Valentines 'Jammie Dodger' Biscuit Recipe

   Hey beaut's!

Valentines Day is just a week away so obviously I got back in the kitchen and rustled up another valentines inspired bake, if your after some cupcake inspiration I shared my white chocolate and raspberry cupcake recipe last week which you can find HERE, but today I'm doing the easiest biscuits I think I've ever made, valentines jammie dodgers! I did share my recipe of these biscuits a couple of years ago but I tweaked it slightly and obviously made them heart shaped for valentines!

What You Will Need For The Biscuits

100g unsalted butter, softened

175g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

A jar of strawberry or raspberry jam

love heart cookie cutters

Baking sheets

How To

1. To make the biscuits, cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl until well combined, then add in the egg and vanilla, and continue to beat until fully incorporated. 

2. Tip the flour into the mixture and fold together until fully combined, then shape the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film and pop into the freezer to firm up for around 45 min's to an hour.

3. Once you dough has chilled completely preheat your oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a couple of large baking trays with baking paper. 

4. On a lightly dusted surface, roll out the dough as thick or as thin as you like and use your a larger love heart cookie cutter to cut out lots of heart shaped biscuits, once you have all of your biscuit hearts your going to want to separate half of them and use a small heart shape cookie cutter to stamp out heart shapes from the middle of your rounds. 

5. Pop the biscuits in the oven until golden, I made my biscuits quite thin so they only took  6-7 minutes but the thicker you go the longer they will take. If you like a nice crunch to your biscuits take them out half way through baking and sprinkle a small amount of caster sugar on them all, I did this and it makes such a nice snappy/crunchy biscuit.

6. Once the biscuits are cool, spread jam on the bottom biscuit and top with one of the heart cut out biscuits, sandwiching them together and voila. These biscuits will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container, that's if they last for 2-3 days because in our house they get demolished pretty quickly he he.

I mean just how cute do these look though, their so quick and easy to make and the ingredients are so minimal too which I love, and adding a sprinkling of caster sugar mid bake really does add such a nice crunch to the biscuits too, yum!

Will you be baking anything this valentines beaut's? I'd love to know!

LifeLab Testing Basic Intolerance Test + My Results!

Hey beaut's!

Today I have something slightly different on the blog but something I was really excited in doing and writing! Recently LifeLab sent me over one of their at home blood testing intolerance kits and I actually couldn't wait to try it, it sounds strange to be excited about doing something like this but it came at the perfect time for me because my health hasn't been the best it could be over the last year or so, my acid reflux seemed to hit a huge high, more recently I've had problems with bloating and stomach pain which I've put down to acute IBS and I've been a migraine sufferer for years, all of these things combined had me thinking....maybe it's something I'm eating that's doing this to me, because food intolerance's can bring on all of these symptoms I suffer from! So now you can probably understand why I was keen on doing this test, because I'm hopeful that it could result in my health improving!

LifeLab Testing sent me their Basic Intolerance Test* which analyses your blood sample against 40 of the most common intolerant foods including seafood, nuts, grains (including wheat) and a variety of dairy products like egg and milk. They also have four other at home tests on their site such as a Basic Allergy Test, Complete Body Test, Complete Intolerance Test and a Yes/No Test, all of which have a testing accuracy of 99.8% in their lab.

The Basic Intolerance kit includes absolutely everything you need to perform your at home test, theres 1 alcohol wipe, 1 plaster, 1 gauze/absorbent pad, 1 transport tube, 1 microvette 300 ql (sampling tube), 2 lancets, 1 activation card with adhesive label and a free post return envelope. Before taking your blood sample and sending it off you need to activate your test on the LifeLab Testing website, this is so simple to do, you either need to create an account or use your existing account, then follow a few simple steps and pop in your unique Test ID Code which is found on the activation card within your kit-box and voila, it literally took me around a minute to activate mine, it's extremely straight forward and quick!

Once your kit has been activated it's time to get your sample on the go, the kit comes with an instruction booklet which I followed precisely, the instructions suggest that the best days to do the test is either a Monday or a Tuesday and to post your sample on the same day that you take your sample. I must admit I did find the 'taking/collecting' my blood quite hard, mostly because my blood didn't want to be spared and my body was being greedy! What I learnt is that you really need to get your blood circulation going, the instruction booklet suggests holding your hand under warm water for a minute and then swinging your arm around in circular motions 5-10 times, I done this and then got my boyfriend to prick my middle finger with one of the lancets after using the disinfectant wipe and hardly any blood came out at all, luckily the kit comes with two lancets so I done it again but this time and I held my hands in warm water for longer and used my index finger which seemed to work so much better.

The lancet(needle) itself didn't really hurt at all, I mean obviously you feel it but it's not a painful experience and its over within a second, once the blood droplets start forming you need to scrape them/drop them straight into the blood collection tube until it reaches the 30μL mark, it MUST reach this mark otherwise the blood sample cant be tested. I would suggest working quick as my blood dried up super fast so once the droplets form keep massaging your finger to keep the blood flow going. Once the sample has been taken all you need to do is secure the lid, apply the QR code sticker to the blood collection tube so the lab know it’s your sample, then pop it inside the bigger transport tube and seal it up, before putting it into the pre-paid envelope and then post! I'd say the whole process took me around 5-10 minutes from start to finish so it is really quick to do! Your results should only take a couple of days to pop up on your LifeLab account, I literally posted my sample off on a Tuesday and had my results by Thursday so it's definitely a quick turn around! The results are scored out of six in a traffic light style – green means no reaction, orange means a low or medium reaction whilst red means an high reaction.

Now onto my results which where pretty good actually but there was a couple of shocks, out of the 40 foods I was tested for 37 where green meaning no reaction, 7 where low-medium and 2 where red meaning I had a high reaction... 

 As you can see from my results I have high intolerance to egg white followed by a medium intolerance to egg yolks, this was the major shocker for me because I bloody love eggs and not only do I boil them, scramble them and fry them but I use them loads in cooking and baking! My other high intolerance was mustard, which I actually hate so that wont be a problem for me cutting that out, but eggs could be a major for me! I then have a medium intolerance to sheep's, cows and goats milk, cows milk is something I wanted to cut down on anyway as I thought diary could have something to do with my bloating and stomach pain and after seeing this it's given me the extra push I need to cut down! Hazelnuts, banana and beef where my final readings that are a low intolerance, banana's are one of my favourite fruits so it's quite gutting if they contribute to why I feel crappy sometimes!

Overall I'm so happy I got the opportunity to do one these tests and I really cant recommend LifeLab Testing Kits enough, especially if your suffering from migraines, stomach pain, heartburn, excess gas or bloating and nausea and think it might be something so do with your diet or certain foods that you eat, this can give you the clarification you need! I'm definitely going to be cutting out on the food I have an intolerance to and see if I see an improvement in my health!

You can find the LifeLab Testing Basic Intolerance Test for £99.00 HERE.



*This post contains gifted press samples, all opinions are my own!

Soap & Glory The Rushower Dry Shampoo Review

Hey beaut's!

Soap and Glory have recently delved into the depths of all things hair, yup they now have shampoo's, conditioner's, a styling oil, leave in conditioner...the lot! I'm definitely going to be trying out the shampoo soon but firstly I wanted to give their dry shampoo a whirl! I do love a good dry shampoo for those in between days and also it works wonders when I wave or curl my hair as it gives me added texture, so I was looking forward to putting Soap & Glory's offering to the test!

The Soap & Glory 'The Rushower' Dry Shampoo claims to instantly refresh and revive your hair and to be honest that is exactly what it does, when my hairs looking a bit drab it gives it such a lift and shine and leaves my hair looking really fresh and feeling soft. The product itself jets out of the can pretty rapidly and smells absolutely divine, it features Soap and Glory's signature pink scent of Rose and Bergamot which I've always adored in their body products and I love it even more within my hair, it's lush!

The Rushower claims to be invisible for all hair types once massaged into the roots and I must admit I've never had any problems with residue or the dreaded 'talc scalp' look, I do have quite light-ashy coloured hair so I cant speak for someone with quite dark or black hair but for me it works really well. Overall I think Soap & Glory have made a really nice dry shampoo here and I honestly don't have one negative to say about it, I'm expecting amazing things from the rest of their haircare range now!

You can find the Soap & Glory The Rushower Dry Shampoo for £4.00 HERE however it is on offer right now at just £2.67 as part of an introductory offer along with the rest of the haircare line!



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