Clove Brown Sugar Ice Cream

My all-time favorite cookies are my grandma's clove cookies. They've got the crispy edges and the gooey center, but what really makes them delicious is the clove. It's a spice that doesn't often get center stage, so people sometimes have a hard time placing it. Not me. Anytime I smell even a hint of it, I immediately think back to my grandma's famous family recipe. Call it magic or luck, but I've managed to replicate the cookies in ice cream form. It tastes like nostalgia.

Whole cloves have a much more pungent aroma than the ground up stuff.

The main ingredients.

Recipe: 

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

20 whole cloves

4 egg yolks

1 1/5 cups heavy cream

Combine milk, sugar, and cloves in a saucepan over low heat and let sit for about 20 minutes. Stir to dissolve the sugar and make sure the milk does not curdle. In a separate bowl, whip egg yolks. Bring the milk to a simmer, then add about half the mixture to the bowl of egg yolks half a cup at a time, stirring constantly. Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan, stirring constantly. Keep stirring until a thick custard forms, coating the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Pour custard through a sieve into a separate bowl to remove the cloves. Stir in cream. Chill using an ice bath or refrigeration. When cold, add ice cream mix into ice maker and churn.