Very Chocolaty Cookies

If these cookies look familiar, there’s a reason: they’re built on the famous Neiman Marcus recipe, the one tied to that long-running urban legend about a $250 cookie. Legend or not, the techniques behind it genuinely work.

Two tricks set these apart. First, the oatmeal gets whizzed in a blender until it’s a fine powder before joining the flour. That powdered oat gives the cookies a tender, fine crumb and a subtle nuttiness without the chew of whole oats.

Second is the double dose of chocolate. On top of a full bag of chocolate chips, you grate a whole chocolate bar into the dough. Those fine shavings melt and spread chocolate through every bite, while the chips give you molten pockets. The result is about as chocolaty as a cookie gets.

Brown and white sugar together give them chewy centers and crisp edges. Roll them golfball-sized and bake just until set.

Pro Tips

• Blend the oatmeal to a true powder. Any large flakes left behind will change the texture from fine and tender to coarse.
• Grate the chocolate bar finely so it melts evenly into the dough instead of sitting in chunks.
• Pull them while the centers still look slightly soft. They firm up as they cool and stay chewy.

Variations

• Use a dark or milk chocolate bar to dial the intensity up or down.
• Add a cup of chopped nuts, which the original often includes, for crunch.
• Swap some of the chips for white or peanut butter chips for a different flavor.