Monthly Archives: October 2014

Parisian Gnocchi

Gnocchi!
Recipe originally from Serious Eats

Ingredients:
1 cup (8 ounces) water
8 tablespoons (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter
3/4 teaspoon (about .15 ounces) salt
1 1/4 cups (6.25 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I omitted this, due to lack of mustard)
1/2 cup (about 1 ounce) grated Parmesan cheese
3 large eggs
4 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped basil
Olive oil

1. Bring water, butter and salt to a boil. Then dump the flour in, stir briskly until a sticky dough forms.

2. Transfer to stand mixer, add cheese, eggs (one at a time) then herbs.

3. Transfer to gallon bag, let rest for 15-25 minutes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a simmer.

4. Cut the gallon bag with a 1/2 in opening, then pipe logs of dough onto a tray. Cut them up into 1in pieces.

5. Boil in batches, about 3 minutes after they float to the top

6. Drain then scoop onto an olive olive-oil greased tray. Toss, so they don’t stick.

7. FRY IN BUTTER (or cool and fridge)

Sea Salt Brownie Cookies

Adapted from Butterlust

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each one.
4. Add the cocoa powder, flour, and salt and beat until a dough forms – it should be the consistency of a thick brownie batter.
5. In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda into the hot water. Add dissolved baking soda and vanilla and beat until well combined.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
7. Refrigerate the batter for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight.
8. Use a cookie scoop to scoop out heaping tablespoons onto your prepared baking sheets and sprinkle with sea salt.
9. Bake for 10 minutes, or until edges are set.
10. Let cool completely on the baking sheets then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

And some cookie shaping science:
On the left are cookies that were jagged lumps of dough, then baked. On the right are cookies that were rounded balls of dough before baking. It makes a difference! Roll your dough.

Dough Shaping

Fresh Bagels = NOM

Finished Bagels

Yesterday I made bagels following this recipe, with a couple changes.

1 1/2 cups warm water, and 1 tablespoon for the egg wash
2 1/4 tsp yeast
4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 large egg white
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or coarse salt for topping

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water
2. Mix flour, salt, honey and sugar in a mixer bowl. Add in yeast water.
3. Mix on low for 2 minutes. Then mix on medium for 8. The dough should be dry, but not stiff.
4. Place in an oiled bowl (roll it around so it gets oiled) and cover, for 20 minutes (it should be noticeably puffy)
5. Divide dough into 12 pieces (3oz each), then roll each into a 9in log, then use a 1in overlap to make a bagel shape! Keep the others covered as you work, so the dough doesn’t dry out.
6. Let rest for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F, bring pot of water to a simmer (add 1tsp salt and 1tsp baking soda)
7. Stretch bagels if necessary, then boil for 30 seconds each side
8. Mix 1 egg white and 1 tbsp warm water. Brush boiled bagels (sprinkle with toppings)
9. Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate and bake for another 10
10. Cool for 30 minutes before eating (then eat soon!)

Post Shaping
Post shaping

Post Boiling
Post boiling, now with toppings

Grace Hopper 2014

Ribbons!

Last week I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with a couple other women from Sift.

Index Slide

As part of this, I also gave a talk as part of the Data Sciences track about how Sift uses machine learning to fight fraud. I focused on how Sift works and many of the things we’ve learned in the three years we’ve been doing this.

GHC room

The room I presented in could seat 1080 attendees. I know because I counted. At 7:45am. (I had nothing to do until my talk which was at 10:15am… Why not count chairs so you can psyche yourself out more?!)

I don’t plan on turning this into a blog of deep thoughts, but GHC was amazing, and speaking was a blast. Though I was really nervous beforehand that I’d get questions I couldn’t answer, it turned that only one came up and my awesome co-worker saved me.

I hope I can make it next year!

Tea Time

Tea Time

Last week I hosted a tea party! That’s what the cookies, meringues and cake stands were for.

Chive butter was also a huge hit in cucumber and tomato sandwiches. Cheddar and pickle was also a surprisingly good sandwich. Roast beef and foie gras sandwiches were also very popular, but no surprise there.

Meringues

Meringue

4 egg whites
2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
splash of vanilla

Mix egg whites and sugar (and perhaps a pinch of cream of tartar) for a while. It takes a white (~10+ minutes) to become light and fluffy. First it looks like royal icing for a while. (And I panic)

Bake at 200 for ~2 hours, then let cool. (2 hours for small meringues. Probably needs longer for larger ones)

Store in an airtight container as soon as they’re cool, and nom nom.