Who would like a hobnobs recipe? “Me, me!” I hear you all cry 😀 Hobnobs are among the yummiest biscuits you can buy, and they are naturally vegan!
The problem with the ones you buy in the store is that, although vegan, they use palm oil. Which is pretty depressing. So “yay” that they are vegan but a big “boo” that they use palm oil and therefore contribute to deforestation and other animals suffering.
The good news is that it’s sooooo easy to bake your own at home with my vegan hobnobs recipe. I mean seriously easy. You don’t need to be a star baker to whip up a batch of these beauties, or have access to any weird ingredients. The dough gets mixed in one bowl, you shape them into little balls, and whack them in the oven for around ten minutes. It would honestly take you longer to go to the shops and buy some. And these will be yummier anyway!
As usual, if there are names of ingredients that you aren’t familiar with, please check the UK Ingredients Glossary for alternatives/different ingredient names you may use in your country.

- 150 g Plain Flour
- 150 g Caster Sugar
- 120 g Rolled Oats
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 150 g Vegan Butter Spread
- 1 tbsp Golden Syrup (Maple or Agave is also fine)
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Preheat your oven to 180C/350F, and grease a couple of baking sheets (baking parchment or greaseproof paper will work too).
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Mix all your dry ingredients into a bowl. So that's: flour, sugar, oats, and bicarb.
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Put the vegan butter and syrup in a saucepan and melt on a medium heat. Vegan spread doesn't usually go translucent like traditional butter, but once it's melted to a liquid with the syrup then it's good to go.
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But your buttery syrup into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix together to a soft dough.
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Take a piece of dough and roll into a ball. You're looking at a size between a walnut and a golf ball.
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Place the dough balls onto baking trays, leaving space between them as they will spread.
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Bake for 10 minutes and then check on them. They are done when they're a nice deep golden colour.
I like these hobnobs just how they are, with their golden bumps and warming buttery taste, but of course you can add a bit of oomph by dipping one side of them in melted vegan chocolate and transforming them into chocolate hobnobs. Most good quality dark chocolate is vegan, but if you prefer milk chocolate then MooFree chocolate is great and you can find this in Holland and Barrett, among other places.
Store in an airtight container and they will last a good few weeks, if not scoffed way before then!
Are you on Instagram? Feel free to join me over there for regular bites of vegan yummy.
Recipe turned out great, super easy to make. They felt very oily/greasy but after 15 mins they were actually fine. Could potentially add the butter slowly until you get the consistency you want. Because there was a lot of butter mine spread out a lot so make sure to have enough space between cookies. Was really yummy!
Hi Mimi. I find it’s a regular problem with vegan “butter” as brands can vary so much. Mine weren’t at all oily. But yes they do spread a bit, as per the recipe you need to leave room between them on the tray. Glad you liked them though. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
Wendy,
These are wonderful! Stuck here in 12 week isolation, desperate for a biscuit with my tea. Googled vegan hobnob recipes and yours was the first to come up, and I’m very glad it was! Managed to get about 24 out of your recipe, and now I have many for the rest of the week! I had to bake mine for about 20 minutes, I think I made the balls a bit too big, but they came out beautifully.
If only I wasn’t about to run out of tea bags 🙁
Look forward to trying some of your other recipes!
With Love,
Charlotte
Thank you Charlotte, this is lovely to hear. Hope you got those tea bags!
Very good! Added some chocolate as missing chocolate hob nobs since going vegan! These will definitely be a favourite in our house.
Hi Becki! So many people have told me recently they’ve added chocolate. Extra yumminess is always to be applauded. Glad you liked them 💚
Hi there,
I was wondering if you could recommend a vegan spread to use in this recipe? (UK) Planning on making them for Xmas treats. Thanks!
Hi Jenn! I usually use Vitalite or Flora original for baking and they come out well. Loads of people have been adding a drizzle of chocolate to the hob nobs once finished and they look fab. All the best, Wendy
Uuf these were wonderful, I also threw in some stem ginger and a tiny bit of molasses. I’ll be making these again (and again!)! xxx
Hi Livi. I’m so glad you liked the recipe. And there’s very little that can’t be improved with the addition of ginger, good call! xx
I can’t believe I’ve gone so long without this recipe in my life!
One of the easiest and tastiest biscuit recipes I’ve ever tried, they’re really customisable too. So buttery – you’d never know they were vegan.
The classic hobnob will always be a winner, but I also wanted a more filling/nutritious one for an afternoon pick-me-up. So I made a second batch and added a tonne of dried berries, chopped nuts, and seeds (pecan, brazil, almond, walnut; pumpkin, chia & sunflower seeds; cranberries, goji berries, cherries), and then coated one side in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt… now those were DIVINE. I was worried they wouldn’t hold their structure but they worked an absolute treat, no issues whatsoever.
This is a recipe I will be coming back to and experimenting with for years to come – thanks a million! 🙂
This is such a lovely thing to hear, thank you so much Jodie! And I love the idea of your additions—sounds super yum.
I’ve just made these and they are absolutely yummy yummy! Thank you for the recipe – my new favourite. Next time I’ll add chocolate.
So glad you like the recipe, Irene. Yep, biscuits are often improved with the addition of chocolate. 🙂