Homemade hobnobs?

GreenNinja

I'd also like to say a big THANKS for this recipe. Made a batch at the weekend and took to my sisters. Her kids ate the lot and I gave my sister the recipe so a great sucess!

:T :T :T :T :T

p-pincher

Just wanted to say a very big thank you. made my first of many batches last night,they were so easy to make and tasted better that brought ones, Cheers!!!!

pounds_and_pensive

I've been twitching to have a go at these since reading of them again a few days ago, almost to the point where I was looking for excuses to put the oven on (this is definitely not me!). Today came my chance, and I'd just started to weigh things out when I realised that I had a lot less oats on hand than I'd thought. I improvised with 3oz oats plus 5oz Lidl Luxury Muesli, and used Lidl cheapy butter. I got 32 out of the mix, put them in the oven and waited for the worst...

I'm not known for my great cooking (understatement of the year!), so when OH bravely wandered by to sample the first one after I'd put them on a tray to cool, I casually asked him if they were OK. 'Yeah..' (you could hear the shock in his voice), and immediately proceeded to snaffle a second one even though he was still eating the first. Five minutes later, he was back for another, but was trying so hard not to let me see him doing so in order to avoid admitting that I'd actually produced something edible that I couldn't help laughing out loud.

I think he's waiting for the cover of darkness now before going in again, but he'll be lucky to find any at the rate me and the kids are scoffing them. I've had two already and they're SCRUMMY!

Anyone who thought as I did for a while that something consisting of such basic ingredients can't possibly be worth the rave it's getting should give them a go. Thank you so much for the recipe, Twink. It's going to get a lot of use around here

twink

well done pounds_and_pensive, your post made me smile, it never ceases to amaze me how many variations of the biscuits there are now, hope you dont have to make them so often that you get sick of them

organic_wanabe

Well twink - I put off making them for as long as I could (all those calories!) but my willpower didn't hold and they are divine. I've told myself, sternly, that next time I make them I will not have any but I'm already wondering if I should stick another batch in. I only made 12 and rolled up the rest (Queenie-fashion) and stuck it in the fridge to cut and freshly bake tomorrow. I wonder it it'll work?

Of course, the case for eating them is that they are made from natural ingredients and contain none of the horrible E numbers that the media having been going on about today (and we've all been concerned about for ages). So I'm away to put on the kettle and .......

twink

good for you organicwanabe, as you say its all wholesome ingredients in the hobnobs and surely one a day wouldnt be too bad and they do take longer to eat than a rich tea so you feel you have had something to eat
it will be interesting to see if the biscuits can be stored in the fridge uncooked, be sure to let us know how they turn out

moanymoany

Made a batch of hobnobs last week, but froze two thirds of the raw mix in balls ready to squash. Today took 4 out and baked them because my friend was coming to tea.

Another copy of the recipe has been given out as my friend loved them.

I've got the hang of getting them golden and crisp. Lovely

twink

great idea to freeze the mix in balls moany, they wouldnt take long to bake if a friend popped in, it takes a wee while to get them right because everyones ovens are different, glad you have got them as you like them

daisyroots_2

This is a great thread, and as I've read through it, it has dawned on me that I know this recipe of old - it's Honeybakes! In the mid-fifties, this was the first "real" cooking we did in Mrs Lawson's Domestic Science class. (No relation to Nigella, I suspect: skinny, mean and prim)

First she demonstrated: mix the dry ingredients, don't forget the pinch of salt, take small saucepan and melt the marg and syrup. ("Why haven't they got honey in them Miss?" "Never mind, just follow the recipe" "Yes Miss") Grease your baking tray, make a well in the dry ingredients and add the butter syrup mixture, now work the mixture together. (Make sure you've washed your hands first - Yes Miss) form balls the size of a walnut and set them out on the baking tray not too close together. On top of each honeybake put a glacé cherry. No, not a whole glacé cherry. No, not a half. Or a quarter. One eighth of a glacé cherry (get your microscopes out girls!) went atop each biscuit.

Then we got our exercise books out, and copied from the blackboard in wobbly pen and ink, the recipe for Honeybakes. It was legendary - a rite of passage. Older girls would ask "Have you done honeybakes yet ?"

Finally, we all preheated our ovens, washed our hands and started measuring out our ingredients. Solemnly and carefully Mrs Lawson came round with the glacé cherries - one and a half each - enough for 12 honeybakes. They made a nice little red dot on the top, but often got lost in the biscuit during cooking. And oh the smell of the DS room as a dozen trays of a dozen honey bakes all reached baked perfection at the same time ! They were (are) a lovely biscuit, but I hated that place and when I left, a sneering teenager, I chucked all my exercise books away. Years later I found my sister's DS exercise book in her kitchen, with the Honeybake page very well used and grease spotted, so I got the recipe back again. Thanks everyone for reminding me of them again.

organic_wanabe

Oh twink, I've gone right off you (though I may forgive you since you shared the recipe) - it was the phrase "surely one a day wouldnt be too bad" that did it. I've already had 3, so I better go to bed now!