Old Fashioned Hermit Bar Cookies - A Coalcracker In The Kitchen

 

Old Fashioned Hermit Bar Cookies 

From  A Coalcracker In The Kitchen

"Hermit cookies take two forms: drop and bar. They are reminiscent of a fruit-cake.
Chewy, spicy, filled with dried fruit, they are a favorite to make as fall and winter holidays approach, but I’ll  never turn down a hermit any time of the year.

There is no clear answer as to how the cookie came by its reclusive name — “hermits”. Some speculate that the name is adapted from the Moravian cookie (a spice cookie from Colonial America), or that the cookie resembles a hermit’s robe. Whatever the real source to their name, they have a well-traveled history. Stories suggest that sailors coveted the cookies for their ability to “keep” as they sailed the Eastern Seaboard and beyond. (Source: bonappetit.com)

Throughout the Northeast (US), the hermit was a favorite offering in pantries and bakeshops by the early 20th centuries. Fannie Farmer included a hermit with mace, cloves, raisins, and cinnamon in her cookbooks, but the cookie became a staple in recipe collections published by community groups.

My recipe presented here is the bar style and I just love them. These are great to make ahead for your cookie trays and freeze very well."

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Lori Fogg was the author of the blog, “A Coalcraker In The Kitchen” where she shared recipes, and creative ideas based on her experiences growing up in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. Fogg died in 2022.

From her now archived blog:

What is a “Coalcracker” and what the heck are you doing in the kitchen?

“Coalcracker“: Affectionate term for a resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, but particularly of the Anthracite (coal) Region (Scranton to the Lehigh Valley to Schuylkill County).

With the expansion of the mining and railroad industries. English, Welsh, Irish and German (the “Dutch” (Deutsch) in Pennsylvania Dutch) immigrants formed a large portion of the population, followed by Polish, Slovak, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Lithuanian immigrants.

The influence of these immigrant populations is still strongly felt in the region, with various towns pronounced ethnic characters and cuisine. Throw in some influence from the Pennsylvania Dutch of the Schuylkill County and Lehigh Valley areas and you have a sampling of Coal Region comfort foods!

The Coal Region is a historically important Anthracite (“hard coal”) coal-mining area in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the central Appalachian Mountains, comprising Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin counties.
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