If a chewy, spicy cookie is your favorite kind of cookie, this old-fashioned hermits recipe is sure to be a keeper.
Made with a flavorful combination of molasses, raisins, and spices such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, hermits are especially nice during the holiday season, but I love them year-round. They keep well, can be sweetened with a custom glaze (vanilla, rum, lemon, orange—you name it), and have a mellow sweetness that’s hard to resist.
This traditional hermits recipe calls for raisins, but you can easily swap them out for golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried currants, or a combination of two or three.
Our favorite hermits recipe includes an easy glaze topping for just the right amount of extra sweetness. Photo Credit : Aimee Tucker
Similar to biscotti, traditional hermits are made by baking a long “log” of dough that is then cut into bars. This gives classic hermits their chewy centers and crisp edges. If you prefer, however, you can make hermit bars in a square pan, yielding a hermit that looks more like a brownie, or soft hermit cookies in the more familiar “drop” style.
Cut your glazed and almost-cooled hermits into bars, and enjoy! Photo Credit : Aimee Tucker
No matter the shape a hermit takes, I’ve never met one I didn’t like. But I must confess the traditional crisp-edge, chewy-center hermit bars are my favorite. They’re perfect for dunking into coffee or hot chocolate, and their ability to keep well makes them a great choice for Christmas cookie swaps or holiday care packages.
This hermits recipe is perfect for enjoying, and for giving. Photo Credit : Aimee Tucker
Make a batch this weekend and find out why this old-fashioned hermits recipe is Yankee-approved.
This post was first published in 2017 and has been updated.
Aimee Tucker is Yankee’s senior digital editor. A lifelong New Englander and Yankee contributor since 2010, Aimee has written columns devoted to history, foliage, retro food, and architecture, and regularly shares her experiences in New England travel, home, and gardening. Her most memorable Yankee experiences to date include meeting Stephen King, singing along to a James Taylor Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood, and taking to the skies in the Hood blimp for an open-air tour of the Massachusetts coastline.
I have been trying to find my grandmothers recipe for years and can’t! Everything I try is just disappointing. Then I found Wright’s dairy farms hermits! They are absolutely perfect! It is really an awesome place to visit, but if you can’t visit look them up online
My husband loved hermits. I used a recipe from THE PATRIOT LEDGER newspaper, which had a fabulous food section, in addition to THE BOSTON GLOBES’ Wed food section, which I also read weekly, retaining several recipes I still use. That recipe is called Woodrow Wilson’s Hermits. In addition to raisins, I also used a lot of walnuts in mine. They always disappeared very quickly when my husband got hold of them!!!!!!!! He loved sweets. I noticed the comment about Wright’s Dairy Farm Bakery. I am now forced to make my own butter (all brands are currently being sold rotten!!!!!!!!!) and I found Wright’s Dairy Farm through research. Their cows are Holsteins, which is what I drank growing up from “uncle (great!) Alecs’ farm” in southern, NH. He was a major supplier to HP Hood and Son in Boston, MA while I was growing up. They have a 100 cap program (which I plan to participate in buying whole milk and heavy cream to make butter with), after which they give you $5. off your next purchase. I looked at their bakery product list…wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got their May newsletter and an extremely pleasant email telling me they can’t wait to meet me!!!!!!!!!!!! I plan to buy other products in that area, as well, I am now unable to buy in the greater Boston, MA area. I even know how to get there because I know a family that lives in Sterling, CT, which is very close to that farm. Wright’s liked that fact immensely!!!!!!! I’m really looking forward to a continuous relationship there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We bought hermits in the cookie aisle, and after I was married, I found a recipe (thank you Yankee Magazine), and they were a favorite with the kids. I made them as bars, and I would never EVER dream of putting a glaze or icing on top! But that’s just me–if all y’all want to put icing on top, be my guest. Icing on top would make them way too sweet for my taste.
I Love the hermit cookies at Big Y stores. I get them in western MA but The chain has many stores in CT as well. Great molasses taste, chewy with lots of raisins and coarse sugar on top.
I used to make Hermit cookies in the bakery department of a grocery store, in CT, years ago. They were delicious, and we sold out of them whenever we made them! This may sound awful to you, but we used day-old baked goods, such as coffee cakes, cake (frosting and all), muffins, etc. as the main ingredient in the Hermit cookie recipe. I know. It sounds bad, but you would never know! They were that good!! Has anyone else ever heard of this? If so, I would love to have a recipe for Hermit cookies using day old bakery products.
I currently live in TN, but make it HOME to CT every summer (except the last 2). One of my first stops is Stop & Shop to get my hermits! Really good. Of course I go AFTER getting my first grinder at a fave shop!! This 74 yr old keeps old traditions!!
Our family says hermits “died” when Friehofer’s bakery stopped making them available in New York up around Lake George. Their chocolate chip cookies started down hill too when Friehofer’s went through a series of ownership changes that was currently halted at Bimbo Bakeries USA,
We bought hermits at the A&P, but the best hermits arrived on the Cushman Bakery van every Saturday morning. They were my mom’s favorites, along with their lemon meringue tarts. These hermits take me back to our central Maine town and I’m 10 years old again. Thank you!
Hermits are the best.
I have been trying to find my grandmothers recipe for years and can’t! Everything I try is just disappointing. Then I found Wright’s dairy farms hermits! They are absolutely perfect! It is really an awesome place to visit, but if you can’t visit look them up online
There’s a bakery in North Smithfield, RI that makes the best hermits!
Check out Wright’s Dairy Farm and Bakery
We are just finishing up a bag of Wright’s hermits. They are perfect.
I am 69. My grandmother used to make these when I was a kid. My mouth is watering.
My favorite. I make hundreds of cookies at Christmas time. Hermits are always among them. I make them as a round cookie with icing.
I use this recipe all the time and these hermit bars are delicious!
My husband loved hermits. I used a recipe from THE PATRIOT LEDGER newspaper, which had a fabulous food section, in addition to THE BOSTON GLOBES’ Wed food section, which I also read weekly, retaining several recipes I still use. That recipe is called Woodrow Wilson’s Hermits. In addition to raisins, I also used a lot of walnuts in mine. They always disappeared very quickly when my husband got hold of them!!!!!!!! He loved sweets. I noticed the comment about Wright’s Dairy Farm Bakery. I am now forced to make my own butter (all brands are currently being sold rotten!!!!!!!!!) and I found Wright’s Dairy Farm through research. Their cows are Holsteins, which is what I drank growing up from “uncle (great!) Alecs’ farm” in southern, NH. He was a major supplier to HP Hood and Son in Boston, MA while I was growing up. They have a 100 cap program (which I plan to participate in buying whole milk and heavy cream to make butter with), after which they give you $5. off your next purchase. I looked at their bakery product list…wow!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got their May newsletter and an extremely pleasant email telling me they can’t wait to meet me!!!!!!!!!!!! I plan to buy other products in that area, as well, I am now unable to buy in the greater Boston, MA area. I even know how to get there because I know a family that lives in Sterling, CT, which is very close to that farm. Wright’s liked that fact immensely!!!!!!! I’m really looking forward to a continuous relationship there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been making these for some time now, they are the best!!
Absolutely delicious!
These are wonderful – chewy, flavorful and scrumptious!… and they taste better the second or third day – if they last that long.
My Grandma taught me to make Hermits, but as cookies, not bars.
We bought hermits in the cookie aisle, and after I was married, I found a recipe (thank you Yankee Magazine), and they were a favorite with the kids. I made them as bars, and I would never EVER dream of putting a glaze or icing on top! But that’s just me–if all y’all want to put icing on top, be my guest. Icing on top would make them way too sweet for my taste.
You can also buy fabulous Hermit bar cookies at the Big Y grocery chain in Massachusetts.
I Love the hermit cookies at Big Y stores. I get them in western MA but The chain has many stores in CT as well. Great molasses taste, chewy with lots of raisins and coarse sugar on top.
Can I make these ahead and freeze the raw dough? I’ve made them alot and everyone loves them!
I used to make Hermit cookies in the bakery department of a grocery store, in CT, years ago. They were delicious, and we sold out of them whenever we made them! This may sound awful to you, but we used day-old baked goods, such as coffee cakes, cake (frosting and all), muffins, etc. as the main ingredient in the Hermit cookie recipe. I know. It sounds bad, but you would never know! They were that good!! Has anyone else ever heard of this? If so, I would love to have a recipe for Hermit cookies using day old bakery products.
That doesn’t sound awful Tammy! It’s a fool that can’t utilize food leftovers! Take bread pudding for instance…????
Would love to have a bread pudding recipe made with day old pastry. Worked in a Restaurant that used to make bread pudding this way best I’ve ever had
I currently live in TN, but make it HOME to CT every summer (except the last 2). One of my first stops is Stop & Shop to get my hermits! Really good. Of course I go AFTER getting my first grinder at a fave shop!! This 74 yr old keeps old traditions!!
Our family says hermits “died” when Friehofer’s bakery stopped making them available in New York up around Lake George. Their chocolate chip cookies started down hill too when Friehofer’s went through a series of ownership changes that was currently halted at Bimbo Bakeries USA,
Market Basket also makes very delicious Hermits!
We bought hermits at the A&P, but the best hermits arrived on the Cushman Bakery van every Saturday morning. They were my mom’s favorites, along with their lemon meringue tarts. These hermits take me back to our central Maine town and I’m 10 years old again. Thank you!