Place the milk and vanilla in a sauce pan over a low heat and slowly bring it to a simmer then remove it from the heat.

In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until combined.

Add hot milk to egg mixture gradually and whisk until incorporated and smooth.

Return the mixture to saucepan and place it over a low heat and cook with a wooden spoon, stirring constantly.

When mixture has thickened and coats the back of the spoon remove from heat and cool completely. (Be careful not to overheat the milk -you don not want to end up with scrambled egg bits!)

While mixture cools make the caramelized figs by placing the sugar and lemon juice into a large pan with 1 tablespoon water.

Mix the sugar and liquid until mixture is like wet sand.

Cook over high heat until mixture boils, continue to cook, stirring occasionally until sugar starts to turn medium brown.

Remove from heat and add figs and 1 tablespoon water and stir.

Return pan to heat and cook over low heat until mixture is bubbling and figs start to break down, about 10 minutes.

Mix in butter and set aside to let cool.

When the ice cream mixture has cooled mix in the mascarpone cheese until combined.

Beat ice cream mixture with an electric hand mixer to combine throughly and get some air into the mixture.

Place mixture in a sealed container and place it in the freezer for 45 minutes then remove from freezer, mix in figs and any sauce in the pan.

Return to the freezer and take it out and stir it every 30 minutes for 2 hours. This mixing part is very important to get that creamy ice cream constancy. Mix ice cream very well to break up any ice crystals that are forming. You don’t want ice cream little bits of ice in it!