the real cookie monster

Tom Brown is a lawyer back home in East Texas. And a runner, a bear-hugger, and father to a perpetually dirty kid who made fun of me every day in the third grade. But most importantly, Tom Brown is the creator of the (eponymous) greatest cookies ever.

And for the past decade or so, he has generously bestowed these oh-so-mouth-watering cookies upon our family, which has the good fortune of his friendship and, by extension, his cookie-receiving circle. In fact, I’m so darn special I got a batch of ‘em sent to me while at art school in Paris — a gift even more delicious considering the lack of peanut butter in grocery aisles of the “culinary capital of the world.”

At their gooey hearts, these are simply peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies. But if you have a handful of similar recipes, even a drawerful, I demand you toss them aside like the rubbish they are. Because even though no one can make a Tom Brown cookie quite as well as Tom Brown, any copies are more than worth the effort.

Tom Brown Cookies

2 eggs
2 sticks melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix together the first seven ingredients, then add the flour. Stir in the peanut butter and chocolate chips, and bake for 7-9 minutes.