The Great British Baking Show “Biscuit Week” is an annual event where Americans get to see what brittle, dry, sawdust-adjacent treats our friends across the pond prefer to our soft, sweet, and ooey-gooey cookies.

This year, however, the Netflix hit has tossed a curve ball in “Biscuit Week.” You see, the treat that Prue Leith tasks the bakers with making in 2025’s The Great British Baking Show “Biscuit Week” Technical Challenge is a actually homemade version of my personal favorite British biscuit: Hobnobs!

**Spoilers for The Great British Baking Show Season 13 Episode 2 “Biscuit Week,” now streaming on Netflix**

Almost every season of The Great British Baking Show kicks off with the exact same three theme weeks: “Cake Week,” “Biscuit Week,” and “Bread Week.” These are the foundations of home baking, highlighting the basic skill sets that any future winner of The Great British Baking Show ought to have. As such, the challenges, while difficult, are also rooted in classic British bakes.

Often, the Technical Challenges during The Great British Baking Show “Biscuit Week” have to do with recreating a homemade version of a biscuit Brits often find in their local Tesco, Sainsbury’s, or “Marks & Sparks.” Past examples include Wagon Wheels, Jammie Dodgers, and Custard Creams. This year, Prue set the challenge. The eleven remaining bakers were asked to make twelve Chocolate Hobnobs, topped with a thin layer of caramel and two different feathered chocolate designs.

So what exactly are Hobnobs? What makes them, in my humble opinion, a cut above Jammie Dodgers or Digestives? And which baker is emerging as the early Technical Challenge whiz kid?

Here’s every thing you need to know about Hobnobs, the Technical Challenge on The Great British Baking Show Season 13 Episode 2 “Biscuit Week”…

So what are Hobnobs anyway? Hobnobs are a popular British biscuit made by McVitie’s. They are made with rolled oats, so they wind up having a thicker, chewier structure than your typical thin, snappy digestive biscuits. They also are often sold with caramel and/or chocolate toppings, which add sweetness and flavor.

Hobnobs, sometimes stylized as “HobNobs,” are still considered a proper British biscuit rather than soft American cookie, but their structure falls somewhere in between. This is why I personally found myself gravitating towards them over other British supermarket biscuits when I studied abroad in the UK. They perfectly encapsulated a marriage of the chocolate and oatmeal flavors I loved in classic American cookies with the hardy structure of a British digestive biscuit. (Personally, I blew my British pals’ minds when I showed them how I was dipping my chocolate Hobnobs in peanut butter for that extra oomph.)

Curious about Hobnobs? You can buy them for yourself (at a steep markup) or bake your own at home.

Prue Leith’s personal recipe for Chocolate Caramel Hobnobs is available for free on the official site for the series.