Let me start right off by saying that no, that is not the official name of these cookies – but it should be. They are actually called Peanut Butter Corn Flake Balls. That’s a decent enough name. It is accurate and descriptive. However, it comes nowhere close to describing the flat out, mind-blowing awesomeness of these sticky, gooey, creamy, chewy little blobs of edible bliss! How did they end up being called HolyCrapTheseAreAmazing Cookies, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because that is pretty much what everyone says the first time they bite into one of these decadent little guys.

The first time I ever ate one was when my daughter was in the second grade. Each year, from the time she was in kindergarten through the fifth grade, I had the dubious distinction of being the Room Mother for her class. A Room Mother is a mom who is in charge of taking care of all of the “extras” for the class that the teacher doesn’t have the time or inclination to do, like collecting for the teacher’s gifts, lining up chaperones for field trips and, of course, organizing class parties.

Anyway, that particular year, her class had a Halloween party, and one of the moms brought these cookies. Now, being a Room Mother often requires you to make certain sacrifices, one of which is taste-testing all of the snacks, just to make sure that they are okay for the kids to eat. Really! It says so in the Official Room Mothers’ Code of Conduct. Okay, I made that up, but if there was an Official Room Mothers’ Code of Conduct, I’ll bet the whole “taste-testing” thing would be in there.

So, I ate a cookie. As my eyes were rolling back into my head, I groaned out loud and spontaneously exclaimed: “Holy crap! These are amazing cookies!” From then on, they have elicited the same response from everyone I’ve served them to.

This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.