Baked Apple Chips

Blogging Marathon #40: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Kids Delight: Fat free Kids Friendly Recipes

Dish: Baked Apple Chips

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 40

I had a big bowl of apples sitting in the counter, and typically every night after dinner my son has a bowl of fruit. I gotta give it to him, for someone who is a very picky eater, the one thing he loves are fruits, and he will have them anytime. But sometimes, having too many choices are not very good - and that's exactly what happened. The apples were always ignored, while he picked the honeydew lemon(that's how he says the name), cantaloupe, strawberry and banana. I knew I had to put them to use, before they turn bad.

My usual choice is a cake or a muffin, but this time I was determined to try making Apple Chips at home. There is a shop just opposite the famous Pike Place Fish Market, right next to Rachel the pig, that sells dried fruit - and their Fuji apple chips are one of my favorites. I had looked up on how to make these at home, and they seemed pretty easy - albeit time consuming. The commercial method of making them uses a dehydrator, but an oven could be used as well. I set out on my adventure of making apple chips, and I'm glad to say it is 'easy peasy'.

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F.

Stir together the cinnamon and sugar to combine. Set aside.

Slice your apples as thinly as you can with a mandolin slicer. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper, and place the apple slices in a single laye, making sure they don't overlap. Sprinkle the apple slices with the cinnamon sugar(optional). I wanted to see how it tastes without the cinnamon sugar, so I have sprinkled cinnamon on one tray and one tray I left as is.

Bake the apple slices for 1 hour, then remove them from the oven and flip them over. Return to the oven for another hour and turn the oven off. Let the apple chips cool completely in the oven, this is when they will crisp up. Once they've cooled down completely, store in an airtight container.

Verdict: Who would have thought making apple chips are so easy. I liked the all natural unsweetened ones better, but my son seemed to liked the cinnamum ones. The cinnamon sugar ones had a tad darker shade as opposed to the all natural chips. Needless to say - my son thought it was pretty funny that apples could be made as chips - he crunched and munched a good amount before realizing he had eaten an entire apple!