Chain Letters

A few weeks ago I received an email titled “Biscuit Recipe - A must read!!". As a confirmed foodie I had to read it, even though I know you shouldn't open suspicious emails.

Here it is......

My daughter and I had just finished lunch at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas. Because both of us are such biscuit lovers, we decided to try the Neiman-Marcus cookie'. It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe. The waitress said with a small frown, 'I'm afraid not, but you can BUY the recipe.' I asked how much, and she responded; ‘Only two fifty - it's a great deal!'

I agreed to that, and told her to add it to my bill. Thirty days later, I got my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus charge was $285.00. I looked at it again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two sandwiches and about $20.00 for a scarf. At the bottom of the statement, it said, 'Cookie Recipe-$250.00'. That was outrageous!

I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress had said it was 'two fifty', which clearly does not mean 'two hundred and fifty dollars' by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-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.' I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Texas. I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General’s office. I was basically told: Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back' I said, OK, you've got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of fun.' I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an email account gets a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free. She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do that.' I said, 'Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you RIPPED ME OFF!' and slammed down the phone.

Once I read the story, I knew there was something suspicious - I had heard the exact story about the RED VELVET CAKE, a story which dates back to the 1920's! So I went straight to Hoax slayer, and it turns out it was a hoax and that Neiman Marcus was not even making chocolate cookies at the time the email started doing the rounds!

I had never heard of Neiman Marcus before, but apparently they are an extremely expensive shop and after visiting their website I noticed firstly, that they are indeed a very expensive shop and secondly that they did sell chocolate chip cookies. They had however published the recipe and given full permission for people to copy it and give it to as many friends they could.

I have no idea what the Neiman Marcus cookie should taste like and at $24 (R216) for a tin, I probably won't have the pleasure either. I did however try their recipe and it is very good and easy to make and will definitely be stuck into my cookie book to make again.

Of course I did make a few changes, owning to fact that I would not buy a bottle of instant espresso just to make a batch of cookies. Instead I used 3 teaspoons of filter espresso powder and sifted it together with the flour to remove the larger grains. I also used ½ teaspoon vanilla seeds instead of essence or extract. - just because I love the look of the seeds.

Click here for the recipe.

I have a friend who did make the hoax recipe, which makes a gazillion cookies and she said they were very good too - one wonders why they would want to give the credit to Neiman Marcus for their recipe? In case you want to try that too, you can find it here.