Vintage Eats
Holiday Hermits: The Perfect Cookie for Any Platter
By Jaymie Leighton
As you may know, lately I have been doing some work with spices, given that Queensville, unbeknownst to me, is the spice capital of the USA! Captain Jonas Perry, one of the founding fathers of our village of Queensville, was a spice importer who traveled the world in search of the freshest spices to import. If you are curious about spices and want to see more, visit the Queensville Historic Manor any day of the week and see our spice grater collection in the classic 1920s kitchen I established there last year.
Hermits are a special cookie to spice lovers. Cinnamon, allspice, cloves . . . this fragrant and deliciously evocative blend will have you thinking holidays in no time. If you’re feeling festive, you can add a little nutmeg, too! I’m giving it a special holiday twist by adding in dried cranberries, a jolly and colorful addition. With or without that, they are the perfect picnic cookie, after-school snack and all-round best pairing with cocoa or frothy milk. The hermit cookie is the king of cookies and ideal for any occasion. With all of that being said, here is my take after reviewing dozens of hermit cookie recipes, vintage and modern!
I have such a tough job!
Holiday Hermit Cookies
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ tablespoon salt (Note: if you use salted butter, as I did, omit the salt!)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (omit if you prefer or if you don’t have this, or substitute allspice)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts if you prefer)
1 cup dates, chopped (the original recipe I had said to pit the dates, but I bought them already pitted and chopped; I just chopped them more finely)
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or use Silpat silicone baking sheet liners.
With an electric mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. I used a stand mixer; it makes baking cookies so easy!
In a separate bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture a bit at a time, letting the mixer beat it in. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again, if you’re using a stand mixer.
Fold in nuts, dates, cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls, spacing the cookies about two inches apart. Bake for 10–11 minutes until lightly browned. Put the baking sheet on a raised rack for a few minutes before lifting the cookies from the pan.
If you are in a hurry, it’s great to make the cookie dough and bake it later. I baked a few off, then rolled the rest in wax paper, wrapped that in plastic, and will slice chunks off to bake later. There is nothing like freshly baked! (This worked out great, by the way. Fresh cookies another day!) But hermit cookies keep well; it’s been said that the reason they are called “hermit” cookies is that even if one gets away and hides out in the bottom of the cookie jar, it will still be good by the time you find it! I love little legends like that.
The cookies can be stored at room temperature for five days. If you make these up ahead of time, they will freeze well.
These are fat, fragrant, delicious and satisfying with a frosty glass of milk or a cup of cocoa. They truly smell and taste like the holidays!
Happy Christmas, everyone, or Frohe Weihnachten, as my in-laws say!