Friday, July 3, 2009

Hermit Bars

The Perfect Travel Snack



We’re leaving tonight for the East Coast.  Cape Cod to be exact.  Mr. Recession Kitchen’s side of the family is vacationing there, a family reunion of sorts.  I usually make a travel snack, because airplane/airport food is always so bad.  We’re taking a “red eye” flight so I wanted to pack a snack in our carry on bag that we could eat for breakfast.  Something to “kick start” us in the morning, we’ll land about 7 am but it will be 4 am to us.
My first thought was to use a blondie recipe as a base and add a number of dried fruits and nuts.  While I was surfing the web, in search of a recipe,  I came across hermit bars.  The history of the Hermit bar/cookie is a little fuzzy but they can be traced to the sailors of New England, specifically, Cape Cod.  They were often made by the sailor’s wives for their husbands to take out to sea, because they traveled well.
Well, that clinched it.  The perfect travel snack to take to New England.  I adapted a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website.  I’m allergic to eggs so I removed the egg that the recipe called for.  I replaced the 3/4 cup of sugar with a 1/2 cup of honey.  Using honey made up for the lack of liquid when I removed the egg.  I also replaced the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour, to make them a more suitable breakfast.  I added cranberries and pecans as well.
You can use a 9”x13” pan which will give you a more traditional looking, thin hermit bar.  I would decrease the bake time as well, if you go that route.  I used an 8” square pan, which yielded 9 brownie sized bars.
Here’s the recipe as I made it.  
Hermit Bars
Makes about 9 servings - Use organic ingredients whenever possible
6 tablespoons Organic Earth Balance buttery spread (you can also use Spectrum palm shortening)
1/2 cup honey (or agave to make them vegan)
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (use a 1/2 teaspoon if you use palm shortening)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Preheat your oven to 350˚
In a large bowl, cream together the buttery spread, honey, and molasses.  
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  
Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beating until smooth.  
Mix in the nuts and dried fruit.  
Spread the mix in a lightly greased 8”x8” pan.  
Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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