hermit cookies
These delicious home-baked Hermit Cookies are soft and chewy, studded with raisins and have a touch of spice and molasses. You can stir together a batch in just 15 minutes. Bonus is they actually get better after a couple of days, so they’re a great make ahead treat! You’d never guess they’re vegan too!
I originally shared this recipe on January 23, 2011. I have updated the images and some of the text today. This post contains affiliate links.
Old fashioned Hermit cookies are one of my favorite New England treats. I love that they are so fast to whip together. Just combine the dry and wet ingredients, stir them together, bake and cut. Really baking doesn’t get any easier than this!
The Champlain Valley Cookbook, published in 1880, included one of the first known published Hermit recipes. It calls for ½ cup lard and a lot of brown sugar in addition to the spices and raisins. My recipe is updated with canola oil instead of lard and I used whole-wheat pastry flour for a nutritional bonus. I like to sprinkle crunchy turbinado sugar on top for sparkle and texture.
According to the Food Lover’s Companion “they’re better when hidden away like a hermit for several days.” In my house they usually don’t last that long.
How to Make Hermit Cookies
Bar Cookies
These hermit cookies are bar cookies, which means they are baked in a brownie pan and then sliced into squares once they are cooled. Other hermit cookies are sometimes freezer cookies or slice and bake style doughs, but these are so easy to make this way, and the texture is perfect!
How to Mix the Hermit Cookie Dough
- I used a blend of whole wheat flour and regular all-purpose flour to make these Vegan Hermit Cookies. The all-purpose flour helps the cookies rise and have a nice chewy texture typical of hermits. The addition of whole-wheat gives these cookies more fiber, which is good for your gut and digestion.
- To the dry ingredients, I added the baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Just give that a good whisk! If your baking soda or spices are clumpy, you can sift the dry ingredients.
- Mix the sugar, oil, almond milk and molasses in another bowl to combine. The sugar acts as a wet ingredient and will melt into the wet mixture.
- Blend the dry into the wet and stir the dough until it is combined. Last add the raisins in and spread the dough out onto a prepared baking pan. I like this one from Calphalon.
- Last, sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar to give the hermits a classic crunch.
- Once they are baked and cooled, cut the hermits into squares and store them in a resealable container. I like to layer parchment between them.
More Vegan Sweets
Vegan Dark Chocolate Walnut Bites
Peanut Butter Pretzel Energy Balls
Wheat Free Banana Coconut Mug Cake
Vegan Pumpkin Maple Walnut Scones
This Dairy Free Fudge can be made vegan too!
These Gluten-free Oreo Balls from Tessa are dairy free as well.
Thanks so much for reading. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review.
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Vegan Hermit Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 24 bar cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Vegan Hermit Cookies are soft and chewy, studded with raisins and have a touch of spice and molasses. You can stir together a batch in just 15 minutes. Bonus is they actually get better after a couple of days, so they’re a great make ahead treat!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ½ cup avocado oil or organic canola oil
- ½ cup molasses
- ½ cup almond milk or soymilk
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar, such as Sugar in the Raw
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Whisk whole-wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl until combined. Whisk sugar, oil, molasses and milk or soymilk in another medium bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Stir in raisins. Scrape into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and transfer to the oven.
- Bake until puffed and cracked, about 25 minutes. Let cool before cutting into 24 squares. Layer hermits between pieces of parchment in a re-sealable container. Store at room temperature for 3 days or freeze up to 1 month.
Notes
0 mg Cholesterol, 10 g Added Sugar
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar cookie
- Calories: 150
- Sugar: 15 g
- Sodium: 107 mg
- Fat: 4.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 27 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
Here are the original images associated with this blog post.
This was so good! Everyone at my house loved it!
★★★★★
I had never heard of hermit cookies before but I am so glad I tried them! The whole pan full was gone in a flash!
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Such a fun and delicious recipe. I love that you took an old (but classic) recipe and made it your own. I will be making it again. Thanks for sharing.
★★★★★
I never realized what these cookies were called but I love how tasty they are!
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I didn’t grow up with them and only discovered them when I was an adult. Glad to know you found the post informative. Thanks so much for visiting today.