Use a hand mixer to combine 1 cup sugar, butter, yolks, flour, and baking soda. The mixture will be very crumbly and dry at first. Use your hands to mix the dough together until it forms one ball.
Remove the dough and knead for 3 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick. Cut into 2 inch rounds.
Place on greased baking sheets ad bake about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Syrup
Bring remaining sugar (1 cup) and water to a boil in a saucepan. Let boil for about 4-5 minutes. Make sure that the syrup is thicker than water but not so thick that you are unable to pour it. Keep in mind that the syrup thickens as it cools.
Remove syrup from heat and stir in vanilla and cloves.
Pour the hot syrup over the cookies. Make sure that the syrup is enough to coat the bottom fraction of the cookies, but not so much that it covers the tops and causes them to be soggy.
Serve at room temperature and enjoy!
Notes
Recipe adapted from The World Cookbook for Students by Jeanne Jacob and Michael Ashkenazi