Old-Fashioned Hermit Bars
Sweet and spicy thanks to cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, these old-fashioned hermit bars are a New England cookie classic.
By Yankee Magazine|Mar 18 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanSweet and spicy thanks to cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, these old-fashioned hermit bars are a New England cookie classic.
SEE MORE:
The Best Old-Fashioned Hermits Recipe
Hermit Cookies | Yankee Recipe Archives (1952)
Yield:
16Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
¼ cup molasses
1 large egg
2/3 cup raisins
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
5–6 teaspoons milk
Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl or in the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and egg and continue to beat, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if necessary. Gradually add the flour and spices mixture until just combined. Stir in the raisins.
Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 375° and line a large baking sheet with parchment.
Once dough is chilled, shape it into a ball and cut in half. Shape each half into a log 12 inches long and arrange on the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 3 inches between the logs. Press down lightly on the tops of the logs with your fingertips to give them a slightly squared-off shape.
Bake on the center rack for 15 minutes, or until the edges are just barely crisp. Remove from the oven to cool.
In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth but not too runny. Drizzle over the logs while they are slightly warm.
Allow the icing to harden before cutting into bars.
looks good
These are delicious!
My mother”s favorite! 🙂
I remember when my mom used to make these and they never made it to the next day having three brothers and they were just like this but she made them in a pan
My mother-in-law often made these for me. Bless her soul.
The Cookie Jar always had them when O was little
Icing on a hermit? Sacrilege!
I agree!
Absolutely!
Great recipe….we prefer no icing and added walnuts.
Walnuts! Great idea , thank you
My Mom made these for us a lot.
The first – and far from the last – hermit I had was as a student at Boston College in the early 80’s. Having grown up in the south, I’d never before experienced this uniquely chewy, spicey New England treat. I was hooked! I still buy them whenever I see them, but with this recipe I will try making my own. However, I do not plan to ice them. I agree with a previous commenter: sacrilege!
look good..can I press all batter in a pan and cut into bars?Would be less time consuming..how about baking time?
Loved these without icing from local bakery in Providence. Now when o get back to RI every 10 years or so there is one place in Riverside that I go to and bring home 6 dozen and freeze them
I made these hermits, they are so much better than the store bought, and I do not put icing on them, they are just great anyway
I’m 70. My grandmother made these all the time in the 50’s/60’s.
Cookies are s delicious and I did agree without the icing! This recipe is a keeper!
These are wonderful. We like them with th icing.
Absolutely amazing! I made a big batch of these for my family’s Christmas party and all my relatives said that I made them just like my grandmother used to. The icing tends to hurt my teeth, but if you like the extra punch of sweetness, I’d suggest adding some vanilla extract to the icing.
These are the best ever, some of are bakeries have stop selling them, so I can make them when ever I want, without the icing too
Absolutely Icing, I add a little fresh orange juice to the frosting…Delicious
I need to check out this recipe but like Bowman’s in Salem used to make them, they need raisins
I love hermits. But when I make them they spread out and become too thin. I don’t know what to do about this, any suggestions?
Make sure you’re measuring everything closely, chill the dough thoroughly and don’t pat out the logs too thin, just enough to keep their shape as they will spread. Hope this helps.
I have tried for years, without success, to obtain the Hermit recipe from 1970’s Smith College. Fond memories of Friday tea. I will make this recipe with fingers crossed!
Love these hermits. Don’t bake anymore, but will get my daughter to try this recipe. Thanks, Maria
Cricenti’s Market in New London, NH used to sell these for years (60s-90s). Chewy molasses bliss! Thanks so much for your recipe and no icing needed. ????
These sound delicious. Had them often as a youngster without the icing. I will try this recipe.
These are so good! I used half all purpose flour and half whole wheat. Chopped walnuts are absolutely a good addition and no icing to make them like my family remembered them being from our childhoods.
My mom used to make these all the time when I was a kid, using her grandmother’s recipe. I haven’t had them forever because I have to eat gluten-free now, but I just tried this recipe using Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour and they came out great! Maybe slightly less chewy than using regular flour, but they still taste just like I remember! Delicious!
I love this recipe, I don’t use the frosting. In addition to the raisins I also chop up some crystallized ginger and add that. So good.
OH BOY! I’m going to make this recipe–I’ve always loved these bars! Thank you so much for publishing this recipe for us! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This sounds a lot like my ginger bread men recipe.
Would like to bake in a square pan. What size and how long to cook?
I remember in the 1950s/60s that the Viking Bakery located in West Hartford – a Swedish Bakery that delivered weekly to homes- sold these. Their sugar cookies were also delicious!
Loved Viking Bakery! Their Swedish Limpa Bread was the best! Would love to get that recipe!
WOW. My grandmother had a van deliver from Viking Bakery with their Hermits, black bread, etc. GREAT bakery items! Just like homemade. Was in the 50s – 60s, also. Fond memories! He also would bring to her kitchen what he thought “Babcia” would want/need.
I loved Viking Bakery, too! Grew up in Meriden, CT and always looked forward to the Viking delivery! Also, my dad’s favorite cookie was the Hermit!!
My dad made these hermit bars back in the 1950’s and they were one of my favorites at his bakery in East Haven Ct. Happy Memories!
Cushmans Bakery out of Lynn, Ma & Portland,. Me use to deliver them to your home along with all the other great goods they had!!
we had Cushmans delivered , our driver “Larry the baker” always brought in what he thought my mother would like…
Can’t wait to make them, Just went out to buy raisins. I remember them as a child in the 40 and 50’s.
Prefer a crisp hermit to the cake like kind. Hope this is the recipe I’ve been looking for.
Unfortunately it is not. The recipe is more of a dense, wet cake. I wished it were dryer and crisp. Will keep searching!
Just cook the hermits longer. That is what I did and it was far better with crisp edges. Bake for 20 (or slightly more, but keep checking on them!)
Search this site for Hermit Cookies, I just saw that recipe here. They’re crispier. This recipe is for real moist, tasty hermits like many of us in New England grew up with.
I have gone back to this recipe several times. The only alteration is allspice instead of cloves. So yummy!!
I remember them made in a pan and you cut them to the size you wanted. I’m temped to try spreading them out in a pan and see how they come out. But rolling them out sounds like making biscotti . I may just spread them out with my hands.
Remember hermits from my childhood in Providence and will try this recipe. Absolutely no frosting!
Ate them without icing growing up in BostonMA
going to try this tecipe w/o icing.
Yum
Tried this recipe today without frosting……spot on!!!!!
Never saw a recipe for these before. Just copied it and will make them for Sunday dessert.
Pretty much my recipe but I add chopped walnuts, a good size handful!
My husband will do anything for a batch of Hermits!!
My father was the third generation of the old fashioned bake shop owners (1908-1982) . When I was a pre-teen I earned my allowance helping him in the early AM on Saturday’s. His unique recipe for the Hermit was usually never the same from day to day. The unsold donuts from the day were always the base ingredient regardless of their origin. To this was added all the ingredients necessary to make you think ” I have to get this guys recipe”. No one can equal his Hermit’s.
The bakery I worked at as kid, did the same thing with the leftover cake donuts. Wish I could make some like. Happy memories.
I make these often. They make the whole house smell like Christmas. I use spiced rum instead of milk for the icing.
I LOVED these back in the ’60s! I’d go to the Island Bake Shop on Sanibel Island, Florida and I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven after having one! Now I’m thrilled to be able to make them myself to share with others!! Thanks a bunch for the recipe!
I am fortunate to have my grandmother’s handwritten recipes and this is one. My grandparents were married in 1905. She made these and her gingerbread in square or oblong pans.
My sister in law, Ruth shared this recipe and has made them for years. All my boys’ favorites. We add walnuts but no icing. We lightly glaze with egg wash before baking which gives a nice glaze.
Far and away the best Hermit recipe around (except for the icing-we NEVER had icing). I make them all the time and they are a huge hit.
Always sold in bakeries in Providence, RI where I grew up. Looking forward to trying this recipe. ( no icing )
I used to buy them at a bakery in Wayland Square in Providence back in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Now I bake them or buy them at a bakery in Grass Valley, CA, where they call them Fruit bars. They’re still hermits.
I just printed this recipe out and can hardly wait to try it! What I love about New England Today FOOD as much as the recipes is reading about the history of the dish and the fond memories it brings back for so many. Delightful and in many ways very comforting.
Which kosher salt? Diamond Crystal and Morton’s have different size crystals, so the amount of salt as measured varies greatly.
I discovered the hard way if not diamond crystal half the amount.
My dad loved hermits, and we got them at the Bread Basket bakery in Holliston, where I grew up. He could eat several at a time. Somehow I ended up with the idea that hermits could only come from the bakery, you can’t make them at home. Recently, I thought, that’ can’t be true . . . and I googled hermits recipes. This one is the best I’ve found, a total keeper.
I find them whenever I go home to New England. But making these was a joy. I use Demerara or raw sugar to sand them and leave off the icing. I grew up with no icing on them.
Always had these growing up outside Boston. So far I have found three index recipe cards in Mom’s Falmouth Cookbook for hermits. Trying to find the ones she made without any icing and spread with egg yolk before baking. Yum.
This recipe is delicious. I followed the recipe just as it was written and they came out perfect. I would add a little more raisins next time and probably frost only 1/2 so you can choose with or without. thanks for a keeper recipe!!
Ohhhh yummmmmy!! I need to try this.
I’m hooked! Moist and dense texture. I substituted cranberries and dates for nuts and raisins.
Yes I drizzled icing made with the powdered sugar,dash or so rum to thin it out. Thanks for my new favorite holiday cookies
I add 1/4 t of cardamom, 1/4 t of allspice, dark rum, and for the apple flavor mentioned above you use boiled cider which you can find at King Arthur. I measure the latter two ingredients with my heart. It works out fine.
I also use dried cranberries and dried cherries instead of raisins because that’s what I had.
These are wonderful and I like the icing it tones down the spice.
I increase the spice amounts on all of them.
I like that taste, You can even add a quarter of a teaspoon of pepper finally ground to really give it a kick.
Excellent recipe.
If I want to add flavoring to the icing, how much should I substitute for the milk?
Richard Roth
rrothgator@yahoo.com