Guess what? There's no booze in my hobnobs... although I was almost persuaded to add cherry brandy to them! So as you can probably tell, it was I who was drunken - not actually the hobnobs!
What are hobnobs? I hear you ask. (Well at least the non Brits! Or have Hobnobs made they're way across the seas yet??)
Hobnobs are basically a brand of oat biscuit* especially designed for dunking into tea without collapsing. I found this recipe on a forum ages ago, and they have pretty much been the only sweet thing I've made until recently! It isn't an exact replication - but it's pretty good - and some even say better - than the originals. But don't tell McVities that ;)
And why drunken? You persist. Well, [blush] a swift after-work drink turned into a long chat in the pub... and several more drinks... and then a couple more for good measure. So when I left at 10pm, insisting that I was, indeed, going to bake hobnobs to take to work the next day I was widely disbelieved. But bake them I did - and escaped pretty much unscathed**! They only lasted about 10 minutes at work this morning, so can't have been that bad ;) One of my workmates even asked for the recipe!
* read this great post by Joanna regarding the difference between biscuits, cookies and scones!
** I did make one silly mistake - adding two lots of bicarbonate of soda - one to the dry, then the proper one in the butter. They puffed up more than normal - but settled just fine. I've written the recipe as it should be though - I'm not sure I would have trusted these in my tea!
Makes 24 hobnobs!- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups porridge oats
- 250g butter
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 tbsp hot water
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Mix flour, oats and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
Melt the butter, syrup and water in a pan - once melted stir in the bicarbonate of soda.
Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients, and combine well.
Make smallish balls - about the size of a large unshelled walnut! Place it on a greased tray and flatten slightly.
Bake at 180oc for about 12 mins - they should be golden, not brown.
Allow them to cool on the tray.
If you put them on foil, you can transfer the foil to a wire rack... then they cool down more quickly... and then you can chow down even quicker! Bonus!
One of the pictures I took the next day - not too hungover - yay!
11 comments:
We do have McVities Hob Nobs here in Canada. They are so adictive:D
Hi Kittie- We've got Hob nobs in the US too but they're ridiculously expensive (especially now with the awful exchange rate- well bad for me but good if you come to the States). I have a friend who loves hob nobs so I will have to make these for him. One question though- what exactly are porridge oats? Well- I mean I can take a good guess but in the States we have breakfast oats that cook in 1 minute, 5 minutes and 30 minutes so I guess my question is, how fast do porridge oats cook?
These look great, and you would never know that they were made under any circumstances outside of the norm :)
Hey Kittie - love the site and deffo trying the hob obs for our garden open day on sunday! x
I have just finished planning on a few treats to take to work next Tuesday and then I see this! I might have to change my menu. Yum!
I'd never heard of hob nobs before, but they look and sound tasty! I'll have to give these a try. Plus its more fun to say than something like "scone" ;-)
val - have you tried hobnob creams?? My next mission will be to recreate those! :D
jen - probably not instant/1 minute oats as they may disintegrate... We also call them rolled oats here - and I think they would take about 5 minutes to cook - hope that helps! Let me know how you get on :)
Thanks margaret, glad you like it and hope you enjoy them! :)
lisa - my workmates definitely enjoyed them, they disappeared!
mike - it's a great word isn't it!?
Just sat down with a cuppa and a Kittie Hob Nob - delicious! Bang goes the holiday diet but who cares. A wee note - I used 8oz of unsalted butter as I wasn't sure how to measure 2 cups.
Hi,
I made HobNobs per A good Cracking Egg blog and your blog about them
Thanks!
They are my latest post if you want to check it out. :)
Thanks for the feedback from people who have made these. I remade them last weekend, and it should have been 250g of butter in the recipe - not 2 cups. A typo from me - my huge apologies to anyone who ended up with runny cookies.
I will update the recipe now.
Thanks so much for the recipe as these are a ruinously expensive addiction otherwise.
Mine came out wonderfully. For anyone else with a sweet tooth I at least doubled the honey with no adverse effects. Does anyone have a recommendation on what kind of nuts might work well I'm these?
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