Sea Biscuit: The Hermit Cookie of 1880-90
Thursday, August 20, 2009 
The late 1800s were a pretty eventful time in the USA: in New York, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened and Lady Liberty was installed; in the West, Billy the Kid and Jesse James bit the dust; the nation also grew, officially adding Washington, Montana and the Dakotas to the Union. And according to Betty Crocker's Cooky Book
One of our earliest favorites--rich with spices from the Indies, plump with fruits and nuts, Hermits originated in Cape Cod in Clipper Ship days. They went to sea on many a voyage, packed in canisters and tucked in sea chests.
Now, you may be wondering where this morsel got its funny name. There are a few theories uncovered on historycook.com:
Some say that the cookies were named because they look like a hermit's brown sack-cloth robe, but the earliest recipes are for white and round cookies. One possible lead 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.
Funny name and hazy origins aside, there's definitely another reason why hermits have lingered in our cookie jars: they're rich, cakey, moist, and satisfying. Adding raisins makes them taste vaguely virtuous, if you're into that--I'm not, so I substituted chocolate chips, and it worked out quite deliciously. They got even better when I sandwiched a slab of cheesecake filling between two of them (I think frosting would also work fantastically).
Hermits
- makes about 3 dozen small cookies or 24 large cookies; if you're interested in the cheesecake filling shown in the top photo, you can find the recipe here -
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 eggs
- 1/4 cup cold coffee
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup chocolate (or white chocolate) chips
- 3/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
- Mix butter, sugar and egg thoroughly. Stir in coffee.
- Sift dry ingredients together; mix bit by bit into the butter/egg mixture.
- Once incorporated, add the chocolate chips and nuts and stir only until incorporated.
- Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 400 F.
- If you want small cookies, drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough onto your cookie sheet; if you're not scared of a big cookie, do as I did and use an ice cream scoop.
- Bake 8-10 minutes for small cookies, 12 or so minutes for larger ones, or until there is the slightest crispiness on the bottom (as they have a light brown hue from the coffee, you've got to be careful about this!).
Reader Comments (11)
What's the yellow filling in cover photo?
you should totally open a bakery called ye olde cookie shoppe and sell these. so fancy!
a cakey cookie is my kinda treat :), especially with a name like 'hermit' :D.
Oh, man. These look great! And "hermits" is such a great name.
Oooh. The late 1800s were some good years. Clearly. These look fabulous!
Sues
i love cakey cookies. going to have to try this one!
thanks!
You are so sweet! <3
The thing I love about your blog so much, apart from your gorgeous illustrations, is your fascinating posts about the history of sweets. Absolutely love it!
Mmmmm a cookie sandwich made with cheesecake. That sounds like something that would be my friend:)
Seattle Tours: It's cheesecake filling. So decadent--so delicious. :-) I updated the post to make that more clear!
Thanks for everyone else's sweet comments. These cookies really are a keeper, and I tend to think they taste better when you know about their rich (pun int.) history!
oh that sounds good... coffee, brown sugar, moist.., all the words i like to hear!