Yes, it's not true

As is the case with so many stories that are forwarded via email, the Neiman Marcus $250 cookie recipe is not true. Snopes.com traces the history of this trope back to a 1948 cookbook with a recipe for "$25 Fudge Cake." It was reincarnated in the 60s as the Waldorf Astoria $350 Red Velvet Cake recipe and later as the $250 Mrs. Fields cookie recipe in the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, this morphed again, with the bad guy this time being Neiman Marcus. In response, Niemen Marcus now posts a chocolate chip cookie recipe, developed for the very purpose of putting it on their website.

The recipe contained in the slanderous email is quite good -- a co-worker brought some in recently, referring to the story. But I find myself wondering where this recipe came from. It's either some home cook's own great recipe, for which they are not getting credit, or it's a published recipe that the original author of the email deliberately used without citing the true source. This story, therefore, is actually less about corporate greed and the revenge of the little guy -- as it is intended -- and more about the importance of responsibly citing your sources.

The Neiman Marcus's own recipe, by the way, is also quite tasty. I made some this afternoon.