Pear Tart with Butterscotch Sauce

> Incomplete in the original: The Butterscotch Sauce ("see recipe") is not in the book.

Instructions

FOR PEARS: Combine 6 cups water and sugar in heavy large wide saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla beans; add beans. Bring to simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Peel, halve and core pears. Add pears to vanilla syrup and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Cool pears in syrup. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover pears in syrup and refrigerate overnight.)

FOR CRUST: Blend both flours and sugar in processor. Add butter and shortening; cut in using on/off turns until mixture resembles coarse meal. Blend in water by tablespoonfuls until dough begins to clump together. Gather into ball; divide in half. Flatten each half into disk. Wrap each in plastic and chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out 1 dough disk between sheets of plastic to 13-inch round. Peel off top sheet. Using bottom sheet as aid, invert dough into 11-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Peel off plastic. Press dough into bottom and up sides of pan. Repeat with second disk and second tart pan. Freeze crusts for 15 minutes.

Line crusts with foil. Fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until crusts are set, about 10 minutes. Remove foil and beans. Bake crusts until golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer crusts to rack and cool.

FOR FILLING: Preheat oven to 350°F. Finely grind almonds in processor. Add butter and sugar; blend well. Add eggs, egg whites and vanilla and blend well.

Using slotted spoon, remove pears from syrup (reserve syrup for another use). Cut lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick slices.

Pour half of filling into each crust. Fan half of pear slices atop filling in each crust, overlapping slices slightly. Bake until tops brown and filling is set, about 25 minutes. Cool tarts in pans on racks. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover tarts and let stand at room temperature.)

Remove pan sides. Drizzle ¼ cup sauce over each tart. Pass remaining sauce.