Cooking Lessons - Brownies!

Today I perfected the egg free, milk free brownie. This is no small feat, given that I have had some added challenges in terms of new food allergies from Nathan's latest round of testing. But, I will not digress, you can read about it here if you want to learn more. These brownies are yummy and dare I say, healthy? Made from garbanzo bean flour and prunes, with quite a bit of sugar, they are probably healthier than any brownie you have ever eaten before. [While food allergies present lots of challenges in our life, one thing is for sure, they have the added benefit of challenging us to eat much healthier.]

Start with 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, broken up into small pieces. Add to it 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening.

Microwave this in a bowl on 50% power in your microwave for about 45 seconds, then stir, and microwave again for another 30 seconds.

While the chocolate and shortening is melting, grab some flour. Whats that you say? This isnt the white flour that I usually bake with? Well, yes, you are very observant. THis is in fact wheat free flour to satisfy Nathan's new wheat allergy. But, its healthy! Made from garbanzo beans!
Spray a 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.
Lightly flour the pan after spraying it. I got a little carried away here, this is not very lightly floured. Eh.
Put 2 cups of sugar in a bowl.
Add 8-10 oz of baby food prune puree to the sugar. [These brownies are delicious AND keep you regular.]
Remember the chocolate you were melting? Grab it from the microwave, stir it around, make sure its nice and liquified.
Add it to the sugar and the prunes. Throw in 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.
Add 1 3/4 cups of flour.
Add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum. Add 1 tablespoon of baking powder. See this baking powder here? It contains CORN SYRUP solids. Upon discovering this I went to three grocery stores and could not find any baking powder without corn. Im on a mission now, and in the meantime, Im using it. Sigh. A kid's gotta eat.
Mix everything together really well. The mix comes out a bit think I think, so I added a few tablespoons of rice milk to it to thin it just a little and have it spread in the pan better.
Bake at 325 F for 50 minutes or so. Cool and enjoy!