Hermit Bars Recipe

Old-fashioned hermit cookie bars are a sweet, chewy, and rich treat perfect for serving in our modern kitchens.

This perfect dessert has all the traditional flavors you’ve come to expect from the New England classic – molasses, coffee, spice, raisins, and nuts – in an easy to bake bar form.

These chewy hermit bars are a delight to serve with hot coffee for a simple but amazing dessert or afternoon snack.

A Hearty, Easy Dessert

Like hermit cookies these bars are thick and hearty. They are a filling dessert full of a sweet richness that gives them a comforting feel.

These chewy bars don’t need much – there’s no need to make frosting or dress them up in any kind of way. Simply bake the bar cookie and delight in the simplicity of a recipe that has been around since the early 20th centuries.

The great thing about cooking this traditional recipe in bar form is that it skips all the individual cookies and multiple cookie sheet trips in and out of the oven but still gives you all the sweet taste you’d expect.

Spice

The full recipe below contains 2 1/2 teaspoons of combined spices. I went with the traditional cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. However, you can feel free to change it up in anyway you like.

Prefer more nutmeg than ginger – go for it. Use cardamom or allspice instead. Toss in apple pie spice instead. Truly most any of the warm spices you like will work here.

These are a spice cookie bar – I suppose you could skip the spice all together and that it would it still be a tasty treat, just not traditional.

I used salted butter but if you choose to use unsalted butter, add 1/2 teaspoon salt with the spice mixture.

Dark Molasses Flavor

I used blackstrap molasses and dark brown sugar to truly make the molasses bar flavor stand out.

A lighter molasses would work but change the flavor profile and color slightly.

Light brown sugar too will work, don’t run to the store just to buy dark brown sugar if you don’t have it on hand for this recipe.

Nuts

I used walnuts, it feels most traditional and I almost always have some on hand.

However, there’s no reason that you couldn’t substitute pecans or almonds, or truly any nuts you have in your pantry. Just give it a rough chop.

How to Serve

As I said, this hermits recipe is meant to be a simple dessert. While it looks a bit like a spice cake, honestly serve the bars as you would any homemade cookie recipe.

Serve pieces with tea or coffee or a glass of milk and keep it quite easy and delicious.

If that feels just too plain for company, dust slices with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

A scoop of vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream would also be delicious.

During the holiday season, add them to cookie trays and gift baskets.

How to Store

Cover any leftovers with plastic wrap or aluminum foil or store in another airtight container. Leftovers will stay moist and delicious for up to 4 days at room temperature.

For longer term storage the bars can be frozen. Simply cut pieces and place into freezer containers or bags and freeze.

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Thaw frozen bars on the counter prior to serving. Use up any frozen bars within 6 months for best flavor.

These do freeze delightfully well so feel free to double the batch and freeze extras for later.

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