The cookie recipe story is actually a modern varient of the Red Velvet Cake Urban legend and they usually blamed it on The Waldorf Astoria which never even served Red Velvet Cake.

The Jan Harold Brunvand series of books on Urban legends are really entertaining and cover most of these. The first one is called The Vanishing Hitchiker, and there are 4 more I believe. I know the titles of two more - the Mexican pet and The Choking Doberman. The latter is a pretty horrifying urban legend with alleged links all the way back to Gelert the faithful wolfhound