How to Make Healthy Dark Chocolate Vegan Hobnobs
These dark chocolate vegan Hobnobs are my healthier recreation of the well-known British biscuits by McVitie’s. These oat cookies are very crunchy and slightly sweet with a thin layer of rich, bitter dark chocolate on top. These vegan Hobnobs are straightforward and fun to make!
What are Hobnobs?
Hobnobs are a popular British biscuit. Biscuit is the British word for cookie. The main ingredients in them are rolled oats, wheat flour, vegetable oil, and sugar. Sometimes these crunchy oat biscuits are topped with chocolate. They are thin, crunchy, dry, and not overly sweet. Moving forward, I’m going to refer to these British biscuits as cookies because that is what I call them.
My Vegan Version
For one, I chose to make these Hobnobs a bit healthier. I created this recipe years back when I lived alone and had no one to pawn off my food creations. I’ve always been someone who loves sweets, so I knew that I was bound to eat the cookies all by myself if I made an entire batch. That’s no good! So, I created a slightly healthier version.
Healthier Ingredients
To make these cookies healthier, instead of using wheat flour, I use oat flour. In addition to whole rolled oats, I also add in crushed pistachios for a bit more crunch and flavor. Traditional Hobnobs contain a couple of sugars, but I opted to swap them out for pure maple syrup. In place of vegetable oil, I use coconut oil instead. Lastly, I use stevia-sweetened dark chocolate for the top layer. By making these adjustments, I’ve created an almost guilt-free vegan Hobnob recipe that still tastes incredible!
More Healthier Sweet Treat Recipes!
- Healthy & Incredible Vegan Chocolate Pudding
- Easy, Healthy, & Delicious Vegan Turtle Candies
- Healthy Vegan Caramel Apple Popcorn
If you make my healthy dark chocolate vegan Hobnobs, or any of my recipes, please post a picture to Instagram, tag me @chefsummerstorm, and #gardengrub so I can see your recreation!
How to Make Healthy Dark Chocolate Vegan Hobnobs
Ingredients
Biscuit/Cookie Dough
- 2 tbsps flax meal
- 6 tbsps water
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup oat flour (Grind/blend rolled oats until completely smooth if you do not have oat flour.)
- 1 cup plain, raw pistachios, finely chopped/crushed
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2/3 cup maple syrup, 100% pure
- 2/3 cup coconut oil, room temperature (Do NOT use coconut oil in liquid form. It should be somewhat solid at room temperature.)
Chocolate Topping
- 1 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips (I use Lily's Dark Chocolate Stevia-Sweetened Baking Chips)
- 2 tsp coconut oil
Instructions
Biscuit/Cookie Dough
- First, add the flax meal and water into a small bowl, stir well, and let rest for 10 minutes. Stir it now and then so the two ingredients are no longer separated. This creates flax "eggs."
- Then, add all of the ingredients, including the flax eggs, into a medium-sized mixing bowl and stir until evenly combined. Place the cookie dough in the fridge to chill and firm up for 20 minutes or until it is easily pliable and much less sticky.
- Line 3 sheet pans with parchment paper—preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Divide the dough into 2 (flat, not rounded out) tablespoon portions. You should get about 16 portions out of the dough. Roll them into balls.
- Place a small piece of parchment paper on the countertop and, working with one dough ball at a time, press it down onto the paper. Mold it into a disc that is about an 1/8th inch thick. Lift the piece of paper with the cookie disc on it off the counter, flip it over onto one hand, and carefully peel the piece of paper off the cookie. Carefully place the cookie on a prepared baking sheet. Line the cookies at least 1/2 an inch apart from each other. ALTERNATIVELY, you can press and mold the cookie dough balls directly on your prepared baking sheet if that would be easier for you.
- Repeat the last step with all of the cookie dough balls.
- Place one sheet pan at a time on the middle oven rack and bake the cookies for 17 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through. (Keep a close eye on the cookies around the last couple of minutes, so they don't burn, as everyone's ovens heat slightly different. They should be a nice golden brown in the end.) Hold the other pan(s) in the refrigerator in the meantime.
- Allow the hobnobs to completely cool on the pan before moving them whatsoever and topping them with chocolate. The cookies are very fragile and will break if you try to move them while they're hot! (They will harden more and get crunchy after chilling them in the fridge with the chocolate later on.)
Chocolate Topping
- Once the cookies have cooled down, place a small saucepot with about an inch of water in it over low heat. Place a small glass bowl onto the saucepot. The bottom of the bowl should be hovering over the water and not touching it. (This is called a double-boiler.)
- Place the dark chocolate chips and coconut oil into the bowl. Heat this, occasionally stirring, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
How to Assemble the Hobnobs
- Using the back of a large eating spoon, spread a heavy 1 tablespoon of the melted dark chocolate evenly onto each cookie.
- Place the hobnobs in the refrigerator or freezer and chill them until the chocolate has completely hardened. The cookies will also become much crunchier after being in the fridge due to the fats solidifying! (I also recommend storing them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for optimum shelf life and best texture.)
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2 Comments
Eugenia
I have never heard of a hob hob until your recipe (referred to me by a lovely stranger off of Reddit!) and I LOVE THESE COOKIES! I am making my second batch now (with peanuts instead of pistachios) and I cannot wait to eat them! Thank you thank you for this very simple, very easy to follow, very delicious recipe!
garden grub
Hi, Eugenia! I am SO glad to hear you love the Hobnobs! Oh, FUN! I bet they are going to taste delicious made with peanuts! Thank you for giving my recipe a try and coming back to let me know you’re enjoying them! 🙂