Burgundy Cherry Ice Cream

This is me trying to imitate the great Burgundy Cherry Ice Cream served up at Laura Secord's in the 70s and 80s. I think it's a winner. Prep does not include freezing and churning.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Yields: 8 cups

Ingredients

• Burgundy Cherry Sauce

• 1⁄3 cup honey
• 1⁄2 cup  beaujolais wine or 1⁄2 cup  light Burgundy wine
• 2  tablespoons sugar
• 2  inches cinnamon sticks
• 1  lb  pitted cherries, cut half the cherries in half

• Vanilla Ice Cream

• 3⁄4 cup sugar
• 2  vanilla beans, split lengthwise
• 1  cup milk
• 6  egg yolks, beaten lightly
• 2  cups  cream

Directions

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.