Holiday Baking : Using Prunes in Place of Butter

What do you say when somebody tells you to substitute prunes for butter in baking? “Nonsense”--if you have any sense.

Which is exactly what we said when the article above came in. We laughed about prune brownies and snickered about prune muffins. And then we set out to prove that a prune brownie is a ridiculous idea.

We used a standard brownie recipe, in this case the Moist Chocolate Brownies from “The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.” We followed the directions for prune paste, using 1/2 cup of the paste in place of a stick of butter. And then, because the idea of eating brownies had suddenly become very appealing, we mixed up a second batch, using half prunes and half butter ( 1/4 cup of each). We put both pans in the oven and prepared to laugh.

The laugh was on us: Both versions were delicious. Both looked exactly like brownies, and had good texture. The half-butter brownies were richer and more chocolatey, but the all-prune brownies were moister. While the all-prune brownies didn’t have the delicious decadence of an all-butter brownie, they had a fruity chocolate taste that was very appealing. None of us has ever tasted a better low-fat dessert; we were very happy to eat our words.

Stay tuned for the no-butter chocolate prune cake.