Spicy hermit bars from Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (page 238) by Ina Garten

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Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • BrendaD1962 on April 22, 2023

    Absolutely delicious!! I made the recipe exactly as is (with rum glaze), and wouldn’t change a thing. The next time though, I’ll make them a bit more narrow as they spread quite a bit, but nevertheless, they quickly became one of our favourite cookies ever. Definitely make these!

  • lhudson on February 13, 2021

    These are wonderful just the thing for a cold day in February.

  • mamacrumbcake on December 31, 2019

    Delicious! The combination of the warm spices, lemon zest, and rum glaze gives this an intoxicating aroma and complex, gingery, spicy flavor. It tastes like gingerbread, but the most perfectly spiced, deeply flavored gingerbread you’ve ever had. The texture is soft and chewy—soft enough that my slices tended to break in the middle. For cookie platters, I found that slicing them into 1 inch slices, then cutting each slice in half into two shorter slices, worked best. These cookies keep very well, at least a week, but the rum aroma and flavor, which is potent the first day, mellows over time. Though the recipe calls for 30 minutes of chilling, the dough can also be made in advance and frozen. The pre-shaped logs keep very well for a month in the freezer and bake up perfectly, making Christmas preparations easier. For pan size reference, the cookies in my photo were baked in a 10x15 jelly roll pan. If you use a standard half sheet pan, which is larger, they won’t touch like mine do.

  • anya_sf on June 26, 2017

    I chilled the dough for a few hours, so had to let it sit a bit before shaping, but it worked fine. They spread a lot during baking, so be sure to space them 3" apart per the instructions. I used lemon juice instead of rum for the glaze to make the child-friendly (per Ina's suggestion on her website). They are very well spiced, like gingerbread, with texture between cookie and cake. Quite good. You could slice them thinner to serve more, especially if they were part of a cookie tray.

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