One smart cookie: Artificial intelligence helps perfect a gluten-free treat

Coming up with the ultimate cookie recipe can take even a seasoned baker hours of trial and error, all the more so if her target audience has specialized needs -- say, a diet that's vegan or gluten-free. Complicating matters is the fact that most cooks bring with them into the kitchen a set of biases as to what spices and flavor combinations will best work their magic. When Jeanette Harris was developing a chocolate chip cookie recipe for her Gluten Free Goat Bakery in Garfield, for example, the thought of adding cardamom -- a pungent spice used mostly in Indian cooking -- never crossed her mind. She certainly never thought about using technology to fine-tune her list of ingredients and baking methods, despite having been a guest cook with Google Pittsburgh chef John Karbowski at Kitchen Sync, the company's teaching kitchen for Google employees. Using artificial intelligence technology developed by software engineers at the Bakery Square office (and tested by Mr. Karbowski), researchers were able to determine that two teaspoons of the spice was exactly the right amount needed to create a killer cookie.