Itty Bitty Nutty Treats

About three hours before a hobby-related meeting both my husband and I had to attend, I found out that everyone was bringing a snack to share.  My husband forwarded me all emails except the one with important details about the meeting.  It figures.  I looked in my fridge and freezer and came up with an idea: little citrus-mixed nuts tarts.  The short dough I had in the freezer and stewed grapefruit zest saved my day!

The same short dough I used for apple-cranberry tarts were used again.  What I love about this sweet short dough is that it tells when it's ready---it's done when the edge turns golden brown.  For the stewed grapefruit zest, I scraped off the zest of 5 grapefruits using a julienne peeler (not a zester) and cooked the zest with sliced flesh from one grapefruit, water, sugar and honey until the zest is softened a little.  I confess, I didn't measure any ingredients.  The only reason I made this zest stew is to save the grapefruit zest for later use when I made grapefruit sorbet.  I hate wasting anything!

I blended about 1 1/2 cups mixed nuts (mostly almonds and some brazil nuts, cashews and pecans) with 1/4 cup sugar and approximately 1/3 cup sweetened zest in food processor at fine-chopping (mincing) setting.  I tasted zest-nut paste to make sure it doesn't need more sugar or zest.  After lining a mini-muffin pan with short dough, I added one scoop of the filling in each well using a small melon ball scoop.  The tarts were baked at 350F for 25 minutes. 

These little tarts are dangerous for someone like me who loves citrus and nuts.  I had to ask my husband to take the leftovers to work.  Otherwise, we'll end up on Biggest Loser!