Peanut butter and chocolate: it’s a match made in candyland heaven, no? Yes. Perhaps the simplest and most enduring commercial manifestation of this tasty pairing is in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups,  a peanut butter-filled chocolate candy created way back in 1928 by Harry Burnett Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman to Milton S. Hershey (yes, that Hershey).

My infatuation with cinnamon rolls began in high school. I am a little ashamed to admit that instead of a wholesome, nourishing meal, at lunchtime I would instead shell out $1.50 to the high school cafeteria for one of their home-baked (or I guess it would be “school-baked”) cinnamon rolls. They were simple enough: warm and doughy, chewy and sweet, drizzled with a thick, white, sugary frosting, and — as one might expect — cinnamony.

That’s right: s’mores in December. My inspiration for this confection came from a holiday special called Gingerbread S’More Boys, made by Two Hearts Bakery in San Francisco for Williams-Sonoma online. I’ve never actually tasted the Two Hearts Bakery variety, but was excited to try my hand at whipping up a kitchen made version of my own.

Brownies are fabulous. Turtle candies are divine. And anything that melds these two all-time favorite treats can only be described as supernatural. So in this recipe, the dense, rich, chocolaty goodness of your classic brownie collides in a beautiful union with the sweet, chewy caramel, milk chocolate chunks, and famous pecan crunch that we all love about turtle candies.

Kick your sugar high up a notch with a sophisticated spin on the traditional candy apple; except set aside the apples for another dessert and indulge on the last of the season’s  fresh strawberries… add a dash of balsamic. Yes, that’s right: balsamic vinegar.