Here’s a fine example from a 1948 cookbook, Massachusetts Cooking Rules, Old and New, which lists not only the recipe for “$25 Fudge Cake” but also gives the following explanation for the name:

This friend had to pay $25 upon the receipt of the recipe from the chef of one of the railroads. She had asked for the recipe while eating on a train. The chef gladly sent it to her, together with a bill for $25, which her attorney said she had to pay. She then gave the recipe to all her friends, hoping they would get some pleasure from it.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/neiman-marcus-cookies/

One thing I find interesting about this particular version of the recipe is that it calls for Hershey (assuming milk) chocolate when I highly doubt that Neiman Marcus would use such a pedestrian ingredient. (Cue me getting sidetracked looking at the NM website and drooling over $600 shoes when the last shoes I bought came from the thrift store, but I digress)

Print Recipe

250 Dollar Cookie Recipe

Course: after church coffee hour, Cookie, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cookie, cookies, cooky, urban legend

Ingredients

• 5 cups ground up oatmeal (Measure Oatmeal & blend in a blender to a fine powder)
• 2 cups butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 24 oz chocolate chips
• 8 oz grated Hershey bar
• 5 cups chopped nuts

Instructions

• Cream butter and both sugars.
• Add vanilla and eggs; mix with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
• Add chocolate chips grated Hershey bar & nuts.
• Roll into balls & place 2" apart on a cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10 minutes at 375°