The apples are ready to harvest now. Local folks can take the family to Breeden’s in Mt Juliet to pick apples right off the trees to save some buck$ or buy prepicked ones. Many preschools and daycares take little ones to Breeden’s for field trips so you might want to plan a weekend trip. But hurry – the apples won’t last forever.

I will be posting some of our favorite apple delights this week. A sweet friend of mine made apple chips recently. They were FABULOUS! There’s no need to stock the pantry with sugary treats when you can make apple chips so easily. My friend found this recipe here, www.realfoodforrealpeople.blogspot.com. Although the recipe isn’t mine, the photos are ours. I only wish you could smell those apples.

Oven-drying apple chips is a great way to get your fruit in snack form. It doesn’t take a lot of work and it doesn’t require a dehydrator, but it does require some patience. The chips won’t get crispy for a while, and they stay deceptively pliable until after they’re actually well dried.
Apple chips are crispy and delicious, and they make an excellent snack for adults and kids alike. If you have a food processor or mandoline, you can use it to get the apple slices as thin as possible. If not, just slice your apples paper thin. Placing the apple slices on top of a rack in the oven allows air to circulate underneath them, speeding up the drying process.
Don’t be tempted to increase the oven temp to speed things along ~ you want to dry the apple slices, not roast them. Feel free to use a dehydrator if you have one.

• 2 apples suitable for baking (I used Fuji), washed, quartered, and cored
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Bowl of ice water

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and place a footed cooling rack on top of the parchment.

Slice apple quarters thinly. (I ran mine through my food processor with the slicing blade in place.) Add the lemon juice to the bowl of ice water, and place the apple slices in the water as soon as they’re cut. Let the apple slices soak in the water until the oven is preheated and all the apple quarters have been sliced, about 5 minutes.
Remove the apple slices from the water with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels. Blot dry. Arrange in a single layer on the rack on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, if desired.Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling, if desired
Bake apples at 225 degrees F for about 3 hours, or until they seem dry and are becoming crisp. They will shrink and darken. They should feel dry and papery to the touch. They may not, however, feel crisp. If they’re done, they will crisp up as they cool. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Test the apple slices. They should feel dry and crispy. If not, return to oven, checking after 1/2 hour.
Store apple chips at room temperature in an air-tight container. They’ll keep for about a week.

When I made these apple chips, tripled the recipe and used a McCormick cinnamon grinder instead of the cinnamon/sugar mix.

Printable Recipe

Apple Chips

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