UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- "Ice Cream 101: Introduction to Frozen Desserts," a course offered by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, will be held Jan. 27-28 at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.

The course, designed for people who are fascinated by ice cream but don't want the scientific rigor of Penn State's famous Ice Cream Short Course, has been enhanced by the opening of the university's new Food Science Building.

"The course is a sort of science camp for grown-ups," says Bob Roberts, associate professor of food science. "We have been able to focus our educational efforts over the last four years on things that entrepreneurs and people who are simply interested in getting a better understanding of ice cream want to learn."

The new location will allow Roberts to offer demonstrations of state-of-the-art ice cream-making equipment, including soft serve freezers, batch ice cream freezers and machines for manufacturing ice cream on a small scale.

Past and present Penn State faculty will join ice cream industry representatives to answer such questions as what transforms various ingredients into "ice cream" and how ice creams differ. Attendees also will discover how ice cream freezes and hardens and will learn about flavors and inclusions.

Registration for "Ice Cream 101" is limited and will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, either online or by mail. For more information, contact the Office of Conferences and Short Courses by phone at 814-865-8301 or toll-free at 877-778-2937 or by e-mail at shortcourse@psu.edu. For program information and online registration with a credit card, visit the Web at http://conferences.cas.psu.edu.

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EDITORS: For more information on course content, contact Bob Roberts at 814-863-2959 or by e-mail at rfr3@psu.edu.

Writer Bethany Fehlinger

Editor Gary Abdullah Phone: 814-863-2708 E-mail:gxa2@psu.edu