Sticky Bunz ice cream licks competition in Food Science 101 student project

Professor Joseph Hotchkiss, rear right, addresses the Food Science 101 class, while sophomore Betty Sun distributes samples of Sticky Bunz ice cream to the judges -- including, from left, Kim Bukowski, manager of Cornell Dairy; Giuseppe Licitra, a visiting animal scientist from Italy; David Barbano, professor of food science; Eric Hallstead, manager of the food science plant; and David Brown, food science extension. One of the judges, Professor Emeritus David Bandler, is not shown. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Step aside, Cookies-n-Cream. Move over, Neapolitan. It's time to hit the (Rocky) Road.

For their winning project in Food Science 101, eight Cornell students have developed an ice cream flavor with an evocative name, Sticky Bunz. Reminiscent of warm, gooey sticky buns fresh from the oven, this vanilla-based, cinnamon-flavored ice cream features butter crunchies, pecans and a caramel swirl. The students beat out three other course entries to create a product fit for a dean.

And for pleasing the professional palates of seven judges, the team will see its just desserts: The Cornell Dairy will create Sticky Bunz ice cream next spring and sell the flavor at the Cornell Dairy Bar and the Cornell Dairy Store.

"The final projects of my Food Science 101 class have evolved over the years," said Joe Hotchkiss, Cornell professor of food science. For the third straight year, the students gathered into teams, learned the science behind creating new food products and developed new ice cream flavors.

"Overtly, the purpose of the class is to have experiential learning, to do something. But one of the covert purposes is to teach students how to work together in groups and work through the complex process of formulating a likable ice cream," said Hotchkiss.

Thirty-five students in the class were divided into four teams. Early in the fall semester, each team developed an ice cream product concept and strategy. Besides Sticky Bunz, the groups created Cookie Commotion, Slumber Party and Granny Smith's Harvest Ice Cream. The Sticky Bunz group included: junior Evan Berk; junior Lee Hoffman; sophomore Courtney Kenney; sophomore Sharon Poczter; junior Darlene Robare; sophomore Dan Sikka; and sophomore Betty Sun.

Each team performed market research and decided which flavors likely would be popular. The class learned technical aspects of commercial food processing, such as how much milk-fat content would be acceptable to the discriminating palate, how much overrun (the air content) to put into it, and how much particulate to use (crunchy tidbits).

Hotchkiss taught the students that overrun is perhaps the most important ice cream ingredient. Simply, it is air which foams the cream and keeps the ice cream from becoming a rich, frozen, flavored butter. The student teams held their product between 75 and 85 percent overrun, which made them rich and premium. Also, the ice creams were about 15 percent milk fat -- again on the heavy side.

Daryl B. Lund, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, showed up unannounced at the final project's Nov. 30 judging, and sampled all four flavors. After a few bites of Slumber Party, a vanilla ice cream filled with chocolate-covered pretzels, caramel fudge swirl and fudge chunks, the dean exclaimed in the quiet classroom, "Hey, this Slumber Party's a good one!"

With hopes of a good grade in her eyes, senior Amy Hutton, of Kennett Square, Pa., a co-creator of Slumber Party, responded to the dean, "Yeah!"

Then the dean smiled back and replied to her, "But, I've got no influence around here."