This page is from 1996 and not updated these days so some links won't work but I'm leaving the page online since so many are still falling for that hoax....
The Cookie Myth The Cookie Recipe The Cookie Truth? And the Morals of a swedish magazine... Cookie Linx
The leading swedish cooking-magazine
"Allt om mat" no. 1/96 printed this story:
My daughter & I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus
Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert.
Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to
try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so excellent that I
asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said
with a small frown, "I’m afraid not." Well, I said, would you
let me buy the recipe?
With a cute smile, she said, "Yes." I asked how much, and she
responded, "two fifty, it’s a great deal!" I said with approval,
just add it to my tab.
Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus
and it was $285.00. I looked again and I remembered I had only
spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf.
As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe
-$250.00." That’s outrageous!! I called Neiman’s Accounting Dept.
and told them the waitress said it was "two-fifty," which clearly
does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars" by any *POSSIBLE*
interpretation of the phrase.
Nieman-Marcus refused to budge.
They would not refund my money, because according
to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem.
You have already seen the recipe - we absolutely will not refund
your money at this point." I explained to her the criminal statutes
which govern fraud in Texas, I threatened to refer them to the
Better Business Bureau and the State’s Attorney General for
engaging in fraud.
I was basically told, "Do what you want, we don’t give a crap,
and we’re not refunding your money."
I waited, thinking of how I could get even, or even try and get any
of my money back. I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250, and now
I’m going to have $250.00 worth of fun." I told her that I was going
to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an
e-mail account has a $250.00 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus
...for free. She replied, "I wish you wouldn’t do this."
I said, "Well, you should have thought of that before you ripped me
off, and slammed down the phone on her.
So, here it is!!! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you
can possibly think of. I paid $250 dollars for this... I don’t want
Nieman-Marcus to *ever* get another penny off of this recipe....
Recipe may be halved:
4 cups (9 dl) flour
2 tsp. soda
2 cups (4 ¼ dl) sugar
5 cups (12 dl) blended oatmeal**
2 cups (500 gram) butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups (4 ¼ dl) brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups (7 dl) chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla
** Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.
Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix
together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.
Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and
place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.
Enjoy!
How about the swedish magazine then? Isn't it amazing though, - how stories like this spread around the world. This urban myth was published in the leading cooking and baking magazine in Sweden "Allt om mat", in their january edition 1996, but the story itself has been circulating since the dawn of e-mails, (earliest I found was uploaded in june 1993) but other hoaxes with the same content was first published in the 30's.
I called Allt om mat and asked them if they knew they had printed an urban myth, and wondered if they had checked any sources since the story obviously aims to give Neiman Marcus a bad name. A fair thing to do would be to print a correction in their next edition, maybe apologizing to Neiman Marcus? I got the reply "We believe this story is true, and... what makes you believe you are right about this anyway?".
So I faxed the magazine a couple of internet newbie hoaxwarnings and printouts from similar stories. And a few weeks later they called me back, to tell me that they now were aware about this story being a hoax, but they couldn´t print a correction in their magazine since "If we do that, everybody who missed the original story will call us to get a copy of the recipe, and we don´t have time for things like that...."
Maybe they should stick with what they do best then, i.e cooking and baking. (Allt om matis an excellent cooking magazine, after all). I'm not sure I like the idea of cooking magazines printing gossip without correcting obvious errors, especially when businesses or persons are named and targeted. Since I first published this page, march 16, 1996 I have received hundreds of letters from people who did read the original article in "Allt om mat" and had been convinced it was true. This shows the danger of spreading this kind of stories in a magazine. Keep in mind, "Allt om mat" is the Swedish cooking-guru, and subscribers all over the world read it on regular basis.
Finally, for all those who come to me looking for more cookie recipes, here are some nice cookie links, no myths, no legends, just plain cookie pleasure!
By the way, I got this mail from Neiman Marcus some time ago:
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 07:27:20 -0500
From: cookie@neimanmarcus.com (Cookie (Neinman Marcus))
Subject: The Cookie Monster
To: gullaksen@ankeborg.pp.se
X-Mailer:
Message-ID: <19970428121942036.AAA222@usnspb.usnetworks.net>
THE COOKIE MONSTER
For several years, we have heard a story about the mythical Neiman
Marcus cookie recipe. We don't know how it got started or who is
perpetuating the myth, but this "cookie monster" just won't die! We
would never charge anyone for a Neiman Marcus recipe. We share our
restaurant recipes for free upon request.
This same story circulated in the late 1930's about a lady who dined
at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. She liked the Red Velvet
Cake so much she asked for the recipe. When she received her hotel
bill, she had been charged $100 for the recipe. (This was during the
Depression, so it seems our version of the story has been adjusted for
inflation!)
Neiman Marcus never served cookies in our restaurants until recently,
when we developed a new chocolate chip cookie in response to this
myth! Following is the recipe (free of charge, of course.) Please
feel free to share this letter and the recipe with anyone you know who
may be similarly interested in the truth behind this "cookie that
won't crumble!"
Sincerely,
Neiman Marcus
cookie@neimanmarcus.com
FREE FOR THE TAKING
The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, slightly crushed
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1. Cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract.
3. Combine the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop by large spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375
degrees for 8-10 minutes, or 10-12 minutes for a crispier cookie.
Makes 12-15 large cookies
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2 tsp. soda
2 cups (4 ¼ dl) sugar
5 cups (12 dl) blended oatmeal**
2 cups (500 gram) butter 
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups (4 ¼ dl) brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. 
4 eggs 
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups (7 dl) chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla
** Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.
Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix
together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.
Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and
place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.
Enjoy! 
