Home › Dainty Dishes › Hermits
Hermits
One and one-half cupfuls of brown sugar, three-quarters of a cupful butter, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, two tablespoonfuls of milk, one tablespoonful of brandy or whiskey, three eggs, a pinch of salt, one-half of a nutmeg, one-half teaspoonful of allspice, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, cupful of raisins, stoned and chopped, and dredged with flour, three and one-half cupfuls of flour, drop from spoon in greased tins. Bake in moderate oven.
A drop cookie in the old New England style, given as a bare ingredient list with almost no method. The proportions are sound; what is missing is temperature, time and the order of mixing.
- Oven"Moderate oven" in period usage is roughly 350-375F. Bake 10-13 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers still look slightly soft; hermits firm up considerably as they cool.
- Mixing orderCream the butter and brown sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time, then the milk and spirits, then the flour sifted with baking powder, salt and spices. Fold in the floured raisins last.
- Dredging the raisinsTossing the chopped raisins in a spoonful of the measured flour keeps them suspended rather than sinking to the bottom of each mound. Do this with flour taken from the 3 1/2 cupfuls, not in addition to it.
- Flour measureCup measures of flour were not standardized in this period and can run heavier or lighter than a modern spooned cup depending on whether the flour was sifted. Start with 3 cups, add more only until the dough holds a soft mound on the spoon, and stop there; too much flour makes hermits dry and cakey.
- NutmegHalf a nutmeg grated is roughly 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons of fresh nutmeg, which is assertive. Pre-ground nutmeg from a jar is much weaker; grate a whole one and use the smaller amount if you are unsure.
- The brandyOne tablespoon flavors rather than leavens, and most of the alcohol cooks off. Water, milk or strong coffee substitutes with no structural difference.
- "Greased tins"Baking sheets, not tart or muffin pans. Parchment is easier and prevents the sugary brown-sugar bottoms from sticking. Space the mounds about 2 inches apart, as they spread.
- YieldAbout 40 to 48 cookies, depending on spoon size. They keep well in a tin for a week and improve on the second day as the spice settles.
Hermits are a New England cookie, appearing in American cookbooks from the later 19th century onward and often said to have originated in the coastal towns of Massachusetts, where the spices, molasses or brown sugar, and dried fruit that define them were staples of the West Indies and East Indies trade. The name has no settled explanation; it is often said to refer to their keeping qualities, since the sugar-and-spice dough stays edible for weeks and made good provisions for sailors and travelers. The tablespoon of brandy or whiskey is typical of turn-of-the-century American baking, where spirits were treated as an ordinary flavoring alongside nutmeg and cinnamon.