SPECKLED HERMITS

I have made so many of the recipes in Yolanda's All New Cranberry Cookbook that I discovered in a gift shop on Cape Cod when we vacationed there with our dear friends Janice and Leon several years ago. At the time I didn't want to buy the cookbook but there was a recipe I wanted to make. I copied it down but after we got back to Kansas City, I looked it up online and ordered it. The author Yolanda Yodi even autographed it for me. 

I needed something to make for the Cafe Treats last Sunday and after searching forever for something picked up Yolanda's little cookbook and picked out this recipe to make these Speckled Hermits. After I made them, I thought I would do a search for Hermits and discovered they are a New England recipe that was probably brought over from Europe by early settlers. 

They were really delicious and I had many compliments on them the brief time I was behind the counter in the Cafe offering the Cafe Treats to the people. Wayne really liked them too which is always good.

The extra for me was I could advertise them as egg-free for the few who require egg-free treats. I told them that they would be dairy-free also if only they didn't include the half of cup of skim milk. They were really surprised when I told them they contained olive oil.

 

PRINT RECIPE.

SPECKLED HERMITS

3     cups flour

1     cup sugar

1     teaspoon baking soda

1     teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2  teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2  teaspoon salt

1/2  cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2  cup skim milk

1/2  cup molasses

3/4  cup sweetened dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 - inch baking dish. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Add olive oil, milk, and molasses.

(Use a large measuring cup for easy measuring of these three items since they are all 1/2 cup measure and they will measure 1-1/2 cups when you are finished pouring them in the cup. They will also empty out of the cup nicely too.)

Mix with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened and batter comes together.

Fold in the dried cranberries.

(I chopped my cranberries so that I would have a good coverage of them in the pan.)

Spoon dollops of the thick batter around the pan

leaving a little bit in the bowl.

Using a spatula spread/press the dough out evenly

to cover the bottom of the pan.

Add the small amount you left in the bowl in the places where the batter is thinner and into the corners of the pan.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely on a wire rack in the pan before cutting.

I cut 40 bars. Just in case you don't know...to get nice clean cuts, cut bars and brownies with a plastic knife.