Raisin Spice Bars
Submitted by frick on August 20, 2010 at 2:23 pm

Source: from the book Big Fat Cookies

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp cloves
½ cup (1 stick butter) at room temp
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbs. unsulphured molasses (I used honey, a mistake)
*1 cup raisins
*2 Tbsp. minced candied ginger
½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

ICING
½ cup conf. sugar
3-4 tsp milk

MAKE COOKIES
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

* Put the raisins in the food processor with the ginger and pulse until they are finely chopped and form a clump. This is from the forum, not part of the original recipe. You may put the raisins and ginger in whole if you wish but I would chop the raisins smaller.

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a medium bowl and set aside. Beat the butter with the sugar in a large bowl of an electric mixer until creamed, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the egg and mix until blended, about 30 seconds. On low speed, mix in the molasses. Add the flour mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated. Mix in the raisin mixture and the walnuts.

Divide the dough in half and form it into 2 logs. Place the logs 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet, and pat each into an 11 x 2 ½ x 1 inch thick rectangle. Bake until the tops feel crusty but the interior feels soft when gently pressed, about 15 minutes. The edges will have just begun to brown. ** This instruction may be correct if you do not grind up the raisins and leave them more or less in chunks. With the raisins ground, they become an integral part of the dough and the hermits have to bake longer. See bottom note.

** I baked the hermits 15 minutes, at which time they were very squishy. Another 5 minutes later, still too squishy so I left them in for 5 minutes more. At 25 minutes, you can see that they were still very moist in the center. This may need more tinkering with.

Cool the logs on wire rack (still on the parchment) for 10 minutes. Then use a wide metal spatula to remove them from the parchment and to the wire rack. Cut each log into pieces about 2 inches wide.

MAKE ICING
In a small bowl, stir the powdered sugar together with enough milk to form a thick but pourable icing. Use a small spoon to drizzle several thin lines of icing over each cookie. Let them sit at room temp until the icing is firm.

The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temp for up to five days.

Note: I did not use the icing. Some recipes have it and some do not.

I consider the honey a mistake because it needed the molasses flavor. The hermits tasted too much like brown sugar for my taste and I wanted more spice. Next time, I will increase the spice and use another recipe to guide me in converting the brown sugar to a mixture of molasses and honey. It's actually a simple recipe. I just have to tinker with it more . . . frick