Jeff Yoskowitz — Program Director, Pastry & Baking Arts

Why We Measure by Weight

aday — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 19:33:56 +0000

Why We Measure by Weight aday Fri, 12/11/2020 - 14:33 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/kitchen%20scales%20header.jpg.webp?itok=1ytJsBOc Pastry & Baking Arts Lead Chef Jeff Yoskowitz makes the case for investing in a scale. December 11, 2020

By Jeff Yoskowitz — Program Director, Pastry & Baking Arts

We are often asked to convert grams to tablespoons in our professional chefs' recipes, but there is a reason why culinary and pastry professionals measure by weight: precision. Here, Chef Jeff Yoskowitz demonstrates weight vs volume baking measurements and shares the added benefits of using a kitchen scale.

Using a kitchen scale is so important that it's the first lesson for Culinary Arts and Pastry & Baking Arts students at the Institute of Culinary Education. In the video below, Chef Jeff gives a sneak peek of the exercise that he leads students through, measuring flour, nuts, eggs and brown sugar with common cup measurement methods and showing the inconsistent results compared to the accuracy of using a scale.

"When you make small-batch, home-sized recipes, the smallest of differences is a big deal," he warns. "A little flour behind makes a big difference. Measure your ingredients properly to get what you expect from the recipe."

Plus, measuring by weight helps you accurately fix problems — like when your product is to dry or wet, hard or soft — and you save dishes and the planet using one bowl to weigh your ingredients.

Watch the video below to ensure your cookies or other baked goods come out the same every time you bake when measuring by weight.

Study with Chef Jeff in Pastry & Baking Arts.

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Wow!

Submitted by Sana on December 17, 2020 6:57pm

I knew that using a scale was accurate, but I never imagined this!

Weight measure

Submitted by Denis Giannelli on December 18, 2020 7:59pm

I see the importance of weight measure as opposed to volume, however, every recipe in the world gives us volume measurements.

what to do ?

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DIY Jelly Doughnuts for Hanukkah

ohoadmin — Sat, 16 Dec 2017 13:30:16 +0000

DIY Jelly Doughnuts for Hanukkah ohoadmin Sat, 12/16/2017 - 08:30 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/leon-ephraim-7666-unsplash.jpg.webp?itok=gLpX-TTI December 16, 2017

By Jeff Yoskowitz — Program Director, Pastry & Baking Arts

Every year since I can remember, my extended family has journeyed to my cousin’s house in Irvington, New York for a Hanukkah celebration. My father, when he was alive, would enter their home, immediately tie on an apron, grab a bowl of latke mix and start frying potato latkes by the hundreds. It would take him hours, but he loved every minute of it.

It was a special time for me, and I always ate too much of the iconic fried foods prepared for the celebration. When desserts were served, there were always fried doughnuts — usually jelly-filled — that I ate, regardless of how full I was.

Over the years, it came as no surprise that I took charge of dessert, making jelly-filled doughnuts of all kinds. One of my favorite variations to make is this recipe, where the doughnuts are filled with the jelly before you fry them.

There really is no comparison to eating a fresh, warm doughnut infused with a warm fruit preserve.

Sufganiyot (Israeli Jelly Doughnuts)

64 grams sugar
7 grams active dry yeast
170 grams milk (warmed to 100°F)
385 grams all purpose flour
58 grams butter (melted and cooled)
7 grams salt
150 grams whole eggs
Fruit preserves, as needed
Confectioner's sugar, as needed

Mix sugar, yeast and milk the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer and whisk to combine. With the paddle attachment, add remaining ingredients (except fruit preserves and confectioner's sugar) and mix for 5-8 minutes on medium speed to achieve smooth dough.
Cover dough and let rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
Roll dough out to about 1/2" thick and cut out circles with a 2” or 3” dough cutter.
Place about a teaspoonful of preserves in the center of each circle. Brush the preserves with water to moisten.
Bring the ends of the dough over the preserves and pinch the dough together to seal it completely.
Place the doughnuts, seam side down, on a floured surface. Cover with a floured towel, and let rest for about 20 minutes.
Deep fry at 350°F (about 90 seconds on each side, until golden brown). Test one doughnut first to ensure proper frying time and oil temperature.
Set doughnuts on a rack to dry and cool slightly, then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

Want to study with Chef Jeff? Learn more about 91��߹'s School of Pastry & Baking Arts.

Hanukkah Recipe Desserts Holidays

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Two Pastry Chefs Dish on Their Eye- (and Mouth-) Opening Food Trip Through South Korea

ohoadmin — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 11:30:54 +0000

Two Pastry Chefs Dish on Their Eye- (and Mouth-) Opening Food Trip Through South Korea ohoadmin Mon, 09/04/2017 - 07:30 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/korea-2665484_1920.jpg.webp?itok=6nQWDrWA September 4, 2017

By Jeff Yoskowitz — Program Director, Pastry & Baking Arts

91��߹ chefs Kathryn Gordon and Jeff Yoskowitz recently visited South Korea with 91��߹ alumnus Heejin Lho, who wanted to share with the chefs the traditional foods and culture of her country. While Chef Jeff found his favorite meal (surprisingly) in a food court and learned how to navigate intensely hot kimchis, Chef Kathryn was impressed by the elegant, edible flowers like gardenia and magnolia. Below is a conversation between Chef Kathryn and Chef Jeff that took place during the latter half of their visit.

Korean Temple Food center (Photo credit: Melissa Hope)

Chef Kathryn: Jeff, to start this off, what have you liked best so far?

Chef Jeff: Many things fascinated me this week. I liked making songpyeon — the half-moon shaped rice cakes made with pine needles and dough from sticky and non-glutinous rice [in the Songpyeon Rice Cakes class hosted by the Tteok (Rice Cake) Museum in Seoul]. The dough was counterintuitive in terms of its dryness level. If it was too wet, you couldn’t form the cakes because it stuck to your hands.

Fried Stick Rice Flour Cakes (Photo credit: Melissa Hope)

That rice cake dough was amazing because it was colored by fruits, plants or flowers like strawberry, mugwort and gardenia — but the dough didn’t like me! My right thumb just didn’t “get it” in terms of the shaping for the first 15 minutes. Meanwhile, you were the teacher’s pet!

I also really liked our Korean Temple Food center cooking class led by the Buddhist monk. It exposed us to new vegetables and cooking methods, like gingko nuts, lotus leaf, perilla leaf, burdock and acorn jelly. We ate acorn jelly three times this week — I had no idea it was so prevalent! It made me want to track down acorn flour in the U.S. and figure out how to remove the bitterness.

So much flavor came from the lotus leaf, which provides an impermeable layer so whatever you cook in it retains its moisture, while deriving some yellow color and flavor. It was also interesting that the blanched and diced lotus root, which provided texture in the rice, is the root from white flowers, not the pink lotus flowers. I also liked learning about the traditions of mixing sticky and non-glutinous rice.

I loved that in Buddhist temples they eat every part of every plant. We ate a salad made from succulents at The Shilla Seoul hotel banquet. We were exposed to foods that we never knew were foods before.

The organization and customer service at The Shilla Seoul was really impressive, but so was the customer service at the high-end food markets at the department stores. At the Hyundai Department Store, I counted 12 people in front of the wine area alone, just waiting to assist you with selecting wine.

Each area — the fish, the seaweed island or dried roots — had multiple people waiting to help you in your selection and pack it up. I have never seen that level of presentation, care and customer service before.

Heejin carefully selected our menu for the week so we didn’t just taste traditional Korean dishes. What dish did you find the most interesting?

I was a little skeptical when she said we were going to a food court for Korean-style shabu shabu, but the dinner at the Shinsegae Department Store was one of my favorite experiences.

Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul (Photo credit: Jeff Yoskowitz)

I loved how they made so many dishes from the one base broth. The same broth that cooked the sliced beef was reduced with mushrooms, scallions, cabbage and other vegetables before more meat was added. The broth then reduced a second time while we ate that course, and subsequently it was either used to cook noodles and assorted greens, or to make a thick porridge-like stew with rice and greens.

Acorn Jelly with Vegetables (Photo credit: Melissa Horn)

I liked being exposed to edible flowers. I always love cooking with flowers, but never tasted gardenias before this week. When we visited the Tea Story teahouse in Seoul, they had so many teas based on plants and flowers that we don’t typically eat or cook with in American or Western European cuisines, like mistletoe, magnolia and lotus.

And then there’s the situation of trying to order hot tea with a meal — the restaurants we experienced literally did not have any.

We learned that with Korean cuisine, you don’t always drink tea with a meal, like you might at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant.

Yet coffee shops are everywhere and seemingly open at all times. Per capita, there seems to be an extremely high interest in coffee — I counted three coffee places on one city block alone. The availability of coffee is much more noticeable than in New York.

What did you think of the dessert scene in Korea?

I was impressed by how aesthetically clean the cakes and tarts look in every pastry window, and not just in high-end shops and stores — even a chain-style bakery. There is nothing “homey” here, unless you count the fruit.

And the fruits in general are enormous! We’ve never seen such big peaches, apples, figs and grapes. We tried grape tarts one afternoon. We also saw a lot of desserts made with green grapes throughout the week that are not popular in the United States including shaved ice and blended drinks.

What about the kimchi? We ate kimchi made with a lot of greens, cabbage and daikon this week, and were introduced to white kimchi, which I had never had before this trip.

Tea Ceremony (Photo credit: Melissa Hope)

I feel more educated generally about kimchi, although I definitely learned I prefer the garlic (non-Buddhist) style.

In terms of heat and the dishes we’ve eaten with gochujang chili paste — in one meal, your eyes were watering at the end!

There are some hot foods you put in your mouth and then it spreads slowly. Once the heat from the kimchi spread, it was too late for me to do anything about it. I did gain a better appreciation of all the contrasting flavors, and the range of foods to pair with something hot came more easily with practice than in the beginning of the trip.

What else besides food did you find most interesting this week?

As we were driving south through the countryside to Cheolla Province, the sheer mass of vertical apartment building construction was astonishing.

They don’t build one building at a time. We would look towards a range of mist covered forested mountains and see clusters of towers going up simultaneously with cranes on top of each building.

Want to explore the pastry arts with Chefs Kathryn and Jeff? Click here for more information on 91��߹’s career programs.

Travel Food Culture

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Seasonal Recipe: Apple Cake

ohoadmin — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 17:53:04 +0000

Seasonal Recipe: Apple Cake ohoadmin Sat, 09/07/2013 - 13:53 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/apples%20header_0.jpg.webp?itok=HhiWOueV September 7, 2013

By Jeff Yoskowitz — Program Director, Pastry & Baking Arts

This time of year always brings back memories of apple picking with my family. It was a great time to escape the city streets, enjoy the fall weather, meet up with cousins who lived upstate and — of course — picking far more apples than an average family would ever need.

Back then, the orchards would allow you to drive your car into the fields. We would fill up all of the apple bags and even stash some apples in the trunk of my father’s station wagon. (We were from Brooklyn. I thought this was normal.)

Photo Credit: Renée S. Suen

After every trip we would distribute bags of apples to our friends and neighbors, keeping plenty for our own baking projects. One of the first things that my mother and grandmother would bake is this old-fashioned apple cake. I loved it and it always worked with any of the sweet apples we brought home.

Apple Cake

6 ounces unsalted butter
15 ounces sugar
14 ounces all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
5 whole eggs (large)
3 ounces fresh orange juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 lbs apples (peel, core removed and cut into 8ths)
cinnamon sugar to taste (10 parts sugar, 1 part cinnamon)

With a paddle, cream butter and sugar making sure there are no lumps of butter.
Add the dry ingredients (mixed together) and the liquid ingredients on top of the dry.
Mix all ingredients until just combined making sure to scrape well from the bottom.
Butter the bottom and sides of (2) 10” round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Place ½ the batter on the bottom of the 2 pans and spread evenly.
On top of the batter, spread the apples, very liberally tossed with the cinnamon sugar.
Place the other ½ of the batter on top of the apples and spread to cover. (It will barely cover the apples)
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes or until somewhat firm to the touch in the center of the cake.

Recipe Fall Pastry Arts Fruit Cake

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Recipe steps

Step 1 - With a paddle, cream butter and sugar making sure there are no lumps of butter;

Step 2 - Add the dry ingredients (mixed together) and the liquid ingredients on top of the dry;

Step 3 - Mix all ingredients until just combined making sure to scrape well from the bottom;

Step 4 - Butter the bottom and sides of (2) 10” round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper;

Step 5 - Place ½ the batter on the bottom of the 2 pans and spread evenly;

Step 6 - On top of the batter, spread the apples, very liberally tossed with the cinnamon sugar;

Step 7 - Place the other ½ of the batter on top of the apples and spread to cover. (It will barely cover the apples);

Step 8 - Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes or until somewhat firm to the touch in the center of the cake;