I love the crunch of chips, but Doritos, Fritos, and Cheetos are not exactly the best choice for me. With today’s recipe, I can get the crunch I crave without the excessive calories and fat. I love apple season–for eating just as they are and for the lovely desserts and snacks that can be made with them.

Several years ago, I was excited to come across this recipe that uses the oven because I do not have a dehydrator and really don’t have room for another piece of kitchen equipment. If you have a dehydrator, this method may seem crazy to you.

These apple chips are a big hit whenever I make them. The ladies in my book club have loved them for the past few years as a snack when I host one of our meetings; some have even paid me to make a batch for them! A few years ago, I made apple chips by the hundreds and packaged them up in cute bags as table favors for a fall MOPS meeting. They were well-received.

Oven-Baked Apple Chips

Ingredients:

• apples (any variety you like; don’t worry if they are a little past their prime, they will still make great chips)
• optional: spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or cloves, or flavoring such as gelatin powder (I have always used cinnamon alone and we favor the red jellos; strawberry this time)

Directions:

1. Wash and dry the apples. You can choose to leave the apple core intact or use an apple corer to remove it. (I have always cored my apples, but the chips made with the core have a lovely star shape in the middle of each slice.)
2. Use a mandolin to slice the apples very thinly (1/8 inch or so). You can also try to do this with a knife, but it will be much harder to get them uniformly thin. Remove any seeds you may have if you did not core the apples.

   

   

3. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees or whatever your lowest temperature is.
4. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and then place the apples in a single layer, as close together as possible, on the parchment lined sheets. To maximize crispiness of the chips, try not to overlap the apples. Do not skip the parchment paper. The apples will stick like crazy to unlined baking sheets; you will have apple chip crumbs if you don’t line the pans.
5. If you desire, sprinkle spices or flavorings onto the chips. Rub the spice or flavoring in a little with your fingertip. Many people add sugar to their spices, but I have never found a need to. The apples maintain some sweetness on their own.

   

   

6. Place pans of apple slices in the upper half of your oven. [I try to fit as many as possible at a time.]

   

7. Bake until dried and curled at the edges and crispy. The recipe I use says to bake the apples for 6-8 hours at 170 degrees. Others say it should only take two hours and that the apples should be flipped and re-sprinkled half-way through. (I have never flipped my chips; I always leave them in the oven for the full 6-8 hours.)
8. When the apples have finished baking., turn off the oven, and let the apples sit in the oven until the oven has cooled.
9. Remove chips from oven when ready. Store in an airtight container for up to several weeks.

Source: Our Best Bites

Warning…Don’t let this happen to you. Because of the long baking time required and how frequently I use my oven, I often would bake my chips overnight. One time last year, my oven heating element broke during the night. As soon as I woke up I knew something was wrong because of the burnt smell in the air. This is what I found when I opened the oven:

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Category: Fall food, Kids in the kitchen, Snacks Tags: baked apple chips, healthy snacks, snacks

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