Baking Up a Resistance
Anyone who wonders why people are baking for comfort these days has never come home to the olfactory bliss of fresh chocolate chip cookies. A few days ago I was feeling down. So I went searching for a legendary cookie recipe a friend sent me (and a thousand of her nearest and dearest) in the mid-1990s. This recipe turned baking into an act of resistance.
Remember Neiman-Marcus? When I was little my mother treated shopping as a special girls’ outing. We’d have lunch in the café, then wander the aisles fondling things we could never buy—things I later decided I would never buy. Still, the place was a great favorite during our teenage shoplifting phase. Then it became part of an urban legend. Here’s the email:
Subject: Help me get even with Neiman-Marcus
One Saturday I took my daughter to Neiman-Marcus as a special treat. I bought a pretty scarf and a hair ribbon for my daughter. Then we had lunch in the café. I had a salad. She had grilled cheese. We decided to try the “Famous Neiman-Marcus Cookie” for dessert. It was so delicious that I asked if the waitress would get me the recipe. She gave a little frown and said, “I’m afraid not.”
“Well,” I said, “Would you let me buy the recipe?”
With a cute smile, she said, “Yes. Of course!”
When I asked how much, she responded, “Two-fifty.” I said, “Just add it to my tab.”
Her arched brows rose as she moistened her pencil and added it to my bill
A month later I heard the mail slip through the slot while I was doing the ironing. I opened my VISA statement and there was a bill from Neiman Marcus for $285.00. Can you believe it? Our lunch was $35—a lot at the time. The recipe was $250!” A month’s rent! I called the store right away and asked the manager to reduce my bill. I said I would send the recipe back.
She said, “Oh, no. You already have it. For all I know you might just copy it down.”
By now I was shaking with anger. I told her I would send this receipt to every cookie lover in my neighborhood. . . in the country. . . in the world! And they would never sell it again.
Unfazed, she replied, “I wish you wouldn’t.”
And here, for you, is my revenge.
These cookies really are delicious.
I changed the recipe a smidge to up the comfort ratio.
1 cup Unsalted Butter (2 sticks usually)
1/2 cup White Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Blend moist ingredients until smooth then add to:
1 cup blended Oatmeal (chopped up in the blender)
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 oz Hershey bar (grated) The secret ingredient
Choose from the following:
1.5 cups chopped nuts (I like walnuts best)
1.5 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet!)
1.5 cups raisons or dried cranberries
Chill the dough if you're worried about cookie spread
Bake 8-10 minutes in oven preheated to 375 degrees
Cool before eating for the perfect crunch.
Makes about 2 dozen crunchy bits of paradise
