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Delicious Cocoanut Hermits
1/2 cup butter ¾ cup sugar ¾ cup flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 2 eggs, separated 1/2 teaspoon baking soda ¾ tablespoon hot water ¾ cup Dromedary Cocoanut 1/4 cup Dromedary Currants Cream butter and sugar together, add flour sifted with salt and cinnamon, yolks of eggs beaten, cocoanut. currants, soda dissolved in hot water and whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Mix and drop from a spoon, an inch apart on well greased baking tins, and bake in a quick oven.
COCOANUT
A small drop cookie from a Dromedary advertising booklet, built on the standard hermit formula of spice, dried fruit and soda. The dough is stiff and the yield modest, so read the quantities carefully before you start.
- The fractionsWhere the printed text shows "34" it means three-quarters: 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 tablespoon hot water, 3/4 cup cocoanut. The 3/4 tablespoon of water is simply enough to dissolve the soda; a scant tablespoon is close enough.
- A quick ovenPeriod sources generally put a quick oven at roughly 400-425F, which is hot for a small butter cookie. For drop hermits of this size, 400F for 8-10 minutes gives the same set edge without scorching the coconut.
- CocoanutDromedary sold packaged shredded coconut. Modern sweetened flaked coconut is the closest match; unsweetened desiccated coconut will make the cookies noticeably drier and less sweet.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, not fresh red or black currants. They are smaller and less sweet than raisins; if you substitute raisins, chop them so they do not dominate a cookie this small.
- The sodaThere is no acid in the dough beyond a trace in the butter, so the 1/2 teaspoon of soda gives spread and browning rather than much lift. Do not increase it or the cookies will taste soapy.
- Beaten whitesThe recipe adds the stiffly beaten whites last; fold them in after everything else is combined rather than stirring, to keep the dough light.
- Spacing and yieldAn inch apart is close for a dough that spreads; two inches is safer. The yield is modest -- on the order of a couple of dozen small cookies.
- Baking tins"Well greased baking tins" predates parchment. Line the sheets instead: the coconut and currants on the underside catch quickly on bare greased metal.
Hermits are a New England drop cookie, documented in American cookbooks from the later nineteenth century, spiced with cinnamon and studded with dried fruit; the name is usually explained as a reference to their plain brown appearance, though that account is traditional rather than documented. This version comes from a Dromedary booklet, one of the branded recipe pamphlets that food companies distributed free in the early twentieth century to build demand for a packaged product. Dromedary was the trade name used by the Hills Brothers Company of New York for dates, shredded coconut and dried fruit, and the point of the leaflet was to move those tins and cartons. The coconut here is the addition that makes the cookie a Dromedary recipe rather than simply a hermit.