Chocolate Hobnobs

If like me, this lock down has got you baking a whole lot more, especially with the kids, then give these gorgeous homemade Chocolate Hobnobs a try. They are without a doubt my favourite biscuit for tea-dunking and the children really enjoyed making them, especially dipping them in chocolate. 

You could use milk or dark chocolate, we used milk as we had a ton of Easter eggs leftover, but use what you prefer or have at home. We also used Golden Syrup, but if you don't have any in stock, you could try using maple syrup or honey instead. 

The below makes 15 delicious biscuits - be warned, they won't last long.

Chocolate Hobnobs

Here's how:

• 120g porridge oats
• 120g plain flour
• 120g caster sugar
• 120g butter
• 1.5 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp baking powder mixed in with 1 tbsp boiled water
• 130g milk chocolate (or dark if you prefer)

Firstly pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line two baking trays with grease-proof paper.

Pop the flour, porridge oats and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and roughly combine with a wooden spoon. Make a bit of a hole in the middle, or a well, as you would when making dough.

In a small saucepan, place the 120g butter with the golden syrup on a low heat to gently melt and then remove from the heat and stir in the boiled water and baking powder mixture.

Now pour the butter and syrup mixture into the dry ingredients into the hole, a little at a time, and gently combine, repeating the process until you have a sticky batter-like substance. At this point, it should have a really tempting aroma too.

Once all combined, place 1 tbsp of the mixture onto the baking sheet, with room to spread out. And repeat until you have x5 on each baking sheet. They should be like a little ball, as they will spread out as with cookies when you bake them.

Place into the hot oven for 9 minutes exactly, and then remove, allow to cool on the tray for five minutes, during which time they will harden a little and become less delicate. Then use a fish slice to carefully remove them and place onto a wire rack or board to cool further.

Repeat the process until all biscuits have been baked, and are cooling on a wire rack or wooden board.

Now to melt the chocolate, break up into small pieces and heat over a small pan of boiling water, or in microwave if you prefer for 2-3 minutes, but opening and stirring every 30 seconds so the chocolate doesn't become one big sticky mess.

Once melted, remove the bowl and place onto the kitchen side. Now take each biscuit and gently dip into the chocolate, until half (or if you prefer all) of the biscuit is coated in chocolate and then once again, place onto a board or wire rack to allow the chocolate to set. Repeat the process until all of the biscuits have a delicious chocolate coating.

Be warned, these are ridiculously moreish! Enjoy!

If you are looking for some easy baking recipes with the children during lockdown here are some of our favourites:

Chocolate Cornflake and Marshmallow Cakes

Triple Chocolate Cookie Brownies

Lemon Curd & Blueberry Muffins

Banana & Berry Breakfast Muffins

Mini Egg Brownies

Lemon, Honey and Yoghurt Cake with Blueberries 

Banana and Chocolate Chunk Bread

Easy Chocolate Halloween Biscuits - Cooking with Kids

These biscuits are super simple to make, a fun activity for half term next week in the lead up to Halloween or for any spooky gathering. 

I grabbed a pack of cookie cutters from Poundstretchers which had shapes such as bats, Frankenstein's Monster faces, gravestones, pumpkins and cats, but you could apple the same method to any biscuit. If you only have round cooking cutters, just ice and then write 'RIP' on them or grab some of the Haribo sweeties like I have in the pictures with things such as spiders, bones, skeletons and the like and apply them. The main thing is that this is a really fun thing to do for Halloween with the children.

Bridget absolutely loves cooking and particularly baking anything sweet - this was the first time Beatrice (8 months) got involved in baking too, and enjoyed a little mix with the big spoon plus trying to scoop out the raw biscuit mixture! 

Easy Chocolate Halloween Biscuits

Here's how:

• 125g butter
• 110g caster sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk
• Flour to dust the worktop and rolling pin

To ice:

• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• Few drops of water
• Food colouring (I just used red to make orange for the pumpkins)
• Red icing pen
• Selection of spooky sweeties (I used Haribo)

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, then grease and line the baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the egg, butter and sugar together with the vanilla extract until combined. Slowly sift in the flour and cocoa, stirring through as you go. Add the milk if the mixture is a little dry. Once satisfied with the dough, cover with cling film and place into the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Remove biscuit dough from the fridge. Lightly dust your worktop space with flour, and rub flour up and down your rolling pin, then use your hands to pull off a small section at a time, and roll out into a thin dough, about 1cm thick. If it's too thin, it'll be very difficult to handle, unless your a very deft baker!

Now use your cookie cutter, to cut out the shapes that you wish to use, and place each shape onto the baking shape. They can be placed close together, but not touching. They shouldn't expand too much in the oven.

Repeat the process until all the dough has been used and the shapes placed onto the baking sheets. Now place into the hot oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool on the baking sheets before moving.

To ice, you can do so however you wish, and decorate in any manner, we used jelly lips, teeth and fangs for the mouths of the bats and Frankensteins, raisins for eyes, I cut up a dried apricot for the ghost mouths, and once iced, we used spiders, bones and skeleton jellies to make the biscuits as spooky as possible. We wrote RIP on the gravestones in a red icing pen.

To make up relevant icing, you want it quite thick, so take 3 tbsp icing sugar, and just a drop or two of cold water, and stir through, you want it runny enough to pour or brush onto the biscuits, but thick enough to not set 'watery' or opaque. We just used simple plain icing sugar for most of the icing, then added a little drop of red food colouring to make an orange hued icing for the pumpkins. 

Experiment though, and most importantly let the kids enjoy this activity - it doesn't matter if the biscuits are the most beautifully decorated, it only matters that you all enjoyed making them together!

Beatrice's first baking experience

If you're having a Halloween get together or tea party, or just doing a fun and spooky dinner for the kids on 31st October, these easy peasy Mummified Sausage Rolls are a winner too.