These biscuits are my go to with a cuppa. One thing I have tried to stop doing is buying shop bought biscuits. When you read the ingredients, there is so much in there that isn't even food. Why does a biscuit need 30 ingredients? Add to that the fact that the kids will demolish the packet between them, I have been trying to come up with homemade alternatives that are healthier but still tasty. My favourite biscuits are chocolate Hobnobs. So here are my healthier, homemade version, free from refined sugar (Using maple syrup instead of sugar. The chocolate topping is of course optional if you still want a bit). They are gluten free and totally adaptable if you want to use standard flour and oats and are also really delicious dipped in tea (The most important criteria!)

Ingredients: 200g Gluten Free Flour (Adapt to another flour if you have no need for the gf flour!) 200g gluten free Oats (Again, adapt to suit. I blitz them for a few seconds to make a course oat flour, leaving a few larger course bits for texture. You don't want it super fine) 200g unsalted butter (Left at room temperature so its naturally softened.) A pinch of good quality salt (I use Celtic Salt.) 1 heaped tsp of ground cinnamon. 100g Pecans (Ground into a course flour.) 150g Maple Syrup.

Method: Add the flour, blitzed up oats, salt and butter to a bowl and bring together with your fingertips. (I don't use a food processor for this as I want the oats to remain a little textured.) Once the mix has come together, add the cinnamon, ground pecans and maple syrup to the bowl. Work it all together and you will have a slightly wet bread dough style mix. Roll it in greaseproof paper and pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes to chill. 

Once chilled and firm, cut the dough with a knife into segments. I chop it in half, then half again, then chop thin slices from each bit that can be reshaped into balls in my hands. The mixture should make over 20 biscuits (Mine made 22.) These are then flattened between my fingertips, holding a dough ball and working it around in your hands until you get a cookie shape. It can be placed on baking paper on your baking tray and finished being pressed down on there too. Finishing them on the baking sheet will also prevent breakage. They want to look rustic, not perfect. The dough is too sticky to bother with a rolling pin. 

Bake in a preheated oven at around 180 degrees/Gas 4 for 20 minutes. They will come out golden and crisp. They are fragile at first so don't be tempted to remove them from the baking tray until they have cooled. Letting them cool will firm them up and make them easier to handle. 

Add melted chocolate if desired or keep plain for a healthier snack. They keep for days in an airtight jar but probably wont last that long!