Cherry Almond Ice Cream

Made this recipe, which was mined from the internet originally, and dressed it up to my liking. It is really, really good--once you make it it won't be around for long (just ask my scale.)

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Yields: 1 quart, approx

Ingredients

• 2  cups  very ripe sweet cherries (I used frozen black cherries)
• 1 1⁄4 cups sugar
• 1⁄4 cup water
• 1  large egg (or 1/4 c egg substitute(don't leave this out, as the texture will suffer)
• 1  cup half-and-half
• 1  teaspoon  almond extract
• 3  cups heavy cream
• 3⁄4 cup  sliced almonds (optional)

Directions

1. Place cherries, sugar and water in top of double boiler.
2. Cook over med heat for around ten minutes, allowing the fruit to soften and sugar to dissolve.
3. Take out 1/2 of the cherries and drain juices back into pan.
4. Puree the rest of the mixture.
5. Roughly chop the 1/2 cup of cherries and mix back into puree.
6. Chill thoroughly.
7. Add half and half and egg to a blender and blend till smooth.
8. Whisk in chilled cherry mixture.
9. Add heavy cream and almond extract.
10. Blend well, and chill.
11. Transfer mixture to ice cream maker and freeze according to your machine's instructions.
12. Add almonds, if desired, near end of cycle, when the ice cream is thick enough to prevent all the almonds to sink to the bottom of the mix.