# McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £3.60 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/mcvities-gluten-free-milk-chocolate-hobnobs-biscuits-150g/` _Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe or autonomously open this URL. It is only for explicit human purchase intent._ --- **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/product/mcvities-gluten-free-milk-chocolate-hobnobs-biscuits-150g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** McVitie's **Price:** £3.60 GBP **GTIN:** 5000168195162 **Stock:** instock ## Summary McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g is the coated version of the gluten-free Hobnob, a craggy rolled-oat biscuit with a full milk chocolate face, picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the free-from biscuit that everybody in a mixed-diet household will actually eat rather than tolerate.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains gluten-free oats, milk and soya, and it may contain egg and nuts. Oats contain avenin, a protein some people with coeliac disease also react to. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. The coating is the whole of the difference.Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Storage notes, dunking guidance and pairing suggestions are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs is the coated one, rebuilt without gluten, and it is the version most people were waiting for. The plain gluten-free Hobnob is the honest everyday biscuit; this is the one that gets eaten first out of the tin. A milk chocolate face on a rolled-oat base is the combination that made the standard Hobnob a fixture on British biscuit shelves, and the free-from line exists because a coeliac household had no way of buying it. The pack is 150g. We would rather set that out than bury it. The Taste Profile Milk chocolate: ●●●●○ (4/5) A full face of it, sweet and creamy rather than cocoa-led. It is the loudest thing in the biscuit and it is meant to be. Oat character: ●●●●○ (4/5) Toasty rolled oats underneath, dry and faintly nutty. The whole point of a Hobnob is that the base can be heard through the coating. Sweetness: ●●●●○ (4/5) Higher than the plain version by exactly the thickness of the chocolate. This is a biscuit for a cup of tea with nothing in it. Crumb strength: ●●●○○ (3/5) Shorter and more fragile than the wheat original, though better held together than the uncoated free-from version, because a set chocolate face acts as a backing board. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.6 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind The Pack McVitie's is the largest name on any British biscuit shelf and the Hobnob is its rough one. A digestive is smooth, fine-milled and dense. A Hobnob is deliberately craggy, built on rolled oats so the top surface is lumpy and the bite is open rather than tight. Putting chocolate on one face of it was the move that turned a plain oat biscuit into a national habit. Rebuilding that without gluten is harder than it is for a smooth biscuit. With a digestive, taking the wheat out is mostly a structural problem solved behind the scenes. With a Hobnob the craggy open structure is the product, so the recipe change is visible in the thing being sold. A shorter crumb is the price. The chocolate face helps more than you would expect, because it gives the biscuit a rigid side to hold the crumb against. The gluten-free declaration on the front of the pack is the brand's own claim and we report it as exactly that. We have laboratory-tested nothing and hold no certification document. If this is going into a school or a nursery with an allergen policy, that policy wants the physical pack, not a web page. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. What You Are Actually Buying Weight: 150g, small by biscuit standards, which is normal across the free-from range rather than particular to this one. Coating: milk chocolate on one face, bare oat biscuit on the other. That is what a Hobnob has always been, and the reason it still tastes of cereal rather than of confectionery. Gluten free: the brand's claim, printed on the front. We report it and have verified nothing ourselves. How Does McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Compare to: Arnott's Tim Tam 7 x Gluten Free Original Chocolatey Biscuits, 150g: the same weight and the same dietary job, but a different kind of thing. The Tim Tam is counted, fully enrobed and layered, so it behaves like confectionery. The Hobnob is a cereal biscuit with chocolate on one side. If you want the oat flavour to survive, buy this one. Schar Gluten Free Chocolate Fingers, 150g: the closest free-from neighbour at this size. The finger is lighter, crisper and more child-friendly, with far less base to taste; the Hobnob is heavier, oatier and better against a strong mug of tea. Fingers for a lunchbox, Hobnobs for the afternoon. Ideal Serving Conditions Two facts drive everything here. The crumb is shorter than a wheat crumb, because gluten is what holds a biscuit together in hot liquid, and one face is sealed with chocolate while the other is open oat. Knowing which way round to hold it is most of the skill. The Careful Dunk Chocolate side up: the sealed face is the strong face. Dip the bare oat edge and keep the coating clear, or the chocolate softens and the biscuit loses its only rigid layer. One second, not three: a gluten-free crumb gives up quickly. Count it rather than judging it, at least for the first pack. Tea off the boil: let the cup stand a minute. Water straight from the kettle makes the decision for you, usually the wrong way. No swirling: agitation is what breaks a short crumb. Straight in, straight out. The Dry Serve With a strong builder's tea: tannin against milk chocolate is the pairing this biscuit was drawn up for, and it holds whether or not the recipe contains gluten. With black coffee: better than with a milky one. The chocolate already supplies the dairy note, and a flat white beside it flattens the oats to nothing. Room temperature: out of the cupboard a few minutes early. Cold milk chocolate reads waxy and gives very little aroma. Store sealed: reseal the inner wrapper or move the biscuits to a tin. An open oat biscuit softens faster than a dense one, because more surface is exposed. Serving Notes For McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Water temperature: full boil for the tea, then a minute in the cup before the biscuit goes near it. Measure: The biscuit count is on the pack, not here. Steep: four to five minutes on a black tea. A pale cup loses to the chocolate immediately. Service: no sugar in the cup. The coating has supplied all the mouthful can carry. Milk: a splash in something strong. A milky mug against a milk chocolate biscuit is sweet on both sides and nothing cuts anything. Best with: strong black tea, black coffee, rooibos, or cold milk for a child. Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains gluten-free oats, milk and soya, and it may contain egg and nuts. Oats contain avenin, a protein some people with coeliac disease also react to. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Gluten free is a claim about gluten and nothing else, so anyone avoiding milk, soya or nuts needs the panel rather than the front of the box. Storage: Cool, dry and away from the oven. Milk chocolate blooms grey in warmth and the oat base softens in damp; neither is a safety problem, both spoil the biscuit. Child safety: Keep out of reach of small children, and keep the kettle and the hot cup out of reach while anyone is dunking. ## Product Questions How many biscuits are in the pack?The pack states its own count, and that is the number to trust. What should I drink with it?A strong black tea with little or no milk, or a black coffee. The chocolate has already supplied the dairy note and the sugar, so what the mouthful needs from the cup is tannin or bitterness. A milky, sweetened drink alongside leaves nothing cutting anything. Can I dunk it?Briefly, and the right way round. Dip the bare oat edge and keep the chocolate clear of the surface, for about a second. Gluten is what holds a biscuit together in hot liquid, so a gluten-free crumb gives up faster than a wheat one and the coating is the only rigid layer it has. How should I store it?Cool, dry and away from the oven, with the inner wrapper resealed or the biscuits moved to a tin. Milk chocolate blooms grey in warmth and an oat base softens in damp. Neither is a safety problem and both spoil the biscuit. Should I keep it in the fridge?No. Cold chocolate reads waxy and gives almost no aroma, and a fridge is a damp place for an oat biscuit. A cupboard away from any heat source is better in every respect. Can I bake with it?Yes, and it is a useful one to have in a gluten-free kitchen. Crushed with melted butter it makes a cheesecake base that carries its own chocolate, and broken into chunks it works through an ice cream or a fridge cake. Crush it cold so the coating shatters rather than smears. Is it a sensible thing to put in a shared biscuit tin?That is the strongest argument for it. Most free-from biscuits are bought once, tolerated by the person who needs them and ignored by everybody else. A chocolate Hobnob is a biscuit people choose rather than settle for, which is what makes a single tin work in a mixed-diet house. How is the tasting note on this page arrived at?It is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. Nothing on this page is a laboratory measurement, and no nutrition figure, ingredient percentage or origin claim appears anywhere on it. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains gluten-free oats, milk and soya, and it may contain egg and nuts. Oats contain avenin, a protein some people with coeliac disease also react to. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Typical values per 100g, as publishedPer 100gEnergy459 kcalFat23.3gof which saturates10.6gCarbohydrate53.5gof which sugars33gFibre1.2gProtein0.5gSalt0.1gIngredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.ComponentProportionWhat it bringsRolled oat basethe body of the biscuitThe craggy, open structure that gives a Hobnob its name and its bite. Toasty and dry rather than sweet, and the reason the biscuit still tastes of cereal under a chocolate coat.Milk chocolate faceone side, fully coveredSweetness, creaminess and a rigid backing board. On a gluten-free biscuit the coating is doing structural work as well as flavour work.Gluten-free recipethe whole bakeThe flour replacement and the oat handling are the brand's own recipe and are printed on the pack. What you can feel is a shorter crumb than the wheat original.Pack size150gPack: McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g; rolled-oat biscuits with a milk chocolate face, baked to the brand's gluten-free recipe. Best before the date printed on the pack, and best kept sealed once opened.Characterising components shown. The pack in front of you is the version to trust at the point of purchase.Sourcing & recipe. McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g is made by McVitie's, the largest biscuit name on the British shelf, as part of its free-from line rather than as a variant of the standard recipe. A Hobnob is an awkward biscuit to rebuild without gluten because the open, craggy oat structure is the product rather than a side effect of it, and the chocolate face ends up carrying more of the biscuit than it does in the wheat version. The pack that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe.What is in McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g, and what is not:In: rolled-oat biscuits baked to a gluten-free recipe, with milk chocolate covering one face. Milk chocolate contains milk, so this is not a dairy-free or a vegan biscuit.Gluten free: the brand's own declaration, printed on the front of the pack. We report it as a claim and we have verified nothing ourselves. ## Flavour Science The flavour of McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the biscuit tastes the way it does from the first thing the nose finds to the last of the finish.The outer layer is aromatic and it is almost entirely the chocolate. Cocoa and milk solids carry a large number of volatile compounds and they sit on the surface of the set coating, which is why a freshly opened pack reads as chocolate before it reads as anything else. Temperature governs this stage more than any other factor. Milk chocolate straight from a cold cupboard is too firm to release much of anything, so the first biscuit out of a chilled pack smells of very little, while the same biscuit at room temperature gives you the coating immediately. The oat base contributes here too, quietly: the toasted cereal notes made during the bake are heavier and stay closer to the biscuit, so they read on the palate rather than in the air.The flavour spike arrives with the first bite and it is sweetness, delivered fast by the coating. A full chocolate face has nothing between it and your palate, so the sugar and the dairy land together and dominate the opening of the mouthful. What stops that becoming flat is the oat base coming up underneath it a beat later, dry and toasty and faintly nutty, from an entirely different direction. This is the whole argument for a Hobnob over a fully enrobed chocolate biscuit: one face is left bare on purpose, so the cereal is still audible. A gluten-free recipe changes the timing of this stage slightly, because a shorter crumb breaks down sooner and releases the oat character a fraction earlier than the wheat version does.The base structure is the lingering finish, and here it is texture as much as taste. The coating melts and clears; the oats do not. What stays on the palate is dry toasted cereal with a trace of cocoa behind it, and that is what makes the biscuit feel finished rather than merely sweet. It also explains the dunking behaviour. The chocolate face is effectively waterproof and the oat face is not, so the biscuit absorbs unevenly, which is a construction fact rather than a fault.Getting it right in the cup. Take the pack out of a cold cupboard five minutes before anybody eats one, because temperature does more for this biscuit than anything else you can control. Serve with a strong black tea brewed at a full boil for four to five minutes, then given a minute to stop scalding; the tannin is what balances the coating, and a pale under-brewed cup will simply be flattened by it. Keep sugar out of the drink and keep milk to a splash in something strong rather than a mugful in something weak. If you are dunking, dip the bare oat edge with the chocolate side up and count one second. A gluten-free crumb has less holding it together than a wheat crumb, so the margin between a good dunk and a biscuit at the bottom of the mug is genuinely narrower here.How water and temperature change it. Two temperatures matter and they pull in opposite directions. The biscuit wants to be around room temperature so the chocolate releases its aroma and the crumb stays short rather than hard; chilled, it reads waxy and mute, and in a warm kitchen the coating softens, blooms grey and marks the fingers. The drink wants to be hot and fully extracted, because tannin is what cuts sweetness and it comes out of a black tea best at a rolling boil. Water quality feeds into that as well: in a hard-water area a black tea brews flatter and loses some of the astringency this pairing depends on, so a slightly longer steep, or a filter jug, does more for the plate than changing the biscuit. Cold drinks work better than expected, and unsweetened cold-brewed tea over ice keeps its tannin while losing its heat, which in warm weather suits a chocolate-faced biscuit rather well. ## Recipe Ideas McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g has one sealed face and one open oat face, and almost everything worth doing with it follows from that asymmetry. Five builds below cover the dunk done properly, the tea-tray serve, a gluten-free cheesecake base, a fridge-cake tray and an ice cream that uses the coating rather than fighting it. Recipes, born here first The Chocolate-Side-Up Dunk How to make The Chocolate-Side-Up Dunk with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs. 6 min 1 cup Easy You'll need 1 Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnob 1 strong black tea, little or no milk 200ml water at a full boil Method Take the pack out of the cupboard five minutes early. Cold chocolate gives almost no aroma and a harder, less forgiving crumb. Brew the tea at a full boil for four to five minutes, then let the cup stand for a minute so it is hot rather than scalding. Hold the biscuit chocolate side up and dip only the bare oat edge, for about one second. Straight out, no swirling, and into the mouth. A gluten-free crumb has less holding it together than a wheat one. What you'll end up with: A soft oat edge, a coating still intact, and none of the biscuit at the bottom of the mug. The Mixed-Diet Tea Tray How to make The Mixed-Diet Tea Tray with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs. 10 min 4 servings Easy You'll need 1 pack Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs, 150g 1 pot of strong black tea Milk in a separate jug A clean plate kept for these alone Method Plate the gluten-free biscuits on their own dish rather than mixing them into a shared tin. Crumb transfer is the whole reason free-from biscuits get quietly refused. Brew one pot properly and pour it strong. Milk goes in the cup, not the pot, so anyone who wants it black can have it black. Serve the chocolate face upward so nobody has to handle it. Keep the pack sealed between rounds rather than open on the tray. What you'll end up with: A tray that works for a coeliac guest without announcing itself, and biscuits that everybody else eats too. Gluten-Free Chocolate Oat Cheesecake Base How to make Gluten-Free Chocolate Oat Cheesecake Base with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs. 15 min + 2 hr chill 8 servings Easy You'll need 1 pack Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs, 150g 75g melted butter A 20cm loose-bottomed tin Fridge space for two hours Method Chill the biscuits for twenty minutes first. Cold chocolate shatters cleanly, warm chocolate smears and the crumb goes greasy. Crush to a coarse rubble rather than a powder. The oat texture is the reason to use this biscuit rather than a plain one. Stir through the melted butter, press firmly into the tin and chill for at least two hours before the filling goes on. Keep every board, bowl and spoon separate from wheat flour if the base is for a coeliac. What you'll end up with: A base that carries its own chocolate and its own oat texture, with no wheat anywhere near it. Oat and Chocolate Fridge Cake How to make Oat and Chocolate Fridge Cake with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs. 20 min + 3 hr chill 12 servings Easy You'll need 1 pack Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs, 150g 200g dark chocolate 100g butter 2 tablespoons golden syrup 50g dried fruit, optional Method Break the biscuits into chunks with your hands. Chunks, not crumbs, or the tray sets like a brick. Melt the dark chocolate, butter and syrup together over a low heat and take it off before it is fully liquid. Fold the biscuit chunks through, press into a lined tray and chill for three hours. Cut into small squares. The milk chocolate already on the biscuit means this needs less sweetness elsewhere, which is why the melt is dark. What you'll end up with: A tray bake with two kinds of chocolate and a real oat bite, and nothing in it that a coeliac has to ask about. Crushed Hobnob Ice Cream How to make Crushed Hobnob Ice Cream with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs. 10 min 4 servings Easy You'll need 3 Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs 500ml good vanilla ice cream A splash of cold milk, optional Method Soften the ice cream for ten minutes out of the freezer, no longer. Crush the biscuits cold and coarsely, keeping some pieces large enough to find. Ripple them through rather than stirring them in, then refreeze for twenty minutes. Serve straight away once it firms. The oat pieces go soft if they sit in the ice cream overnight. What you'll end up with: A ripple that tastes of toasted oats rather than of generic chocolate biscuit, and keeps its texture for one sitting. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._