Dolcezza's Halloween Copettas Will Leave You Spellbound

Well, he's done it. Dolcezza's Robb Duncan has worked his magic and created three new divine frozen desserts based on the sweets he loved as a kid for the residents of Washington D.C. Duncan is a true trick-or-treater at heart with a penchant for rich, dark chocolate. Lucky for us this Halloween, he based his recipes on classic candy bars and party treats and we're pretty sure all three copettas will turn cynics into converts. Whether you choose to prolong your pleasure and taste each one over time (you have the whole month) or do it all in one sitting, the challenge will be keeping other people's spoons out of your bowl.

Dolcezza is adamant about their use of locally sourced, natural products and there are no eggs, preservatives, thickeners, stabilizers, or other artificial ingredients in their gelati and sorbetti. What you taste is pure cream and milk, freshly picked herbs, intense spices, ripe fruit, and nuts. For your first foray, begin with the peanut butter cup – it's the most delicately flavored of the three copettas and would be overpowered if eaten after the deeply flavored Butterfinger and caramel  apple copettas.

Peanut butter cup is made with locally grown Virginia peanuts that are house ground into peanut butter that is then folded into a crema gelato base. Next, a scoop of the peanut butter gelato is lightly dusted with cocoa powder, topped with Reese's peanut butter cups, and sprinkled with finely chopped peanuts and ground Maldon sea salt. This creamy, nutty flavored copetta melts on your tongue with familiar notes of milk chocolate from the Reese's candy.  

The next copetta to sample is the Butterfinger. This purple-hued, ground black sesame gelato's color is just what you want on All Hallow's Eve. It's topped with crushed Butterfinger candy and is sprinkled with toasted white sesame seeds and ground Maldon sea salt. When you first taste the gelato and toppings, you get the crunch and buttery toffee of the candy bar, but then the Maldon heightens the nutty richness of the white sesame seeds and the complex earthiness of the black sesame that is reminiscent of exotic Moroccan pastries. Frankly, they had me at toasted black sesame seed gelato. 

With the first spoonful of the caramel apple copetta, the intense punch of tart apple that floods your taste buds stops you dead in your tracks – but in a good way. Yes, the copetta is topped with Michele's Granola and dulce de leche sauce, but it's the honey crisp apple sorbetto that makes you want to lick the bowl clean. We know this would be bad, it might scare the kiddies, and we definitely want to do that on Halloween.