National Spicy Hermit Day

What the day is

National Spicy Hermit Day is observed on November 15. Hermits are a New England cookie: dark, chewy bars of molasses and brown sugar heavy with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg, usually with raisins and sometimes nuts.

They are baked as a slab or in long logs and cut into bars rather than dropped as rounds, which is part of what distinguishes them from a molasses cookie.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented, and the cookie's name is genuinely uncertain. The most repeated explanation is that they keep well enough to be stashed away and forgotten like a hermit, or that their keeping quality suited long sea voyages from New England ports. Neither is documented, and a third suggestion is simply that the dark, lumpy appearance resembled a hermit's rough robes. It is best treated as unresolved.

What is clear is the function. Molasses is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts and holds moisture from the air, so a molasses-based cookie stays soft for a remarkably long time rather than drying out. Combined with the preservative effect of sugar and spice, this made hermits a practical provision cookie in the nineteenth century, when New England shipping was at its height.

The spices themselves arrived through the same trade routes that made the region's fortunes, which is why colonial New England baking is so heavily spiced compared with English baking of the period.

How to take part

• Underbake slightly. Hermits should be soft in the middle when they come out and will firm as they cool.
• Bake as logs and cut into bars once cooled, which is the traditional method and easier than dropping.
• Plump the raisins in hot water or tea first, or they pull moisture from the dough.
• Wait a day before eating. The spices bloom and the texture improves noticeably overnight.
• Store in a tin with a slice of bread to keep them soft, the old trick that actually works.