Crunchy oat biscuits (homemade hobnobs) - Veggie Ideas (2024)

Crunchy oat biscuits are my own version of a popular well known brand of biscuits. As with most biscuits they are easy to make. Only one baking bowl is needed and no pans are required, so they don't generate too much washing up either (which has to be a big plus!). The quantities below are sufficient to make around 25 biscuits using a 7cm diameter biscuit cutter, but they can be made smaller or larger if you prefer.

Ingredients

• 150g butter at room temperature
• 150g Demerara sugar
• 100g runny honey (2 tablespoons approximately)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 200g oats

Equipment needed to make crunchy oat biscuits

• Kitchen scales
• Large baking bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Tablespoon
• Teaspoon
• Metal baking tray/s
• Non-stick baking sheet/s
• 7cm diameter plain edged biscuit cutter
• Wire cooling rack/s

How to make crunchy oat biscuits

Weigh the butter (150g) and Demerara sugar (150g) into a large baking bowl. Cream together using a wooden spoon.

Add 2 level tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 150g wholemeal flour and 200g oats and mix together until evenly combined. The mixture is likely to look as though it is too loose but this is how it should be. Form the mixture into one mass using your hands.

Lay the non-stick baking sheet on the metal baking tray. Take some of the mixture and place inside a biscuit cutter on a tray and flatten with your fingers to form a biscuit shape, approximately 7 mm thick. Leave a space of around 2cm to 3cm between each biscuit. Repeat with the rest of the mixture.

Cook in the centre of the oven at 180^oC, 350^oF gas mark 4 for around 10 minutes. If you have an Aga cook each tray of biscuits on the grid shelf on the floor of the roasting oven with the cold plain shelf on the second set of runners. The biscuits will be ready to take out of the oven when they are just starting to turn slightly golden at the edges. They will still be soft at this stage but will harden as they cool. Leave on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Repeat with the next batch of biscuits until all the mixture is used up. You may need to cook the biscuits in 3 batches, depending on the size of baking tray used.

Tips

1. The butter can be brought to room temperature by removing from the fridge ahead of starting to bake, or can be softened in a microwave using the appropriate setting.
2. Before weighing the honey, heat the tablespoon in hot water or by placing in the flame of a gas ring so that the honey slides easily off the spoon.
3. If you don't have a plain edged biscuit cutter you could use a fluted cutter upside down.
4. The biscuits do not spread very much during cooking so you don't need to leave a large space between each biscuit. I suggest leaving a space of around 2cm to 3 cm.
5. Don't be tempted to leave the biscuits in the oven too long as they will easily become overcooked. They will still be soft when they are ready to be taken out of the oven.
6. The biscuits can easily be coated with melted cake chocolate to create a half coated chocolate version. I found that 100g cake chocolate was sufficient to coat around 9 biscuits. (7cm diameter).

You may also like to try chocolate chip and oat cookies, another simple recipe for delicious homemade biscuits.

Or you may wish to try lavender shortbread biscuits which make a perfect addition to afternoon tea.

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