Those of you who know me personally have likely heard me say that I don't like baking. I can do it, and I'm pretty good at it, but it's more a chore than a joy to me. However, I have a lot of walnuts in my pantry that I don't want to go stale, so I need to start using them a little more. Hence the development of this recipe. Hooray for #testkitchen day!

When I was a kid we used to eat homemade "trail mix"- little bits of nuts, dried fruit, a little chocolate, etc. My children won't touch nuts as a snack. These brownie bites are cleverly disguised as a dessert but have the added benefit of ground walnuts. What they don't know won't hurt them. Am I right?

1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. chocolate (I used chocolate chips, but use what you have)
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1-1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2  tsp salt
1/2 c. ground walnuts (grind into flour consistency)
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Melt together butter and chocolate, on low heat. Make sure you stir often, and when the chocolate has almost melted remove from heat and stir in sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time, and add vanilla extract. Set aside.

Mix cocoa, flour, powder, salt, and ground walnuts. Add the chocolate mixture, and gently mix until combined. Cook at 325*F for about 13 minutes in paper lined mini muffin tins. This recipe made about 3-1/2 dozen mini brownie bites.

This delectable loaf is rich. It started out as a way to use up my eggnog, and to sneak some nuts into my children's diet.
I recommend serving this with a nice cup of hot coffee- so good.

1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1-1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2/3 c. eggnog
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. ground hazelnuts (grind into flour consistency)

Cream together the butter and sugar, until the sugar is well-incorporated. Next, mix in eggs, 1 at a time is easiest, and set aside.
Mix eggnog with vanilla, and set aside. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and hazelnut "flour" together, and set aside.
Add the eggnog and flour mixtures to the butter mixture, alternating, until all the ingredients are incorporated. 
Grease your loaf pan, and flour it.
Even though my loaf pan is silicone, I lightly misted my loaf pan with vegetable oil and floured it. The loaf still stuck in the corner where I missed greasing, so definitely don't skip that step.

Bake at 325*F. My oven cooked it in 1 hr. and 17 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes before attempting to turn out onto cooling sheet.