Chai Ice Cream

1. Stage

Infuse milk and cream with chai spices for 1 hour: Into a heavy saucepan put the 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of the cream and the chai spices - star anise, cloves, allspice, cinnamon sticks, white peppercorns, and cardamom pods, and a pinch of salt. Heat the mixture until steamy (not boiling) and hot to the touch. Lower the heat to warm, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.

2. Stage

Infuse mixture with tea leaves 15 minutes: Reheat the mixture until steamy hot again (again not boiling), add the black tea leaves, remove from the heat, stir in the tea and let steep for 15 minutes. Use a fine mesh strainer to strain out the tea and spices, pouring the infused milk cream mixture into a separate bowl.

3. Stage

Add sugar to milk cream mixture: Return the milk cream mixture back to the heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the sugar to the milk cream mixture and heat, stirring, until the sugar is fully dissolved.

4. Stage

Set remaining cream in bowl over ice bath, with sieve: While the tea is infusing in the previous step, prepare the remaining 1 cup of cream over an ice bath. Pour the cream into a medium size metal bowl, set in ice water (with lots of ice) over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.

5. Stage

Temper eggs with hot milk cream mixture: Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm mixture, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

6. Stage

Cook custard base until it thickens: Return the saucepan to the stove, stirring the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes. The minute this happens the mixture should be removed from heat immediately, and poured through the sieve over the ice bath to stop the cooking in the next step. If the custard base doesn't coat the back of the spoon, it's not ready. The custard base coats the back of the spoon.

7. Stage

Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream over the ice bath: Stir it into the cold cream to stop the cooking.

8. Stage

Chill thoroughly: Once initially chilled in the ice bath, chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (at least a couple of hours).

9. Stage

Process in ice cream maker: Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

10. Stage

Store in freezer: Store in an airtight container in your freezer for several hours before eating. Note that the ice cream will be quite soft coming out of the ice cream maker. It will continue harden in your freezer. If stored for more than a day, you may need to let it sit for a few minutes to soften before attempting to scoop it.