Oven Baked Apple Chips

First of all, my apologies for being away so long. Bad Tonya. Bad bad. I have allowed my life to become too full. Actually, I thought with both my children heading to school this fall, my schedule would free up substantially. Apparently having more time is the great lie of having school age children. Why didn’t anyone tell me that I was about to become the Tonya Taxi Service? I feel like my life is spent in my van driving round in a 2 mile loop. Ok, enough complaining. I have resolved to suck it up and find time to share with you all. You deserve it. Regardless of how harried I feel on a daily (hourly) basis these days. Deliciousness still needs to be made. Women have successfully managed school, children, meals, housecleaning and jobs for decades – it’s the least I can do to get some recipes typed up! Starting with these dee-licious apple chips. No dehydrator needed!

A friend of mine brought me a 40 pound box of honeycrisp apples today. The most divine apple every created. Sweet and crisp and just perfection. I would live off these babies if I could. The best part? Instead of paying $3 a pound (which is about one apple) I got the whole box for eight bucks. SCORE! Thanks Rachel! You are ah-mazing!

Immediately I broke out my mandolin slicerand started going to town. No joke. I don’t think Rachel was even out of my driveway yet and I’d given each kid an apple and was munching on one myself as I sliced. Nice even slices.

Sprinkled the slices with some cinnamon.

And popped them in the oven. Seriously. That’s it. Actually, I did massage the cinnamon into the slices a little – but forgot to take a picture. Just run your finger around the edges to blur the spice into the flesh. Anyway, super easy. Cook on low heat for a few hours until the apples are crisp and all the juices have baked out. Boom.

Perfectly sweet, no sugar added apple chips. Baked perfection. Crispy and amazing. My daughter especially likes the ones with the stars. Aren’t they gorgeous?

I’ve seen recipes that call for cinnamon sugar, or simple syrup to be used on the apples, but really they do not need any sugar. Honeycrisp apples are a gloriously sweet food all on their own. My kid devoured these with as much ravenous delight as they take down candy. Also, I don’t think the apples need to be cored, but if you want to, you can. Enjoy!

Oven Baked Apple Chips

1-6 honeycrisp apples (as many as you can get your hands on)
cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F and line rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Decide whether or not to core your apples, then slice them thinly with a mandolin slicer. Place the apple slices side by side on the parchment, in a single layer. If they overlap a little that’s ok, but the parts that touch won’t crisp up quite as well. Sprinkle the apple slices with the cinnamon, then rub the cinnamon into the flesh.
3. Bake the apple slices for 2-3 hours until they are dry(ish) and starting to shrivel slightly. Once they’ve cooled, enjoy!