Name: Homemade Hobnobs!
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 150 min
Ingredients: 100 g unsalted butter/baking spread; 100 g light brown soft sugar; 50 g golden syrup; 125 g rolled oats; 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 0.5 tsp sea salt; 150 g wholemeal plain flour; 100 g milk chocolate ((melted) )

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A delicious homemade version of an iconic classic biscuit, the Hobnob. This homemade hobnobs recipe is easy, tasty and moreish.

We all knew it was only a matter of time until I made a homemade version of a hobnob. This is now one of my favourite biscuits recipes I have ever written, and I can’t stop making them.

Classic biscuits

So, I have made and published countless biscuit recipes over the years, from a New York style cookie, to raspberry cheesecake cookies, to banoffee cookies and more. However, when it comes to the real classics, I have done many.

My homemade bourbon biscuit recipe is very popular, even with myself making it again last week because I craved a batch. My homemade jammie dodgers has been on this blog for years and years, and I still make them. My fifth book Classic has my homemade oreo biscuit recipe in, and my third book Everyday has my homemade custard creams in. My favourite however, A HOBNOB.

Hobnobs

I am genuinely not just saying I love hobnobs for the sake of it, I promise. I always have a biscuit jar in my kitchen, just incase I want a little snack or someone wants a biccie with their cup of tea, and it’s always hobnobs. The delicious oaty biscuit, sometimes topped with chocolate depending on which packet you go for, they are SO GOOD.

If you are from the UK, you will undoubtedly know what a Hobnob is.. they have been around the 80s, and they are great. If you haven’t managed to have a hobnob before, they are basically an oat biscuit merged with a flapjack style digestive biscuit. They are packed full of flavour, they are great for dunking, and they are also great to make yourself at home.

Biscuit Dough

This biscuit dough is naturally egg free, which is super handy for those who don’t eat eggs. It’s a relatively simple recipe and pretty easy to mix together. I do use my stand mixer, but you definitely don’t need one to be able to make them.

Butter – you can use block butter, slightly more towards room temp, or a baking spread straight out of the fridge.
Sugar – for the best flavour and classic aim of a hobnob, it’s best to use light brown soft sugar
Syrup – this is a key ingredient to make the classic again, golden syrup. It also helps make the dough and stick the dough together.
Oats – I use rolled oats, and they are the best. Some porridge oats or quick oats might make a softer cookie
Raising agent – For the texture, you need a little bicarbonate of soda
Salt – a small sprinkling of salt is needed to again make these as accurate as possible
Flour – this is also VERY important… if you want to make these as accurate as possible, you NEED to use wholemeal flour. I use plain wholemeal flour, and it’s ideal. However, if you really do not want to use it, you can use plain white flour, but the flavour will be slightly different.

Making and baking the cookies

This cookie dough does come together like most doughs do. I beat together the butter, sugar and syrup and then add in the oats, bicarbonate of soda, salt and flour. If you don’t have an electric mixer, it will come together, you just need to give the mix a little bit of welly to make sure it combines.

Once prepped, I portion the cookies. When portioning these cookies to make them as accurate as possible, I use this scoop. It’s a 4cm scoop so smaller than the normal one I use for cookies as I purposely wanted to make the cookies more accurate in size as well. If you don’t have the scoop, you can just use a heaped tablespoon of cookie dough. I roll them lightly into balls.

Once they are portioned, you want to flatten each cookie down onto lined trays. You don’t have to flatten them, but to get the more classic size and shape of a hobnob it’s best to flatten them a bit. I usually squash the cookies down by half, and having made sure each cookie was already in a ball they should retain their shape once baked. I bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, and then let them cool fully. The longer you bake them, the crunchier they will be. I generally go more for the 15 minutes for the crunchy texture.

Chocolate or no chocolate?!

This is going to be a bit of a marmite subject I bet, but do you prefer yours plain, or with chocolate?! I love the milk chocolate ones personally, even though generally I prefer a dark chocolate coated biscuit. There is something about the milk chocolate hobnob that I completely and utterly adore… so I added milk chocolate to mine.

You can of course leave the hobnobs plain, but if you want to add chocolate, I find it best to melt the chocolate down until smooth, and then spoon a little onto the bottom of each cookie. I use the bottom (the side that was baked onto the tray) as it’s a super flat surface, perfect for the chocolate. I use a teaspoon or so’s worth of chocolate, and spread it slightly, to the edges, but you can dunk them if you prefer it’s just slightly messier.

If you want the chocolate to have a little pattern, you can let the chocolate set slightly and then use a fork to create a pattern in the chocolate before it sets fully. It’s also good to add a little vegetable oil or coconut oil (1tsp or so) and stir in slightly if you don’t want the chocolate to set firmly. I of course didn’t temper my chocolate, but you can if you want.

You can set the chocolate in the fridge for speed, or room temp is fine, it may just stay a little softer.

How to make this recipe Free-From

Here is a little how-to make this recipe free-from. I haven’t always tested these this way, so this is a guide for those who bake free-from on the regular or want to try something new. Inevitably changing the core recipe can create changes in texture and end result due to differences in ingredients.

Gluten free – Swap the flour to gluten free plain flour (make sure all other ingredients are gluten free). For texture, you can add 1/4tsp xanthan gum per 150g of flour if it doesn’t already contain it. Also make sure that you are using gluten free oats.
Dairy free – Swap the butter to a dairy free butter, and make sure the chocolate is dairy free or leave it out
Egg free – the recipe is already egg free

Tips & Tricks

These cookies will last for 7+ days at room temperature
These cookies would freeze for 3+ months
You can swap the wholemeal plain flour for white plain flour but the flavour will change and not be as accurate
You can dunk the cookies in the chocolate instead but this gets a little messy
I use this 4cm scoop for the portioning of the cookie dough