At the Arlington Farmers’ Market in Northern Virginia on Saturdays you can find a woman that makes the most amazing cookies. She simply goes by “The Cookie Lady” at her stand, and she pulls you in by offering free samples of any of her cookies.
They’re twice the size of a regular cookie, thick, dense and they taste like cookies on steroids. Imagine enjoying a delicious peanut butter cookie – now imagine eating a jar of peanut butter. There is not a lot of subtlety to her flavors, they’re just completely packed and insanely delicious.
To attempt to recreate these cookies but in a smaller, more manageable form, I was thinking about The Cookie Lady’s peanut butter cookies and also looking at some recipes from Cookie Madness and Smitten Kitchen. Instead of using peanut butter chips, I doubled the amount of smooth peanut butter. I also added 1/2 tablespoon of milk. Half the batch I kept as pure, unadulterated peanut butter cookies, and the other half I experimented by adding semi-sweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chips, or white chocolate chips.
I think these came out really well. They’re still not quite at the level of The Cookie Lady, but they are packed with peanut butter. I liked the plain peanut butter cookies without chips the best, but if you’d like to add something to the batter the white chocolate chips were also a nice touch. 
Packed Peanut Butter Cookies
inspired by The Cookie Lady, Cookie Madness and Smitten Kitchen
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Jif Reduced Fat Creamy – it’s my favorite)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups sifted flour
1/2 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two ungreased cookie sheets with parchment paper. Combine softened butter, dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat in the peanut butter and egg. Beat in the salt, baking soda, vanilla and milk until fully incorporated. Add sifted flour last and stir until blended. If you wish to add white chocolate chips, you can add them now.
Place dough on cookie sheets by 1/2 tablespoon. Gently flatten the dough balls using a fork, making a light criss cross pattern. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until done. Cool on pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You may also like to decorate the top with some extra sugar.
This recipe makes about 30 cookies.
