Apple Chips
Have you ever craved a homemade treat that is light and crispy, and not at all fattening when you eat the whole bag? Then you absolutely need to make these apple chips! They are super sweet, melt in your mouth, heavenly goodness. Seriously, these are super simple. They just require a little (maybe a lot) of time, a couple apples, and a warm oven.
Ingredients:
- 2 medium sized apples (I prefer Golden Delicious, because they turn out sweet without adding any sugar or whatnot, but choose whichever you eat most often.)
- A mandolin slicer (in order to cut the slices thin and evenly. Uneven slices varies the cooking time for each slice. If you don’t have a mandolin, then just try your hardest to cut the slices evenly.)
- 2 cookie sheets, preferably airbake sheets. You can also use stainless steel cooling racks that aren’t painted.
- An oven set to the lowest setting possible. I set mine to 170 degrees F. (I then did my pears at 200 degrees F and that burned them. I’ll explain why below.)
- Cinnamon or sugar or both. Or none, your call.
That’s it!
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven. The lower the setting, the longer the dehydration process will take BUT the better the quality. Do NOT go over 200 degrees. You will start to bake them instead of dehydrate them. Place both the racks as high as they will go.
2. If you didn’t buy organic apples, I would recommend peeling the apples. You don’t want a waxy edge on your slices. Also, I used an apple corer to take out the seeds and harder parts of the apples. You don’t have to do this, but make sure you take out the seeds.
3. Slice up your apples to about 1/4” or less, but not paper thin. Evenly place them on the cookie sheets. Make sure there is air space around each slice. This will help them bake more evenly. Slice them quickly so you can get them in the oven before they brown.
4. Before placing them in the oven, lightly sprinkle them with cinnamon or sugar. I put some cinnamon on my apples.
5. Place the cookie sheets in the oven and set a timer for 3 hours (at 170 degrees F). If you don’t have a convection oven, place a wooden spoon in the door to allow airflow. If your temperature is higher, you will need to check them every hour or so. When I did my pears at 200 degrees F, I checked them at 2 hours. When you check them, they will be shrunken and start to look leathery.
6. After your timer goes off, pull the sheets out of the oven and carefully peel the slices off the sheet and turn them over. Place them back in the oven for another 3 hours.
7. After those six hours, pull one chip out and set it on a cooling rack, or paper towel, or whatever you have handy. Allow it to cool for several minutes. Try to break it in half. If it breaks like a regular chip, they are done. If they bend and still feel a tad bit moist or spongy, they aren’t done and need to be put back in the oven for another hour. Repeat this step until they break.
8. Pull them out of the oven and place them on a cooling rack. Once they are cool, they are ready to eat, or store. You can even break them up and use the pieces as a nice addition in a fruity salad.
Now, I had my oven running still and an extra cookie sheet when I did some left over apple slices, so I decided to try a pear. I had set the oven to 200 degrees F because I wanted to speed the process up. Well, I checked them at 2 hours and flipped them and put them back. At another hour, I took them out and they had undoubtedly burned a little. The sugars are a little different than those in apples, so they caramelized. They still taste delicious, and turned out really cute with the little stars in the center (last two photos). But that’s what happens when you turn the temp up.
Either way, this treat is amazing, especially if you’re trying to eat better but feel as if you can’t give up sweets. You have got to try this! Maybe if my strawberry plants do realllllly well, I can dehydrate some strawberries next!
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