# McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £2.60 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/mcvities-gluten-free-original-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-original-hobnobs-biscuits-150g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** McVitie's **Price:** £2.60 GBP **GTIN:** 5000168195148 **Stock:** instock ## Summary McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs is the plain oaty one rebuilt without gluten, 150g, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the free-from biscuit a mixed household will actually finish rather than tolerate once and replace.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains gluten-free oats. 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.Rolled-oat flavour is the whole identity of a Hobnob and it survives the recipe change intact: toasty, nutty and dry, with the craggy open top the biscuit is named for. The crumb is shorter than the wheat version, because gluten is what holds a biscuit together, so dunk briefly with the tea off the boil or not at all.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. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs are the plain oaty Hobnob made without gluten: a biscuit a coeliac household can put in the tin that everybody else will still eat.That second half matters more than it sounds. Most free-from biscuits are bought once, tolerated, and quietly replaced. The pack is 150g, roughly half as much biscuit as a standard McVitie's pack. What you are buying is a separate recipe and a segregated production discipline, and if you need it, you need it. The Taste Profile Oat Character: ●●●●○ (4/5) Rolled-oat flavour is the whole identity of a Hobnob and it survives the recipe change intact. Toasty, nutty and dry rather than sweet. Sweetness: ●●●○○ (3/5) Moderate. This is the plain version with no coating, so there is nothing sitting on top of the oats adding sugar. Bite: ●●●●○ (4/5) Craggy and open rather than smooth, with the lumpy top surface that gives the biscuit its name. Crumb Strength: ●●○○○ (2/5) Shorter and more fragile than the wheat version. Gluten is what holds a biscuit together, and taking it out has a cost you can feel. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.7 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind McVitie's McVitie's is the largest name on any British biscuit shelf, and the Hobnob is its rough one. Where a digestive is a smooth, fine-milled wheatmeal round, a Hobnob is deliberately craggy, built on rolled oats so that the top surface is lumpy and the bite is open rather than dense. The plain version is the original and the one people who like the biscuit tend to buy. Putting a Hobnob through a gluten-free recipe is harder than it is for most biscuits, because the oat texture is the product. Take the gluten out of a smooth biscuit and the change is mostly structural; take it out of an open, craggy one and the structure is the thing you were selling. The gluten-free declaration on the front is the brand's own claim and we report it as that. The full recipe, the oat handling and the allergen statement are on the current UK pack, and for a free-from purchase the pack is the only source worth trusting. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. What You Are Actually Buying Plain, not coated: no chocolate on either face. That keeps the oats forward and it also means there is no waterproof side, which has consequences for dunking. What it is not: not a like-for-like swap on weight. Compared with a standard McVitie's pack you are getting roughly half the biscuit. How Does McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g Compare to: Arnott's Tim Tam 7 x Gluten Free Original Chocolatey Biscuits, 150g: the same weight and the same dietary job. The Tim Tam is a counted, coated, chocolate-led treat; the Hobnob is the plain everyday biscuit you put in the tin. McVitie's Hobnobs The Oaty One 2 x Milk Chocolate Twin Pack Biscuits, 262g: the standard-recipe Hobnob, chocolate-coated. That is the direct comparison. If nobody in the house needs gluten free, buy that one. McVitie's Dark Chocolate Digestive Biscuits, 266g: a bigger pack and a sturdier biscuit built for dunking. Better in the cup, but it contains wheat, which settles the question for anyone buying free-from. Ideal Serving Conditions Two things are worth getting right here, and both follow from the same fact: a gluten-free crumb is shorter than a wheat one. That changes how it behaves in a cup and how it behaves in an open pack. The Careful Dunk Shorter than you think: a second at most. Gluten is what holds a biscuit together in hot liquid, and without it the crumb gives up quickly. Tea off the boil: let the cup stand a minute or two. Water straight from the kettle takes the decision out of your hands. Straight in, straight out: no swirling. Agitation is what breaks a crumb, and this one has less to give. Or do not: the honest answer is that the plain oat flavour is better dry with the tea alongside. Dunk it if you like, but nothing is lost by not. The Dry Serve With strong tea: plain oats and tannin go together well, and there is no chocolate in the way of either. With butter and honey: the oat base takes a spread better than a coated biscuit does, and the craggy top holds it. With hard cheese: the dryness and the nuttiness both work. Unexpected, and worth trying once. Store sealed: reseal the inner wrapper or move the pack to a tin. An open oat biscuit softens faster than a dense one because there is more surface exposed. Getting It Right with a Hot Drink Pairing: strong black tea first, then a milky coffee. The oats have enough body for both and no coating to complicate it. Avoid: delicate green and white teas, which the oat flavour walks over, and anything heavily sweetened. Dunking: possible but brief. One second, tea off the boil, and eat it at once. Storage: cool, dry, dark and sealed. Days rather than weeks once open, and a soft oat biscuit does not come back. Best with: a household tin that has to serve a mixed diet, a lunchbox for one person who cannot have wheat, and a cheeseboard. Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains gluten-free oats. 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. The gluten-free claim: it is the brand's, printed on the pack, and we report it as the brand's. ## Product Questions Do they still taste like a Hobnob?Yes, and that is the point of buying them. Rolled-oat flavour is the whole identity of the biscuit and it survives the recipe change: toasty, nutty and dry, with the craggy lumpy top the Hobnob is named for. How is the texture different from the standard version?Shorter and more fragile. Gluten is what holds a biscuit together, so taking it out has a cost you can feel in the crumb. It is not a fault in the recipe, it is what free-from baking has to work around. Can I dunk them?Briefly. One second at most, with the tea a minute or two off the boil, then eat it at once. Without gluten there is less holding the crumb together in hot liquid. Honestly, the plain oat flavour is better dry with the tea alongside. How many biscuits are in the pack?The pack is 150g and states its own count, and that is the figure to trust. Is there a chocolate version of this?This is the plain original, with no coating on either face. That keeps the oats forward, and it is the version people who actually like the biscuit tend to buy. The coated Hobnob in our range is the standard-recipe one, which is not gluten free. What goes with them besides tea?Butter and honey, because the craggy top holds a spread better than a coated biscuit does, and a wedge of hard cheese, because the dryness and the nuttiness both stand up to it. A milky coffee also works. How long do they keep once opened?Days rather than weeks. An open, craggy oat biscuit has more surface exposed than a dense one, so it takes moisture from the air faster. Reseal the inner wrapper or move the pack to a tin, and treat a soft one as gone. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains gluten-free oats. 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.Ingredients, as published for this product: Gluten Free Rolled Oats (42%), Sugar, Gluten Free Wholegrain Oat Flour (17%), Vegetable Oil (Palm), Golden Syrup (Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup), Raising Agent (Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt.Typical values per 100g, as publishedPer 100gEnergy479 kcalFat20.7gof which saturates8.3gCarbohydrate62.2gof which sugars23.2gFibre4.6gProtein8.8gSalt0.69gIngredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.ComponentProportionWhat it bringsNo coatingplain on both facesThis is the original rather than the chocolate version, so nothing sits on top of the oats adding sugar. It also means no waterproof face, which is the other half of why the dunking window is short.Pack: McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g; plain uncoated oat biscuits baked to a gluten-free recipe. Store cool, dry and dark, and reseal the inner wrapper or decant to a tin once opened, because an open oat crumb takes moisture from the air quickly. Read the net weight, the biscuit count, the ingredient list, the gluten-free declaration, the allergen advice and the best-before date off the current UK pack.Characterising components shown. The gluten-free declaration is the brand's own claim reported as the brand's; we have tested nothing.Sourcing & blend. McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g is made by McVitie's, the largest name on any British biscuit shelf, and the Hobnob is its rough one. Where a digestive is a smooth, fine-milled wheatmeal round, a Hobnob is deliberately craggy, built on rolled oats so the top surface is lumpy and the bite is open rather than dense. That makes it a harder biscuit than most to move to a gluten-free recipe, because the open oat texture is the product rather than a side effect of it.What's in McVitie's Gluten Free Original Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g, and what isn't: In: plain uncoated rolled-oat biscuits baked to a gluten-free recipe, loose in a 150g pack. No gluten, by the brand's declaration: the claim is on the front of the pack and we report it as the brand's own. We have tested nothing and hold no certification document. No health claim: gluten free is a dietary requirement, not a benefit. We claim no nutritional advantage of any kind for this biscuit. ## Flavour Science The flavour of McVitie's Gluten Free Original 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 bite to the last swallow.The outer layer is the bake on the surface, and on a Hobnob there is a great deal more of it than on a smooth biscuit. The craggy, lumpy top that gives the biscuit its name is not decoration, it is exposed surface area, and exposed surface is where the toasting happens. That is why the first thing you get is a dry, toasty, faintly nutty aroma rather than a sugary one, and it is why the plain version smells more like oats than like a sweet biscuit. It is also the reason an open pack goes soft faster than a dense biscuit does: the same surface that takes the heat takes the humidity.The flavour spike is the oat itself, arriving whole rather than milled into anonymity. Rolled oats hold their character through a bake in a way that fine flour does not, so the mid-palate is nutty, dry and cereal-led with the sweetness sitting behind rather than in front. With no coating on either face there is nothing competing with it, which is the argument for the original over the chocolate version. The free-from recipe change does not touch this layer, which is the single most important thing to know about the product: the part you are buying a Hobnob for is the part that survives intact.The base structure is the crumb, and this is where the recipe change shows. Gluten is the protein network that holds a biscuit together, and without it the crumb is shorter, more fragile and quicker to give way under pressure or in hot liquid. It is not a worse biscuit for it, but it is a different one in the hand, and pretending otherwise would waste your money. The finish is dry and long, oat-led, with no coating to sweeten the exit.Getting it right in the cup. Keep the dunk short, or skip it. One second is the working limit, with the tea left to stand a minute or two off the boil, straight in and straight out with no swirling, and eaten at once. Water straight from the kettle takes the decision out of your hands, and a gluten-free crumb has less in reserve than a wheat one when it goes wrong. The plain oat flavour genuinely is better dry with strong black tea alongside, so nothing is lost by not dunking at all. If you want to do something more with them, the craggy top holds butter and honey better than a coated biscuit does, and the dryness and nuttiness both stand up to a wedge of hard cheese.How water and temperature change it. Humidity matters more than heat for this biscuit, and it matters more here than for most. An open, craggy oat surface presents far more area to the air than a smooth, dense one, so an opened pack softens in days rather than weeks and a soft oat biscuit cannot be brought back. Reseal the inner wrapper or move the pack to a tin as soon as it is opened. Heat is the lesser problem because there is no coating to bloom or to mark fingers, though a warm cupboard will dull the toasty aroma over time. The third variable is the temperature of the drink, and it is the one that decides whether a dunk works: the difference between water straight off the boil and water that has stood two minutes is the difference between a biscuit that comes back out and one that does not. None of this is a fault in the recipe, it is an open crumb with no gluten network behaving exactly as its structure dictates. ## Recipe Ideas Five builds below cover the dry serve, the careful dunk, a cheese plate, a gluten-free crumble topping and a no-bake cheesecake base. Recipes, born here first The Dry Serve with Strong Tea How to make The Dry Serve with Strong Tea with McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs. 4 min 1 cup Easy You'll need 3 McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs 1 mug of strong black tea A splash of milk if you take it Method Brew the tea strong. Plain oats and tannin go together well and there is no coating in the way of either. Leave the biscuits dry. This is the serve we would default to, because the oat flavour is the reason to buy the plain version. Eat and drink alternately rather than together, so the dryness of the biscuit and the tannin of the tea each get a clear run. Reseal the pack straight away. An open oat crumb takes moisture from the air quickly. What you'll end up with: The cleanest reading of the biscuit: toasty, nutty and dry, with nothing sweet sitting on top of the oats. The Careful Dunk How to make The Careful Dunk with McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs. 4 min 1 cup Easy You'll need 2 McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs 1 mug of tea, stood a minute or two One second of nerve Method Stand the tea a minute or two off the boil. Water straight from the kettle takes the decision out of your hands. Dip for one second at most. Gluten is what holds a biscuit together in hot liquid and this one has none. Lift straight out with no swirling, because agitation breaks a crumb faster than time does. Eat it immediately, and accept that a second attempt may end in the cup. What you'll end up with: A dunk that works about four times in five, which is the honest ceiling for a gluten-free oat biscuit and worth knowing before you try it with the last one. Oat Biscuit and Hard Cheese Plate How to make Oat Biscuit and Hard Cheese Plate with McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs. 10 min 4 servings Easy You'll need 8 McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs A wedge of mature cheddar 1 sharp apple, sliced A little clear honey Method Bring the cheese to room temperature and keep the biscuits cool and sealed until the last minute. Lay the biscuits craggy side up so the surface has something for the cheese to grip. Top each with a thin slice of cheddar and a slice of sharp apple. Trail a little honey over the lot and serve at once, before the biscuits take moisture from the cheese. What you'll end up with: A cheese plate that a coeliac guest can eat without a separate plate of crackers, which is the practical reason to keep this pack in the cupboard. Gluten-Free Apple Crumble Topping How to make Gluten-Free Apple Crumble Topping with McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs. 35 min 4 servings Easy You'll need 6 McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs 4 Bramley apples, sliced 60g butter 2 tablespoons brown sugar Method Simmer the sliced apples with the brown sugar and a splash of water for eight minutes until softened, then tip into a baking dish. Crush the biscuits to a coarse rubble, leaving some pieces whole for texture. Rub the melted butter through the rubble and scatter it over the fruit. Bake at 180°C for twenty-five minutes until the top is crisp and the fruit is bubbling at the edges. What you'll end up with: A crumble topping with real oat character that happens to be gluten free, rather than a gluten-free topping that tastes of compromise. No-Bake Cheesecake Base How to make No-Bake Cheesecake Base with McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs. 20 min + 4 hours 8 slices Medium You'll need 10 McVitie's Gluten Free Hobnobs 100g butter, melted 500g full-fat soft cheese Zest and juice of 1 lemon Method Blitz the biscuits to fine crumbs. A gluten-free crumb breaks down faster than a wheat one, so stop earlier than you would. Stir in the melted butter and press firmly into a lined 20cm tin. Press harder than usual, because there is no gluten helping it hold. Chill the base for thirty minutes while you beat the soft cheese with the lemon zest, juice and sugar to taste. Spread the filling over the base and chill for four hours before cutting. What you'll end up with: A cheesecake base with oat texture rather than sand, and one a coeliac household can serve to everybody at the same table. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._