I hadn’t eaten a peanut butter cup since I was diagnosed with celiac disease… until my aunt Ellen sent me a homemade one of her own.  It was to die for. Rich, creamy, with the right balance of peanut and chocolate. The chocolate is high quality, melt-in-your-mouth-delicious. The best part? It was completely gluten free.

Ellen has been making chocolates for several years, and she recently began selling them locally around Farmington, New York. She understands gluten free cooking because both her mother and daughter must follow a strict gluten free diet. So, when I received her package in the mail, I knew that her chocolates would be safe and free of any cross contamination.

Along with the peanut butter cups, she sent me a box of chocolate covered gluten-free pretzels. Usually I’m not a fan of gluten-free pretzels, but cover them in chocolate, and they’re suddenly quite tasty. Somehow the chocolate on Ellen’s pretzels remains creamy, so the pretzel tastes more like it was just dipped into melted chocolate than like is was shellacked with the hard, crunchy chocolate of most commercially available varieties. In fact, she has sent me two boxes of pretzels now, and I must confess that I have shared only a couple of bites with Drew and have hoarded the rest for myself. They are completely addiction worthy – it’s something about the crunchy, saltiness of the pretzels combined with the sweet, creaminess of the chocolate.

She also sent along some chocolate covered turtles with pecans and caramel and some nut clusters that were amazing. I mean, how can you really go wrong with nuts and chocolate?

Ellen doesn’t have to be your aunt in order to get your hands on her delicious chocolate. You don’t even have to live in New York to get them because she has recently started selling her chocolate online at Ellen’s Chocolate Creations! I can vouch for the fact that it ships well because it has arrived to me in Iowa perfectly intact and tasting delicious as ever.  A couple of suggestions for ordering: Ellen’s chocolate covered strawberries are perfect for weddings, and her peanut butter cups and gluten-free pretzels make perfect birthday and holiday gifts. But if you’re like me, then diets be damned: any day is occasion enough for delicious chocolate.