Recipe for June - *Edited later

 Here's the soda bread recipe that June asked for.  It's based on this recipe from a GF blogger soda bread although I've adapted it slightly, for my tastes.  So here's my recipe:-

450g plain GF flour

50g wholemeal spelt flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp baking powder

Handful of mixed seeds

1 tsp salt

50g butter or GF spread, melted

1 egg

350 ml buttermilk (or milk of your choice with 1 tbsp lemon juice added)

The xanthan gum, which can be bought in most supermarkets in their FreeFrom section, helps to 'stick' the flour together, as GF flour can make baked goods crumbly.  I used the baking powder as my GF flour was plain, not self raising.  I added seeds because I like them in bread.  I didn't have buttermilk (I never buy it actually), I simply add lemon juice to sour the milk and make it a good buttermilk substitute.  I used soya milk.  I didn't add the butter in the end simply because I forgot!  The method is simply to mix all the dry ingredients together, making sure to sieve the bicarb and baking powder in case they're lumpy.  Melt the butter or spread in a jug, add the buttermilk and egg to the jug and whisk together, then pour into the flour bowl and mix together - you may not need all the liquid, depends on what flour you're using, some are more absorbent than others.  Incidentally, I always use a butter knife for mixing up dough, less chance of huge great clumps sticking to it like they do to a spoon.  Don't bother kneading the dough, GF dough doesn't need kneading as there's no gluten to stretch, just draw it together with floured hands and form into a ball.  Place on a piece of baking parchment on a tray in a hot oven and bake for around 45 mins, I'd take it out around the 35 min mark and check it for doneness, knocking your knuckles on the base to see if it sounds hollow, I'm sure you all know that.  I baked mine in my Ninja air fryer, 20 mins at 200 deg C, followed by another 20 mins at 180.  I hope it works for you June.

*Added - don't forget to cut a cross or some deep slits in the top of the bread before you put it in the oven, otherwise it'll split at the sides when baking.

Annabeth, you mentioned an Italian GF flour, Caputo Fioreglut.  I looked it up....erm yes it is very expensive!  However, the pictures of the breads made using this flour were impressive, in fact they look exactly like normal flour breads.  So I might try one bag of this flour - I suppose I could always try mixing it half and half with my Doves Farm GF flour, to see how that works (less expensive that way).  Thanks for that.

Neighbour Mr X has told us that the builders are today cutting into the stonework on the old barn to make a new doorway, so it's going to be noisy.  I think it'll be a good idea to pop out in the car for a couple of hours (it's showery today), taking Betty with us, once the work starts....they're currently having a good old chinwag sheltering from the rain under a tree.  We appreciate him telling us, it's good of him.