Ingredients in McVitie's Hobnobs

• Hobnobs are a type of cookie. Tjitske van Leeuwen Photography/Digital Vision/Getty Images

  McVitie's Hobnobs are a crispy, oat-based cookie or biscuit, made by the company McVitie's from Scotland since 1984. Most supermarkets in the United Kingdom sell Hobnobs, but they are exported across Europe and beyond. They come in a variety of different flavors, with various toppings, such as chocolate and vanilla cream.

Rolled Oats

• The main ingredient in Hobnobs is oats, a grain, used in many sweet and savory dishes. Oats are steamed and flattened in a roller for use in cookies, oatcakes or even porridge.

Wholemeal

• Wholemeal products, also known as whole wheat, use ground wheat grain. Wholemeal is used in bread to make wholemeal, bread, cookies, cakes and cereals.

Sugar

• A natural product found in all fruit and vegetables, sugar or sucrose is used in many man-made products such as cakes, sweets, cookies and chocolate. Commercial sugar is extracted from sugar cane or beet. In Hobnobs, sugar adds sweetness to the cookie.

Vegetable Oil

• Vegetable oil is extracted from plants, such as peanuts, soybeans, rapeseed or olives. Often more than one type of vegetable and a mixture of oils goes into a bottle of vegetable oil, in different proportions. In Hobnobs, vegetable oil might be used to bind the dry ingredients together.

Glucose-Fructose Syrup

• Glucose-fructose syrup, also known as high fructose corn syrup, is made from glucose and fructose. Both glucose and fructose are simple sugars found naturally in foods like fruit. Glucose-fructose syrup has more glucose than fructose and is used along with sugar in Hobnobs for sweetness.

Sodium Bicarbonate and Ammonium Bicarbonate

• Sodium bicarbonate, also known as baking soda, is made from sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide and releases CO2 when heated to about 122 degrees Fahrenheit. It acts as a raising agent in food, which makes cookies like Hobnobs rise during baking. Ammonium bicarbonate works in much the same way. Known as baker's ammonia, it is also added to make Hobnobs rise.

Salt

• Salt is sodium chloride, made from 30 percent sodium and 60 percent chlorine. It occurs naturally in seawater or in rock salt and is added to Hobnobs for flavor.