How to Make Healthy Dark Chocolate Vegan Hobnobs
These dark chocolate vegan hobnobs are a recreation of McVitie's famous hobnob biscuits, but with a twist. These crunchy oat cookies are made with slightly healthier ingredients, yet still taste very similar to the real thing!
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.)
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!