Pear And Almond Tart

• One blind baked 10 inch pie crust at room temperature
• Pears:
• 3 cups dry white wine
• 1 cup sugar
• juice from one lemon, approximately 1/4 cup
• strips of lemon zest from one lemon
• 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise
• 4 firm but ripe anjou pears, peeled, halved, cored, and stemmed
• 1/2 cup apple jelly
• Filling:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 large eggs beaten to blend
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extact
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 6 tablspoons ground almonds
• slivered or sliced almonds toasted, optional
• whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, optional

1. For the pears:
2. Combine wine, sugar, lemon juice, and peel in large nonaluminum skillet over low heat. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add pears. Cover partially and simmer until pears are just tender, turning occasionally, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool pears in poaching liquid. Chill overnight.
3. Drain pears, reserving 1/3 cup poaching liquid. Pat pears dry and set aside. Combine jelly and reserved 1/3 cup pear poaching liquid in heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Boil until reduced to 1/2 cup stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Brush inside of prepared crust generously with jelly mixture. Arrange seven pear halves around inside edge of tart and, placing pears cut side down with stem ends toward center. If desired pears can be decoratively sliced before arranging. Arrange last pear half in center of tart.
4. For the filling:
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, salt and vanilla and almond extracts in a large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in cream. Stir in ground almonds and pour filling over the pears, leaving the tops of the pears partly exposed. (Or, make it easy on yourself and add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until combined.)
6. Bake tart until filling is puffed and golden, about 40 minutes. Check at 30 minutes and if browning too quickly, cover with a piece of foil for the last 10 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool. Rewarm remaining jelly mixture and brush over tart. Garnish with almonds and serve with ice cream or fresh whipped cream if desired.

white wine, sugar, lemon, lemon zest, vanilla bean, apple jelly, filling, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, vanilla extact, almond, salt, heavy whipping cream, ground almonds, whipped cream

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/pear-and-almond-tart-1232057 (may not work)