Hermits baked by a hermit

It is a very windy day here on the North Shore. After doing all of the usual adult morning activities (laundry and grocery shopping), I decided to hunker down in my pajamas and shut out the chaos of Salem for awhile. Today I baked one of my top favorite cookies by Mary: Hermits!

The actual recipe is called the Harwich Hermit. After doing a little investigation, it turns out that this cookie dates back to the 1800s. It is believed that seamen took these cookies with them on trading ships because the dried fruit in the cookie kept them soft and fresh tasting for an extended time. Some say that the name hermit refers to the cookies long-keeping nature--they're best when hidden away like a hermit for several days and Harwich comes from Harwich, MA which is in Cape Cod...one of Mary's favorite places!

Hermits
(recipe cut out of newspaper and glued onto recipe card)
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp mace
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 13X9 inch baking pan
Beat the butter with the sugar until creamy
Beat in the eggs and molasses and blend well
Sift the flour with the salt, baking powder, and spices and stir into butter mixture until batter is smooth
Stir in raisins
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes
Allow to cool completely before cutting

I made two batches of these cookies. The recipe called for 15 minutes of baking, but the first batch of cookies came out very chewy. The second batch I cooked for about 20 minutes and they came out much better.