Wednesday 4 June 2008

Drunken Hobnobs... One Nibble, I was Nobbled!

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!

Kittie's Drunken Hobnobs!

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
Preheat oven to 180c.

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!

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11 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

We do have McVities Hob Nobs here in Canada. They are so adictive:D

Jen said...

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?

Anonymous said...

These look great, and you would never know that they were made under any circumstances outside of the norm :)

Unknown said...

Hey Kittie - love the site and deffo trying the hob obs for our garden open day on sunday! x

Lisa Turner said...

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!

Mike of Mike's Table said...

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" ;-)

Laura Paterson said...

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!?

Unknown said...

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.

Ivy said...

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. :)

Laura Paterson said...

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.

Devon said...

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?