New England Hermits, reassigned as “Rescue Bars”
I found this recipe in a community cookbook from Hull, Massachusetts, and included it in my cookbook about foods from the coast of Massachusetts, “In Cod We Trust.” The definitive hermit cookie - caramel complexion, fudgey interior, wrinkly lines on top - these molasses-dense cookies might have made great nourishment for a rescue team and its beneficiaries at the Hull Lifesaving station, the first of its kind in the nation.
Hull’s most famous life-saver, Joshua James (1826-1902), and his crew are said to have rescued over 1,000 people from shipwrecks in his time. This cookie, now a staple in New England grocery stores, first appeared in cookbooks around 1890, a little late for Joshua James, but not for rescuers who followed him. The hermit’s true debut was in Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cookbook in 1896. An earlier reference to this spice cookie called them “Century Cookies,” because they have enough spice and molasses in them to last a century.
I once served a platter of these hermits at a book event for my cookbook. An older woman who had been sitting with her friends at a separate table approached, tried a cookie, and walked away. She came back soon, and started pretending to browse through my book, but really went straight to the Hermit recipe. One by one, her friends arrived and did the same. They were trying to collectively memorize the recipe; stealing is the highest form of praise. As I did to those ladies, I offer the Hermit recipe, an act of philanthropy.
I’ve never really subscribed to certain foods as comfort foods, because the dark cousin of comfort foods is eating disordered, but I’m willing to say that these cookies - on the third March day of 17 degrees in a Northeast wind with one’s Twitter feed dense with depravity - are Rescue food.
Rescue Bars
Makes about 50 cookies
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground clove
2 cups raisins
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In the bowl of a standing mixer put butter, sugar, eggs, and molasses. Beat on medium for 3 minutes, or until well combined.
In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add to the butter and eggs mixture, and stir on low to combine thoroughly, about 2 minutes. Add raisins, and stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine.
Wet hands, and use them to make sure the whole dough is mixed together. Empty dough onto board.
Divide the dough into 3 parts. Roll each part into a log 1 1/2” wide and the length of a cookie sheet. With your finger tips, press logs down gently to flatten just slightly.
Lay 2 logs parallel to each other on an ungreased cookie sheet. Lay the 3rd log on a separate cookie sheet, as they will not all fit on one. (The cookies expand considerably.) Bake for 17 - 20 minutes, or until the sides crack but the center appears almost underdone. These cookies are best fudgey. If you take them out a little underdone they will continue to bake, and arrive at just the right texture.
Let cookies cool for a minute, and then slice the logs into lengths, like biscotti. Cool these cookies completely on a rack. If the cookies are too large, slice each length in half again cross-wise to make squares. Will keep in a closed container for up to 3 weeks.
