Apple Chips
I have nothing against soft and chewy dehydrated apples, but once you’ve had a crispy, crunchy, snappy, flavorful homemade apple CHIP, you’ll never be the same! Plus, the family will think you’re a magician, turning unappetizing apples into the best thing they ever ate.
INGREDIENTS
Fair Shares
Scary, wilted, soft, mealy or other apples that are no longer good for eating raw–as many as you can get to fill all your dehydrator trays.
Other ingredients
Cinnamon or Chinese Five Spice Powder, but only if you’re showing off or have eaten so many gallons of these chips plain that you are wondering what other exciting things you may do with them.
METHOD
Wash apples well and allow to dry–you don’t need to make your dehydrator work any harder than it has to. Get your dehydrator trays ready–you’re going to be running them for at least 24 hours.
Cut out any icky parts and slice apples very thin–I don’t even core them, and sometimes I slice the whole apple vertically. Lay them out on the dehydrator trays in a single layer. Set to the fruit setting and check back after 12 hours. They should be getting dry and possibly beginning to stick to the tray. Turn them over and continue drying until they are absolutely dry and crunchy. After the first 12 hours, check on them every few hours. Thinner and smaller pieces will be dry before larger and thicker pieces, so begin pulling the finished chips and store them in a clean, air-tight container (we like using ball jars). Consolidate the remaining pieces on the trays so you can reduce the stack as they finish drying.
If you do want to sprinkle with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar if you find you want them sweeter, do so lightly at the beginning, when the apples are wet, so the flavoring will stick. Don’t overdo it–these will shrink a lot and concentrate the flavor. I highly recommend trying a batch plain before you mess with additions.
Enjoy your delicious, healthy snack!
