Jungle Bells at The Body Shop

It would come as no surprise to many people that I am pretty much obsessed with all things The Body Shop. Founded by Dame Anita Roddick 40 years ago The Body Shop has always remained true to its values; enrich not exploit.

In case you were wondering these are The Body Shop’s commitments:

Against Animal Testing

Building Bio-Bridges

Community Trade

Steps to a sustainable business 

 By using only natural ingredients The Body Shop ensures that their products are organic, ethical and totally divine. It goes without saying then that my make up and toiletries cupboard is fit to bursting with products from The Body Shop. 

The Himalayan Clay and British Rose face masks

Trying out the Rose Mask. It contains rosehip oil and is very soothing and refreshing

the Himalayan Clay mask modelled. It contains tea tree oil and leaves your skin feeling all tingly -I was advised against using this product however as I have sensitive skin

The Body Shop store on Brigatte in Leeds has been closed for refurbishment for a few months now which has left me wandering the streets wondering where we could get my hands a new body butter (the answer by the way would be the Leeds Rail Station or The White Rose Centre) the wait is almost over however and there are some very exciting things to come. 

The new concept store in Leeds which will be revealed on 5th November will make going to The Body Shop an all round experience and will include an exclusive V.I.P. room where you can go for in depth skin consultation with skin care experts. I love how the new shop opens on Bonfire night: proving that it will be explosive with a bang so to speak a bit like fireworks. 

Even more exciting is that Leeds will be one of only 35 stores which will offer personalised body butters. How cool is that!

The new Christmas range builds on old Body Shop favourites including vanilla and cranberry yet will give it a spicy twist with Spiced Apple, Frosted Berry and personal favourite Vanilla Chai. 

There’s a rumble in the jungle and The Body Shop are stirring up a fabulously exciting Christmas campaign in their 40th anniversary year!

Love love love the Advent Calendars. Is it December the 1st yet?

Matcha and Almond Christmassy Shortbread

To achieve green Christmas tree biscuits I find that you either have to use ridiculously bright icing or indeed lots of food colouring, (unless you are actually using paste because that stuff is STRONG…I mean it did stain my tongue once.)  In the battle to try and cut down on the number of E-numbers and artificial stuff that we injest. Cue the matcha tea.  

This green tea powder works well in baking and will give my Christmas trees a lovely shade of green….well hopefully.  

So first things first, let's gather the ingredients together. I shall be making almond shortbread so will need:  

• 175g mix of flour and ground almonds. You can use this in any ratio that you want to i.e. 125g flour and 50g almonds or indeed 100g flour and 75g almonds. I will be using the latter quantities however you will need to use flour on a roughly half and half basis to keep the consistency and to make it easier when rubbing in. 

• 125g caster sugar or light brown sugar if you prefer 

• 55g butter 

• 1/2 tbsp matcha green tea 

• 25g goji berries (optional) I'm adding some goji berries to my mixture to create baubles on my Christmas tress.  

So I haven't even started yet and I've already encountered my first problem: I have no ground almonds. Alas fear not as I have a bag of whole almonds and using my trusty Bamix can use the wet and dry grinder to make ground nuts.  I'm leaving mine a little rough for the texture. 

 

Next put all the ingredients bar the matcha and goji berries (if using) in a large bowl and rub in. I am using a knife to cut my butter into small pieces before starting to make the process easier. 

 As you are not making a crumble it doesn't matter how fine the mixture is, the most important thing is that the butter is thoroughly combined with the dry ingredients. 

When you are happy with the consistency add half a tbsp of Matcha (I'm using Eat Clean Tea Morning Matcha) and after rubbing this in squish all your mixture together to form a dough. 

Similar to any shortbread you will need to let it rest for half an hour so wrap it up in some cling film, stick it in the fridge...and to sit back and plan the next phase.

Those beady eyed amongst you may have noticed that I haven't added the goji berries yet. This is because after I remove the dough from the fridge I shall be giving it a bit of a knead (to warm it up, it should not need to be kneaded long) and I will add the goji berries just before the rolling it out.

Oh by the way you may want to preheat the oven at this stage: 180c or gas mark 4. 

Ok so I have a star cutter but last time I checked stars don't have baubles so for my first batch I'm not using goji. In total I have 30 stars. Place the rest of the dough back in the cling film so that it doesn't dry out whilst getting the stars ready.  

I'm ready for the berries are you?  

Roughly roll out the dough into a rectangle and place the berries in the centre. You could also do this with anything else that you felt like adding. Make it a double almond whammy be adding chopped almonds or try different coloured baubles with the addition of mixed peel or dried fruits. 

Anyway whatever additional ingredient you add place it in the middle of your dough and fold your dough into the centre enveloping whatever it is in the middle. Give the dough a little bit of a knee and you re ready to flour the surface (or silicon mat) and ready, set, roll! 

If your Christmas tree cutter is anything like mine i.e. small and fiddly be prepared to lose the tops, bottoms or sometimes both of the biscuits as you struggle to get the dough out of the cutter. 

 

upside down Christmas trees anyone?

Bake for approximately five minutes and leave to cool on the tray for a bit before you try to move them as your biscuits will still be quite soft when you first remove them from the oven. I tried taking them from the tray to the cooling rack before they were ready andthe biscuit just crumbled....so I won't be trying that again. 

So there you have it; Christmassy Matcha Almond shortbread. yummy.

The Gingerbread Army

Christmas cards are honestly a waste of money, I mean if you are going to see the recipient of the card on a regular basis, why would you give them a piece of paper that rarely ever says more than: their name, your name and a gimmicky Christmas slogan thought up by the card manufacturers.

Before you go all ”Bah Humbug”  I don’t really have anything against Christmas or even the avalanche of post that it causes, it’s lovely to hear from far flung friends and to receive the yearly newsletter letting you know what all these people that you once knew have been up to. But with the cost of postage rising we have had to become more inventive with our season’s greetings. Cue the tale of the gingerbread men.

Assemble the troops

Sadly many lives were lost in the battle of the oven, with an amputation here and a broken leg there the soldiers were not considered fit for battle and were sent on leave. These amputations were, of course, not intentional so that I could eat the comrades and when I say that the militia were sent on
leave I don’t mean sent to a life imprisonment in my tummy. 

With the baking process out of the way my attentions were turned to decorating the gingerbread men, although I wasn’t quite sure what exactly would be needed for the decoration of gingerbread men.

Everything you will ever need to decorate Gingerbreadmen

If you have ever seen Shrek and if you haven’t where have you been the past decade? Hiding under a rock? Then you will know that gum drop buttons are absolutely essential in the dressing of a gingerbread man. However it would seem that Jelly Tots are nigh on near impossible to find and trust me I went to quite a few places to look for them. 

With the ultimate gingerbread man decorating kit assembled it was time to begin- although I’m still not quite sure what the use of the foamy bananas was.

I established pretty soon that this decorating lark wasn’t really for me (read icing EVERYWHERE) I tried to use strawberry laces for the hair of one poor gingerbread man and it suffices to say that it ended up looking like a scary Scottish person, a bit like the ones you see in Braveheart. I instead opted to use the laces to make angry eyebrows, that didn’t work either.

Once the gingerbread men were each individually wrapped, each with a ribbon they were ready to be hand delivered, but not in a regular fashion, oh no, for there is a crazy woman walking around town wearing a teapot hat and yielding a basket. 

The gingerbread recipe used is as follows: (I doubled this recipe to make my army but when I tried tripling it I had so much gingerbread that it was literally coming out of my ears)

100g flour

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

4 tbsp golden syrup

3tbsp light brown sugar

50g butter

½ tsp baking powder

1 egg beaten 

Preheat the oven to 180°c

In a large mixing bowl sift the flour, cinnamon and ginger together.

In a saucepan combine the golden syrup, brown sugar and butter. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally until thoroughly melted.

Stir  the baking powder into the melted mixture before adding to the dry ingredients along with the beaten egg and mix to a dough.

Leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is smooth and free from cracks. Roll and cut and mould into shape. The thickness to which you roll the mixture depends entirely on preference but I prefer a thinner, crispier gingerbread man. 

Bake for 10-20 minutes until golden brown