Neiman Marcus Cookies

My college roommate, Kim, is a great cook. I can probably attribute at least 5 pounds of my "freshman 15" to her baking skills. (The other 10 can be attributed to questionable food choices. For example, is it really a good idea to eat a large quantity of fudge that you've spread with peanut butter? No. No, it's not.)

Two of the treats that Kim made most often were banana bread and chocolate chip cookies. (Is it really a good idea for two girls to eat half an entire loaf of banana bread in one sitting? No. No, it's not.) Those chocolate chip cookies were so delicious, though. Hordes of hungry college students hovering greedily around the dorm kitchen kind of good.

I never got Kim's recipe, but I remember that she always blitzed oatmeal in the blender to make her cookies. When I read a recipe for Neiman Marcus Cookies online and saw the blended oatmeal, I knew I had to make them.

As I devoured a cookie warm from the oven, I was back in our college dorm. Christmas lights twinkling from the ceiling year round, "Beautiful Day" blaring from the CD player, the musty odor emanating from our thrift store couch. Unfortunately I'm too old to eat the entire batch of cookies in one sitting without wicked heartburn or it would have been just like the good old days. I guess I'm growing up after all.

Neiman Marcus Cookies

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Measure 2 1/2 cups oats into a blender or food processor and blend until it's a fine powder. (It's like you're making oatmeal flour.)

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the oatmeal "flour" you blended earlier. Beat half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once it's combined, beat in the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir in semisweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips.

Grease baking sheets with cooking spray or line them with parchment paper. Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls and place a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. (My favorite way to eat these cookies, though, is straight from the oven.)