Even Little Kids Can Learn to Bake

kid chef junior Bakes cover

While many candy and chocolate makers have pulled back on their blog marketing, I am still getting cookbooks to review. I honestly don't have the money to buy to test multiple recipes in many cookbooks so when I can't do that, I'm trying to be fair to the cookbooks based on my previous use of cookbooks and the layout and tone of the cookbook in question. When I have ingredients available, I'll test out recipes first. Today I want to share an interesting idea, teaching little kids, just age 4+, to bake through Charity Mathews' kid chef junior Bakes which the publisher sent to me for free in the hopes that I'd review it on Amazon; this article is a bonus for publisher and author.

I was able to test this recipe, world's biggest chocolate chip cookie, for this review and it revealed a couple of things that I confirmed by reading through other recipes in the book. The information is not always correct. For example, the recipes says to set aside 12 baking chips to make the face, but if you count the chips on the photo you discover that they used 36 chips. Also, while the baking time and temp is set, the recipe doesn't say what to do with the cookie after it is baked. Do you set it on a wire rack to cool -- in the pan or cookie itself? Do you just set it on the counter top to cool -- how long and do you need to remove the cookie or just eat it from the pan? Do you just eat it right out of the oven? While an adult could guess, each recipe is different because the ingredients we use are different as is the desired final product texture. I also discovered that this really made two big cookies when I used the round cake pans to bake it.

This cookbook has five chapters of recipes, five recipes in each, for a total of 25 recipes. The chapters are -- Cookies & Bars, Cakes & Cupcakes, Muffins, Pastries, and Savory Baked Goods. The introduction, first chapter, and the conclusions have good advice and information about the equipment used in the recipes. I liked that the tools had images next to them so we can all figure out what we should be using. Of the 25 recipes, only six have chocolate or cocoa in any form. That's a bit disappointing.

I choose to test out world's biggest chocolate chip cookie, the third recipe in chapter two. I'm not sure I'd call this a chocolate chip cookie since it also uses butterscotch chips and toffee pieces. I think I'd leave out those two items and sub in milk and dark chocolate chips along with cocoa nibs to make it more chocolatey but I tried to follow the recipe with ingredients I had on hand.




This is how my two unbaked cookies looked as I played with the idea of the chips as decorations to make a face. I used the dark chocolate chips, the mini semi-sweet chips, the white chocolate chips, and the butterscotch chips to do the faces.

I think being open to variations in the decorating phrase is important to make the recipe your own but also to encourage your kids to be themselves. Yes, the ingredients in the cookies, the timing of mixing them together, and the baking time, are more science but still baking is an art, too.

I do like several things about this cookbook. I like that recipe as a finished product photo as well as one or more photos of someone doing one of the direction steps. I like that the sides of the pages contain interesting and fun information. Like most recipe books it lists out the prep and cook time and how many it makes of the finished goodie. But the first page's side information also states if it is would appeal to a dietary restriction such as nut-free which can be important in my own household if I want my hubby to enjoy the treats, too. The final side section of the recipe has fun facts or things you could substitute out to make the recipe your own. The world's biggest chocolate chip cookie only had a fact so my substitution ideas that I share are my own!

The other side sections of the pages for each recipe include a space to note the date you made the recipe on (for the first time I assume), a five-star rating you can use to make how it tasted, a section with four spaces to list who helped make the recipe, and a joke that is related in some way to the recipe. I think the first three of these will make this cookbook a potential family historical source and that appeals to me as a historian.

Note: I used different recipes from the book for these photos to show the consistent layout which I appreciate and which I imagine parents will appreciate even more.

It is clear that Charity Mathews, the author, has kids and has worked with them in the kitchen from her advice and the clear, concise directions for each recipe. However, not every parent or adult who might work with kids in the kitchen may have been trained in this way so telling us to use the "curling the tips of your fingers" method with using a knife may not mean anything so please show us how to do that.

As with many recipe and cookbooks, there is a bit of elitism in the recipes. Not every will have all the tools or pans, I like that this book makes mention of options from time to time. However, some of the ingredients that are not given options are not ones that everyone will have on hand. I encourage you to think of or look up substitutions for such ingredients and see if you have what you need on hand right now. During this pandemic, just running out to get ingredients or spend that money may not be feasible or safe to do.

I think that kid chef junior Bakes would be a good gift for a family with one or two little ones of ages 4+ right now as a way to help them deal with everyone being more at home. I just wish there were more chocolatey recipes. I look forward to reading comments letting me know whether or not you agree.