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Hermits
1/2 cup butter or shortening 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 cup chopped raisins 1 tablespoon molasses 1 teaspoon each of all kinds of spice 1/2 teaspoon soda Flour Cream fat, add sugar gradually. Add eggs, molasses and raisins. Sift soda and spices with one cup of flour, and mix all thoroughly. Add enough flour to make quite a stiff dough, and roll. Bake in a moderate oven (380 degrees F.).
A short, workable drop-and-roll spice cookie from the era when flour was measured by feel rather than by cup. The vagueness is in the flour and the spices, and both are easy to pin down.
- How much flourThe recipe names one cup for sifting with the leavening, then "enough flour to make quite a stiff dough." In practice that lands around 2 to 2 1/2 cups total for a dough firm enough to roll. Add the extra a quarter cup at a time and stop as soon as it stops sticking to the fingers.
- "All kinds of spice"Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice are the spices most often called for in hermits of this sort, and a teaspoon of each is a reasonable reading. A full teaspoon of cloves is assertive; half is closer to modern taste.
- Soda without acidHalf a teaspoon of soda is leavened chiefly by the molasses. One tablespoon is a small amount of acid for that much soda, so expect modest lift and a faint alkaline note. Substituting a teaspoon of baking powder for the soda gives a cleaner flavor.
- Oven380F as written is unusual precision for the time and is essentially a moderate oven. 375F is fine. Bake rolled and cut cookies 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers still look slightly soft.
- RollingChill the dough at least an hour before rolling; the butter and eggs make it slack when warm. Roll about 1/4 inch thick and flour the board lightly, since the raisins tear thin dough.
- RaisinsChop them rather than leaving them whole, as directed, or they punch through the sheet and scorch. Soaking them briefly in hot water and draining keeps them from drawing moisture out of the crumb.
- YieldAbout three dozen 2-inch cookies. They keep better than most rolled cookies and soften on standing in a tin.