Hob Nobs

I came across this recipe from Lovefood.com who I subscribe to, and give various inspirations for my cooking and baking, so decided to use it as a base. LINK

I certainly felt my pedantic, 'put your money where your mouth is' side coming out, when I read the claim that these are better than the famed (and beloved) shop bought type.

Now I'm a huge advocate of DIY, however I have somehow always thought of my edible creations as satisfying a different need (treats for friends, family, and colleagues), rather than replacing a current one (I need sweet stuff, buy the shop stuff!). If that makes sense.

Anyhoo, to cut a long story short, I wanted to try these, as English biscuits (when available) are ridiculously expensive here in Stockholm, which goes against my thrifty ways, which nevertheless miraculously vanish in the face of Immediate Need.

So I did indeed try them; the ingredients and measurements are simple; a quarter of a kilo for the base of SR flour, sugar, - not specified which type, so freestyle! - butter; I used unsalted, but I think salted would be fine, and oats - I've been looking for a loose reason to use my jumbo ones, and the lack of specification let me do just that!

The instructions advise you to roll the dough out, however I felt my mixture was a bit loose (perhaps the use of jumbo oats didn't help), so I opted to shape the individual biscuits by hand. This also showed me that the mix was a bit greasy, I reckon it wouldn't hurt to reduce the butter by 20-50 g.

I made 29 biscuits in all, and they do indeed taste like the hob nobs many of us know and love, and I do give my Baking Fanatic stamp of approval: they are better than the shop bought ones!

Tin o' Biscuits

I have since tried these using a finer oat, and no other changes. They were still scrummy!

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Oat and Raisin Cookies

Recipe base from Hummingbird Bakery book.

I have made this recipe several times, and only just realised with my last bake that I was meant to use dark brown sugar, rather than light brown.

I can't say that it has been hurt by the use of the light muscovado sugar.

They always seem to be a bit different when I make them, at least different to the image I have in my head! I don't think they have ever looked like they do in the picture. I would like to say that it is down to the non-use of dark muscovado sugar, however I am not convinced that this is the reason.

This time I added a little bit of cardamom, perhaps 1/5 teaspoon, however perhaps I would add a bit more next time, as I couldn't taste it at all.

They were still delicious.

I baked six to a tray at 170°C for 13 minutes, which was a minute longer than recommended. This was because despite flattening the ball shaped dough with the back of a wet fork, they didn't spread very far, and I wanted to ensure the centres were baked through.

The recipe said it would make 24 cookies; I made 35.
I would like to say that I am not making my Hummingbird Bakery cookie the 'correct' size, however the recipe also recommends just four baking trays, and to use just this, I would have to increase the cookies by approximately 50%, and I cannot see how six of that size would adequately fit on to the baking tray... unless my baking tray is small?? Nah, it's standard.

Batch made in a fan oven - 24 cookies exactly!

Available at Samara's Baked Goods