Hermit Cookies (small Batch)

By Mariealicerayner @MarieRynr
 I am an old fashioned kind of girl when it comes to the things I like in life. I truly do love the simplest things best of all.  This applies in most areas, and I especially love old recipes.
Recipes such as these old fashioned New England Hermit cookies.  They are a pretty basic cookie with no bells and whistles. Perfect for enjoying with a hot drink or with a glass of milk. 
 The recipe I am sharing with you today was one I adapted from a cookery book I have entitled, Lost Recipes, Beloved Vintage Recipes for Today's Kitchen, by Betty Crocker. 
You really cannot go wrong with these. I do have another recipe for Hermit Cookies on here, which makes rather a lot. They are baked in bars and then sliced into cookies.
You can find that recipe here.  They are also iced. I usually bake them at Christmas.
  Some say that Hermit cookies got their name because they look like a hermit's brown sack-cloth robe, but the earliest recipes are for white and round cookies. 
One possibility is that the Moravians, an ethno-religious group well-known for thin spice cookies in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, were sometimes called "herrnhutter" in German or Dutch, and that might have sounded like "hermits" to an English-speaking cook.
Whatever their origin, Hermit cookies are delicious no matter!  I always have a hard time stopping myself at only eating one or two.
 They are, I would say, a decidedly New England cookie, and an early American creation. New England Hermit cookies have molasses in them. This version does not.
Instead it uses a small quantity of cold coffee, hearkening back to the New England ingenuity of being able to use up every scrap that they have, eschewing waste and embracing thrift.
 Whatever their origins I think one thing is certain, with or without molasses, coffee or not and that is this.  They are one very delicious cookie!
Me, being on my own, cannot possibly make use of 3 dozen cookies however. That is how many the original recipe made.  At best I could make do with half that amount and so I small batched the recipe.
 Using a Wilton cookie scoop I got exactly 14 beautiful cookies.  Lightly rounded and puffed, and stuffed with sweet sticky raisins and toasted walnuts.
I am a real believer in toasting your nuts. Anyone who has been reading me for a while knows that. Its a very easy thing to do and makes a real taste difference in the finished product.
 I have explained how to toast them many times in the past and at the risk of repeating myself, I won't. But if you would like to know how then don't hesitate to get in touch and ask me. I am only too happy to share.
This is a sturdy kind of a cookie.  Sturdy enough to pack into care packages and tuck boxes as gifts for people.
  They are beautifully spiced with warm baking spices.  Ground Nutmeg and ground cinnamon.  These two spices give them a real wholesome homey flavor.
They are also two spices which go very well with coffee, raisins and nuts.
 
It also makes them the perfect cookie to enjoy with an iced cold glass or milk, or a hot cup of coffee or tea, in my case an herbal infusion.
Great for packing into lunches, or for picnics as well.  These go really well with a scoop of ice cream as a tasty old fashioned dessert.
  I had never used a cookie scoop in my life, but my sister swears by hers. I started using hers while I was staying there and I was hooked. I just had to get one of my own. 
It certainly makes a clean job of scooping out the cookie dough and it ensures that your cookies are all the same size.  
 I used old fashioned dark, seedless raisins in my cookies.  The recipe did not specify which kind of raisins to use, but I thought such an old fashioned recipe would surely use old fashioned raisins.
Nothing fancy, just simple dark raisins. Sun Maid kind of raisins.  Did you use to take small packs of raisins in your lunch box? Or get them given to you at Halloween?  I did and I have always loved them and the sunny girl on the box.
 Brown sugar makes them nice and moist. I know some people don't like that word, but it doesn't bother me.
Mom used to make brown sugar cookies. Sometimes not all of the sugar would be blended in and we would end up with little nuggets of brown sugar scattered throughout our cookies and cakes.  
I never minded that.  So candy-like, they were a real treat.
 She used to make these slice and bake butterscotch cookies that we liked to complain about, but we were all, each one of us, very happy if we got a little nugget of brown sugar in ours!
These may not have nuggets of brown sugar in them, but they do have plenty of nuggets of sweet raisins, and crunchy toasted nuts.

I am almost sorry I small batched the recipe now because I could easily scarf down half a dozen of these without blinking an eye. That is the glutton in me speaking.
The angel in my however is glad that I don't have as many to pig out on.  
If you are looking for  nice all rounder to bake this weekend, you can't get much better than these. They are quite simply delicious!
  

Hermit Cookies (small batch)

Yield: Makes about 15 cookiesAuthor: Marie RaynerPrep time: 5 MinCook time: 10 MinTotal time: 15 MinAn old fashioned type of cookie small batched for the smaller family. If you wish to double them, just ask me and I can send you the amounts.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup packed (100g) soft light brown sugar
  • 1/8 cup (about 25g) white vegetable shortening
  • 1/8 cup (30g) butter, softened
  • 1/8 cup (30ml) cold coffee
  • 1 large egg yolk (freeze the white for another use)
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup + 6 TBS (100g) all purpose flour 
  • 1/3 cup (45g) raisins
  • 1/3 cup (35g) toasted chopped walnuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5.  Have ready a medium baking sheet, ungreased.
  2. Measure the shortening, butter, egg yolk, brown sugar and coffee into a bowl and cream together until smooth.
  3. Sift together the soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour and salt.  Add to the creamed mixture, mixing together well.
  4. Stir in the raisins and the nuts.
  5. Drop by the TBS onto the baking sheet, leaving 2 inch in between each cookie. (I use a cookie scoop)
  6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until almost no indentation remains when you touch one in the center.  
  7. Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
  8. Store in an airtight container.
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