My husband & I decided to host Christmas dinner. We had a pretty successful Thanksgiving at our house, so we decided to take on Christmas dinner as well.

I actually like the whole hosting thing. We made a roast, some veggies, & dessert. Our family & friends made & brought way more food than we did. We just had to do the clean up, but even then we had some help. It was a lot of fun!

For dessert I made pudding.

Just kidding! I made cinnamon gingerbread ice cream.

My friend Beth had gotten me some gingerbread cookies from Ikea when she was gathering supplies for our Ikea cookie contest baking & that’s what inspired this whole recipe.

I almost called this Pepparkaka ice cream, but I didn’t think the joke would go over too well.

It had been a while since I made a custard-style ice cream, so I knew I wanted to do the whole egg yolk cooking shebang for this one. It also worked out well because I saved the egg whites for my chocolate mousse a few days later. I basically followed the custard-style ice cream recipe – the first recipe I ever posted – only I swapped out vanilla for cinnamon & whole cloves.

The cinnamon & cloves are the base flavors of this ice cream. The gingerbread comes from crumbled up Ikea cookies,  but I’m sure any ginger snap type cookie would be good. I also added cinnamon chips. I saw them at Publix one day & was so curios! I’m glad I found a use for them.

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I waited until the ice cream was almost done churning before adding the mix-ins, then I transferred the ice cream to a container & put it in the freezer.

Everyone loved my ice cream!

Cinnamon Gingerbread Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 pinch of salt
• 5 large egg yolks
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips
• gingerbread cookies, crumbled

1. In a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat, whisk together milk, cream, half the sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and salt. Bring the mixture just to a boil.
2. While the milk/cream mixture is heating, combine the yolks & remaining sugar in a mixer bowl. Beat on low until the mixture is pale and thick.
3. Once the milk/cream mixture has come to a slight boil, beat about 1/3 of the hot mixture into the yolk/sugar mixture. Add another 1/3 of the mixture, stir, then return the combined mixture to the saucepan. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture constantly over low heat until it thickens slightly & coats the back of the spoon. Do NOT boil the mixture – egg yolks will over cook.
4. Strain the mixture & bring to room temperature. Chill in fridge for 1-2 hours.
5. Turn on the ice cream maker, pour in the mixture, & let mix for about 20 minutes. During the last minute, add cookie crumbles & cinnamon chips.
6. The ice cream will be soft. Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container & freeze for 2 hours.