Every year, when the temperatures start snapping and Christmas Creep starts edging out Thanksgiving, I get an urge to burn my mouth up eating Scandanavian-style gingersnaps.

Eating those thin, crisp cookies that combine cinnamon, ginger, and molasses with a bit of heat from black pepper really puts me in a holiday spirit. I don’t bake much, so I decided to recreate that feeling in fudge form, but with a little red heat instead of the traditional black pepper.

Ingredients
3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cayenne (adjust to your heat tolerance)
1 package white chocolate chips (12 oz. or so)
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme

Directions

1. Heat the brown sugar, molasses, butter, milk, and the spices over medium heat to a full, rolling boil in 3 qt. heavy sauce pan, stirring constantly.
2. Boil on medium heat until a candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly.
3. Take the pan off the heat and add the chips to the mix.
4. Stir in the marshmallow creme.
5. Stir until the mixture thickens and starts to look dull, and pour it into the foil-lined or buttered cake pan. Let it cool for a couple of hours, then cut it into bite-sized squares.
6. Store the fudge in air-tight containers.