeps me on their good side :-)). Rather than make the usual chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, I made the "Neiman Marcus" cookie recipe* that my mother had emailed to me several months back. 

I cut the recipe in half so I wouldn't be baking cookies into the wee hours of the morning. Despite halving the recipe, the cookies filled two freezer bags once they were done. It was a time consuming process, grating chocolate on a hand grater (if there is an easier way to grate chocolate, please let me know), grinding up oatmeal, and just stirring the chocolate chips and nuts into the very thick batter. However, the results were excellent-- chewy and moist and melt in your mouth. Here is the recipe I followed below (it can be doubled, but I doubt it would fix in your standard stand mixer's bowl, and the batter is almost too thick for a handheld mixer to handle.)

"Neiman Marcus" Cookies

1 cup of butter

12 ounces of chocolate chips

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of granulated sugar

4 ounces of a Hershey bar (This is what took so long to grate)

2 1/2 cups of oatmeal

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Measure the oatmeal, and blend in a blender (or a mini chopper, or a food processor) to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a separate bowl, and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Once that is combined, add the grated Hershey Bar. Next, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Roll the cookies into balls, or use a scoop, and lace the cookies 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

*Note: This is not the "official" Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, it differs from this one posted on Neiman Marcus' website.