Hermit Bars

Hermit bars are chewy, molasses cookies that are more like a molasses brownie than a cookie. Load them with spices, nuts, and dried fruits, or keep it simple. Any way you make these hermit bars will become a family favorite. Make this hermit cookie recipe gluten free or with traditional flour– so rich and flavorful!

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Martha Stewart’s cookbook, Martha’s American Food, A celebration of our nation’s most treasured dishes, from coast to coast, features this Hermit Bars recipe from the northeast.

I’ve seen versions of hermit bars recipes by Ina Garten and Good Housekeeping as well.

Their name, hermit bars  or New England hermit cookies,  gives little clue to their taste, other than to suggest that if you hide these bars away for a day or two as a hermit might do, you’ll be rewarded with an even deeper melding of flavors in these bars.

The taste is that of an old fashioned spice bar cookie, deeply flavorful and delicious. This recipe is not fussy on looks– while they are not the most photogenic dessert, these bars really do make you reach for seconds.

Martha Stewart hermit bar cookies were just the treat that I wanted to recreate in a gluten free version.

I’ve baked both– traditional and gluten free– and didn’t miss a thing in the gluten free version. Gluten free flour blend is the key to making the easy switch to gluten free.

Are you new to gluten free baking? Here are tips for gluten free baking that helped me as I started cooking and baking gluten free.

Ingredients

• Dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt and spices. The only change you need to make in a gluten free recipe is to swap in a gluten free flour blend for the flour. Make sure your GF blend includes xanthan gum. If not, add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum to this recipe. The combination of spices is up to you as well. Cinnamon, cloves, or ginger are good ideas. Go heavy handed on these to make a spicy hermit bar.

• Wet ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, molasses.
• Add-ins are optional: Some suggestions are raisins or other dried fruits (or none at all), mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, orange zest, nuts

The bars’ ingredient list is reminiscent of holiday baking—ginger, cloves and cinnamon—but don’t wait until the holidays to make these.

The spices are not overwhelming, rather they come together with the help of molasses and brown sugar along with the usual standbys of butter, flour, baking soda, salt and egg to make an easy afternoon treat.

I chose to make the bars for their hermit quality: cookies & bars that age well are perfect for sending in the mail.

The bars are also ideal to make on a weekend then to enjoy throughout the week in packed lunches. With school starting just around the corner, I am hoping my younger son will find these a special midday dessert.

Steps to make hermit bars recipe:

1. Combine the dry ingredients of gluten free flour (or traditional flour if you are not making gluten free), baking soda, salt, and any spices you choose. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in the raisins (or other dried fruits and nuts)
4. Spread in a prepared 8 by 8 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Steps in more detail:

Let’s go through the steps  for this molasses cookie recipe here with photos:

First combine the dry ingredients. In this batch I made gluten free hermit bars by using 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour. Click here to see how to buy the product through Amazon.

Next, beat the brown sugar and butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Starting with room temperature butter is a good idea.

You are using brown sugar and not granulated sugar so the color will not be as light as you might be used to otherwise, but still the texture will be fluffy.

Add the eggs and add the molasses. Continue to beat on medium speed.

Add in the raisins. Dried cranberries, apricots, or currants would be lovely too.

Pour (or scrape) the batter into a prepared 8 by 8 pan. The batter is somewhat sticky and thick so a batter scraper or a strong spatula will help you fill the pan.

To prepare the pan, coat it with baking spray then add a sheet of parchment paper. Sometimes it is helpful to create a criss-cross with your parchment paper, such that you’ll be able to lift the baked bars out with ease. 

Aluminum foil is a fine option too.

Spray the parchment  or foil with baking spray as well.

Bake for 20-25 minutes in 375 degree oven.

You’ll love this chewy hermit bars recipe!

You could change this to a hermit bars cookie recipe by dropping tablespoons of dough on a parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until browned.

Can I make hermit bars like biscotti?

The bars can be baked similarly to biscotti, in a long log of dough which sits on a parchment-lined baking pan. This method, as opposed to pressing the dough into an 8 x 8 baking pan, allows the loaf-like log to spread and rise slightly, then later it’s cut into bars.

Here are photos from the batch of hermit bars I made using the biscotti technique. These are older photos from my original post.

Learn more about my improvement over the years with photography in this Food Photography Resources Page.

For more recent photos of baking other biscotti, check out this post on Vegan Chocolate Biscotti. 

Look at this chewy, spicy treat! Cut into bars if you baked your hermit bars in the biscotti technique or cut into squares or rectangles if you baked these in an 8 by 8 baking pan.

Tips and tricks for success:

Here are other recipes that can be bake both traditional and gluten free:

• Easy Apple Crisp
• Peach Upside Down Cake
• Gluten Free Pear Pie

Please note that this post was originally published in August 2012 and was updated in November 2018 and again in March 2021.

Let me know how you like this recipe for hermit bars! I’d love to hear from you!