Burgundy Cherry Ice Cream Food

CHERRY ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Place the cherry juice, milk, yogurt, and heavy cream into the bowl of a blender. Add the sugar, salt, cherries, and almond extract. Puree until only small bits of the cherries remain.
• Pour into a 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

VANILLA CHERRY ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Combine the cream, milk, and sugar in a bowl. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Stir in the vanilla and almond extract. Add the cherries. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

BURGUNDY CHERRY ICE CREAM

Steps:

• To make Burgundy Cherry Sauce: Combine the honey, wine, sugar and cinnamon in a wide saucepan; bring to a boil and reduce to approximately 3/4 cup; add the cherries and poach them gently in the liquid for 3 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally; pour the cherries into a bowl and skim off the foam; cool; drain syrup from cherries and reserve.
• To make Vanilla Ice Cream: Place sugar and vanilla beans in medium heatproof bowl; pour milk over; set bowl into a pan of simmering water, but make sure it doesn't touch water; stir milk mixture until simmering; remove milk from heat; place yolks in heatproof bowl; gradually add milk to the egg yolks and whisk through thoroughly; return mixture to heat over simmering water; stir constantly over low heat until mixture coats back of spoon; remove from heat, set aside to cool; place plastic wrap directly onto surface of custard to prevent a skin from forming; cool.
• Once cool, stir cream and cherry syrup into custard and chill in refrigerator for atleast 4 hours, preferably overnight; remove vanilla beans from custard and scrape the seeds from the beans into the mixture; discard pods; pour the custard into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions to make ice cream; after 40 minutes of churning add cherries and finish churning; put into a freezer container and allow to ripen for a few hours before eating.

CHERRY ICE CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter over low heat until butter is melted; remove from the heat. Add chips; let stand for 1 minute. Whisk until sauce is smooth. Stir in vanilla. Cool for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally., Meanwhile, line the bottom and sides of a 9x5-in. loaf pan with plastic wrap. Spread 1 pint cherry ice cream into prepared pan; sprinkle with 1 cup cookie crumbs. Top with vanilla ice cream. Freeze 20 minutes or until firm., Spread with 3/4 cup chocolate sauce; freeze 20 minutes. Top with remaining cherry ice cream; sprinkle with 1 cup cookie crumbs. Cover and freeze 4 hours. Transfer remaining sauce to a microwave-safe dish; cover and refrigerate., Remove dessert from freezer 10 minutes before serving. Using plastic wrap, remove dessert from pan; discard plastic wrap. Press remaining cookie crumbs into sides. Using a serrated knife, cut into 12 slices. Warm reserved sauce in a microwave; serve with ice cream cake.

FRESH BING CHERRY ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Pit 2/3 of the cherries. If you have a cherry pitter or a totally awesome Cherry Chomper, I am jealous of you. Though I just cut the cherries in half with a paring knife, then carefully pried them apart and removed the pit - not too bad. Still no Cherry Chomper, though. (Update: I have since learned this method, which is way easier!)
• Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice over the cherry halves and toss lightly.
• Pit and dice the remaining 1/3 of the cherries. Cut the cherry in half, remove the pit, and then cut each half into fourths. Or, you know, cut 'em how you like.
• And then sprinkle the other teaspoon of lemon juice over the diced cherries and toss a little. We're keeping the cherries a nice burgundy so they can become a nice light burgundy. Not pink!
• Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until the mixture is frothy. This takes a good couple of minutes.
• In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and whipping cream over low heat, until the mixture is very warm - when it forms bubbles around the sides, it's about ready.
• Very slowly pour the hot cream/milk mixture into the beaten eggs, whipping briskly the entire time. You're tempering the eggs - heating them slowly and evenly so that you don't make scrambled eggs instead of beautiful custard.
• Return the milk/cream/eggs/sugar mixture to the saucepan and, stirring constantly over medium-low heat, cook until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon - about 10 minutes (sometimes takes as long as 15, but watch carefully and remove from the heat as soon as it's thick).
• Remove from the heat.
• Stir in the cherry halves (NOT the diced cherries - those go into the ice cream at the last minute).
• Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes or so.
• Stir in the vanilla.
• And then puree! I use my handy dandy immersion blender. You can also use a good old fashioned blender. Be careful, though. The mixture is still hot. Let it sit for a few more minutes if you're not sure.
• Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve.
• Let the custard cool completely. This can happen in the fridge, or you can set the container in a bowl or sink of ice water to speed up the process.
• Once it's cooled, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer instructions. I use this handy dandy Cuisinart number. It's way easy.
• When the mixture is just about frozen, add the diced cherries.
• Now you can eat it, or spread it in a container and freeze the rest of the way.
• We enjoyed this plain, and I also whipped up some dark chocolate hot fudge to try over the top. Both are equally, sinfully great.

CHERRY GELATO

Steps:

• Make gelato:
• Scrape seeds from vanilla bean with tip of a paring knife into a small heavy saucepan. Add milk and a pinch of salt and bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.
• Meanwhile, whisk together sugar and cornstarch, then add 1/2 cup hot milk, whisking until smooth. Whisk into milk in saucepan. Bring to a simmer, whisking, then simmer, whisking, 3 minutes. Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl set in an ice bath. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
• Remove from ice bath and chill, covered, 1 hour.
• Prepare cherries:
• Pulse cherries, sugar, and extracts in a food processor until finely chopped, then chill, covered, 1 hour.
• Make ice cream:
• Stir cherries with their juices into gelato mixture and freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours.