Photo credit: Josephine Hatton

Date and nut energy bars drizzled with chocolate rest on a plate next to “The Complete DIY Cookbook for Young Chefs.” Although chilled, these bars warmed me up with their comforting flavor and sweetness.

Shelved snacks that you can make yourself, a variety of dry mixes to keep in the pantry and so much more. Recipes for these items can be discovered throughout “The Complete DIY Cookbook for Young Chefs,” a cookbook that will blow your mind with the depth and ease that is sprinkled through each recipe.

America’s Test Kitchen, known nationally for cooking shows and recipes, created a series of cookbooks for young chefs. “The Complete DIY Cookbook for Young Chefs” features ways to make your own ketchup, sprinkles and assorted dry food mixes. Each recipe featured in this cookbook, crafted by professional bakers and chefs, went through excessive testing to make sure the result was achievable for adult and young chefs alike.

After the trained chefs research and develop each recipe, they are all “kid-tested” to ensure that all recipes can be made by a variety of ages. If you have a food processor, you are in luck, as many of the recipes in this book use this appliance.

As soon as you look at the cookbook, you are greeted by a colorful portrait of an ice cream sundae. The first section of the book provides simple tips and tricks for new, and even experienced, bakers. These tips include how to best measure liquids, soften butter, tell when certain foods are done cooking and crack and separate eggs. Diving further into the meat of the book, the recipes are sectioned off into five main parts: Everyday Staples, Snacks, Sweets, Drinks and DIY Mixes.

Flipping through the pages indecisively, my eyes immediately spotted a homemade cheddar fish crackers recipe inspired by Goldfish. As I thought those crackers only came in cartons or bags — I never thought I could make them myself. With only six ingredients you likely already have, this recipe comes together easily. It uses a food processor to mix the dough, preventing your arms from getting tired and adding to its simplicity.

Although the recipe itself was easy, the process was unexpectedly time-consuming to cut out the individual fish crackers, as I only had two cookie cutters, and the recipe makes a couple hundred pieces. I would have preferred rolling out the dough into a flat shape and cut it into squares to mimic Cheezits. The amount of time it took to cut out all of the cheese crackers — you had to roll and re-roll every time you finished cutting — was troublesome, but they turned out cute in the end. This recipe was a flaky, cheesy, buttery success, and all the crackers were eaten only a few minutes after they finished cooking.

The next recipe I tested was for Fruit and Nut Energy bars. They were much nuttier than I expected, although the dates and dried cranberries meshed perfectly with the almonds. These bars had the perfect texture, with bits of crunchy almonds and sweet dried fruit blended throughout the snack. Only a food processor was needed for this recipe, so you can whip these up in your free time.

To sweeten the bars, I drizzled melted chocolate on top. You can also mix in chocolate chips — I prefer semisweet — to the mixture before you chill them. The chocolate adds the perfect touch of sugar and makes the bars taste much better.

Overall, “The Complete DIY Cookbook for Young Chefs” exceeded my expectations with innovative recipes of anything you can think of. With an assortment of drink, condiment and, most importantly, Oreo recipes, I was blown away by the creative approach America’s Test Kitchen took to inspiring young chefs. I will definitely continue to make recipes from this cookbook to share with my family and friends.