Banana bread cake.

This can be made with or without nut butter according to your preference. I usually make it with peanut butter during the week for school lunches and then with choc chips for the weekends.

Ingredients
3 medium to large eggs
5+1/8 oz Doves self-raising gluten free flour
5/8oz coconut flour
1.5tsp gf baking powder
5oz caster sugar or brown sugar if you prefer.
1tsp ground cinnamon
2 mashed ripe bananas
2oz nut butter
4oz dairy free spread. ( use 6oz if not using nut butter)
2tbsp dairy free milk.

Method.
1. Preheat oven to 180degrees Celsius.
2. Grease 2lb loaf tin with dairy free spread or line with baking parchment/greaseproof paper.
3. Weigh and sieve flours, baking powder and cinnamon into mixing bowl.
4. Weigh and add sugar, butters and eggs to flour mix.
5. Beat til combined with electric mixer, add mashed bananas and milk and beat again til smooth.
6. Spoon into tin and bake on middle shelf for 30 to 45 mins, turn down temperature to 170degrees if it starts to brown to much after 20 mins. Try not to open oven door for first 20 mins to prevent it from collapsing.
7. Stick a skewer or thin sharp knife into centre after 30 mins to check if cooked, it should come out clean i.e. not gooey. Recheck every 5 mins or so til done.
8. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 5 mins in tin, then remove to wire cooling rack and remove baking parchment from cake to allow to cool fully.

Hints and tips
1. We usually leave out nut butter and add two big handfuls of dairy free dark choc chips for a treat.
2. You could easily use odlums gluten free self raising flour if you wished, we just avoid soya that's why we don't use it now but have in the past.
3. To help keep baking goods moist you can place a Pyrex dish on bottom shelf in oven and fill with boiling water before placing cake in oven.
4. This could easily be made with ordinary gluten containing plain flour ( just increase baking powder to 3tsp) or self raising flour no extra baking powder required.
5. You could easily use normal dairy containing butter or margarine for this cake just try to leave it out of the fridge to soften up first.
6. I usually make up 1oz of flour volume with gf buckwheat flour if I have it in the press.

Missing in action but back and improved.

Missing in action but back and improved.
Sorry it's been a while but like everything once you get used to something it's nearly certain to change causing upheaval, our store where I normally purchase my flours to make up my mix has been out of stock for the last while, so it was back to experimenting with my recipes to see if they were easily adaptable. And SUCCESS.
So here is what I am using at present:
Doves farm gluten free selfraising flour. ( I prefer this mix as it has buckwheat flour in the formula, but I'm sure the plain would work too.)
Tiana coconut flour which I can get from the health food shop. This always makes up 10%  of the total flour volume of the recipe so adding better texture and moistness.
Gluten free buckwheat flour from the health food shop. This makes up about 20 to 30% of the total flour volume of the recipe. I have done the recipes on this blog with and without adding this and both works out fine, so it's up to you preference which way you do it. Also I tend to just put in what I have of this flour ie rarely the exact same amount each time and it works, so don't give it too much worry or time.
Glutenfree  baking powder
Xanathan Gum
Doves yeast
Coconut milk, substitute the one you prefer
Pure dairy free spread sunflower is the one we prefer
Bextartar

I have also experimented with adding ground chia seeds to my bread mix with good success. I substituted 10 to 20% of the total volume of flour for the recipe.
 Hope this helps.
I will be uploaded my bread recipe, a banana bread that can be added to with choc chips or nut butters, a banana muffin with no butters used in making, a pizza recipe, scone bread and fairy cake recipe.
I will also add a gluten containing recipe for banana bread, pizza dough, brown bread.

ordinary scones

these have Gluten and Dairy in them.
Ingredients these make approx 6 small to medium scones for more or giant scones double ingredients quantities.

225grammes self raising flour or plain flour
25grammes of butter or margarine
150mls milk or buttermilk.(please see note below)
25grammes of caster sugar
1.5teaspoons of baking powder if you use plain flour

Steps
Preheat oven to 200degrees celsius and place baking tray in oven to warm while preheating.
Place flour and baking powder in bowl, you can sieve it tends to give a slightly lighter texture but not essential by any means.
Stir with knife to mix.
Rub in butter or margarine to flour until it resembles soft breadcrumbs.
Add caster sugar and stir.
Add 100mls of milk and mix with knife to form soft dough, continue adding last 50mls of milk until all flour has been mix to form soft but not too wet or sticky dough. If too wet sprinkle in some more flour little at a time, if too dry add a little more milk. Try to mix together in as few strokes as possible.
Sprinkle flour onto a board or clean counter top. Turn dough out on to board. Gently shape with hands to form log or rectangle about 3cms high. Then dip knife in flour and cut log into chunks, each chunk will make a scone. If using rectangle cut into chunks the cut chunks in half. (the reason behind cutting it this way is it allows for less handling of dough so prevents scones becoming too tough)
You can brush the tops of these scones with some milk, feel free to use your fingers and dip them in the milk and rub the top of scones gently it is up to you. I have done it both ways and they will always be eaten regardless.
Remove baking tray from oven, quickly place scones on tray and return to oven. Bake for 12 to 15mins approx. To test if cooked, lift one scone and tap the underneath, if it sounds hollow it's cooked, if not you can lower temp to 170degrees celsuis and cook for 5 to 10 mins more.(this is necessary for giant scones)
Allow to cool as much as you wish on a wire rack then enjoy with butter/jam/marmalade/cream or all of the above.

Notes:
The principle idea when making scones is quick and light touch, this is why i find the knife to mix and the log technique the easiest. you can cut round scone shapes if you wish by gently flattening out the dough to 3cm high and using a cookie cutter or glass dipped in flour, so it won't stick, to cut out the shapes, then gather up the unused dough shape it into a ball and start again with flattening.
The hot baking tray causes the baking powder or self raising flour to start the rising action straight away helping to give fluffier scones.

Gluten free dairy free scones

Okay I will share my recipe for these the pic isn't fab as I'm not great at that end of it but I am good at baking.
I used my fairy cake or muffin tin for these as the dough is quite soft, otherwise it would dry put too much, just grease the tins with dairy free spread so they don't stick.
I also have a few gluten and dairy scone recipes which I'll share in another post too.
You could just use dairy butter or marg if  your only gluten free plus milk or buttermilk( if buttermilk leave out bextartar)

So here we go.
Preheat your oven to 200degrees Celsius and if you have a baking tray place it in the oven to warm.
Ingredients for 4 to 6 small scones depending on your cake tin size just double if you want more.
25grammes of coconut flour
125grammes of rice flour
75grammes of potato flour
1.5tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon/tsp of bextartar
1/4 tsp of xanathan gum
30grammes of caster sugar
25grammes of dairy free spread, I use pure dairy free sunflower spread.
150 to 200mls of coconut milk

Weigh coconut flour into bowl. Sieve in rice and potato flour, bextartar, xanathan gum and baking powder. Whisk lightly or stir to combine. Rub in spread to form breadcrumb like mix. Add sugar and stir to combine. Measure out 150mls of milk and add to mix, stir with knife or spoon to incorporate. Add more milk until a soft sticky dough is formed. You may need slightly more than 200 or less it just depends on the flours. You want a soft dough but not runny if it's too runny just add a little more rice flour and combine, a spoonful at a time.spoon dough into greased cake tins and place tin on baking tray in oven to cook. Bake at 200 for  approx. 15 to 20 mins until they sound hollow when you tap their base. Turn down oven to 180degrees if they are browning too much and not cooked yet. They will not be golden brown like ordinary scones but more of a pale white with brown tinges.

Note
I get bextartar in my local supermarket as well as Supervalu and superquinn it is dairy, gluten and egg free and says so on the tin, it's not expensive maybe 2 euro for a biggish tin.

I use gluten free baking powder, dr oketer  bra and which I can get in my local supermarket as well as superquinn, and I'm sure dunnes stores and tesco and Supervalu probably carry it too as they carry most dr oketer products. It's about 1.69euro for a tin.
I use doves farm xanathan gum as that's the best price one I can get, my health food store does it as does superquinn at the same price about 3.75euro for tin, but a little goes a long way.
I use Pure dairy free spread, tesco dunnes stores and superquinn do this line, I prefer the sunflower one but there is an olive oil and a soya one too. My local supermarket and tesco are the only ones carrying the sunflower one. It's 1.69euro for 500gramme tub in tesco.
For the flours my boys seem to be fine with these purchased from my local Asian food store even though they do not specify gluten or dairy free, I have also used the brands from the health food store that are gluten free with good results so use whichever suits you best. I mix my own flour blend as I found the texture of most blends to grainy, the only good one was Glebe Farm brand but it is not always available in my local supermarket, only place I had found it, plus it was nearly 4euros a kilo so very expensive when you use it to bake everything from bread to pizza to cakes.
I use Koko coconut milk in a carton about1.69euro a litre in superquinn, it doesn't leave a coconut taste but you could substitute almond or soya or rice milk of you prefer. My kids did take almond milk but I found coconut better for baking and now all 3 prefer it for drinking, especially the chocolate one.

The start

So I have finally done it, written something for this blog and made Gluten free, Dairy free scones that look and taste like proper irish scones. No buttermilk required no butter no ordinary flour.
I will share my recipes as I go to help others enjoy nice food, especially mums looking to try the GFCF diet on their kids. Mine are on it 7 months now and the difference is huge. It is a pain, no word of a lie and I have found that an awful lot of GF foods don't agree with them so we have turned to mainly an unprocessed diet, so our bread, cakes, scones, pizza are made at home, we are also using coconut milk instead of soya, so no soya cheese or yogurts as these started to cause problems and limited amounts of corn and corn products too. We have also used elements of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia's elimination diet to help eliminate as many food additives and preservatives as possible from the boys diet. Their diet is medically based, allergist developed and has been used in their hospital since 1987.
All I cans anybody the Gluten free Caesin free diet for kids with Autistic Spectrum Disorder is it's worth a try, start with dairy and you could see changes within a week, they might not be life altering but they might be an improvement. And be prepared for them to be ravenous for the first month or two,I thought I would never keep them fed or be able to afford to stay on this diet. Now it has settled down and they eat better most of the time, not fabulously as we have issues with texture and colours etc but they don't usually crush their food or refuse to eat from breakfast til breakfast like before.
Plus if I had the recipes I have now at the beginning it would have been easier then all the tries and fails that happened and you'd still have to make something else because otherwise there was nothing to eat.
We have three kids, twin boys aged 5 with ASD and a not so little girl who is 3. And our dog who loves The boys bread crusts and leftover pancakes.