Tired of store-bought apple chips loaded with additives and underwhelming fruit? Let’s fix this by baking crispy, healthy apple chips right here at home. Just in time for apple season, these cinnamon-dusted apple chips offer a fun snack for the whole family.
How To Make This Recipe
We prefer using honeycrisp apples in this recipe because they impart a perfectly sweet flavor without any added sweetener. However, any sweet apple you have available to you will do the trick.
If you decide to use a tart apple variety, such as Granny Smith, you may want to add a sprinkle of sugar to the recipe. Either way, we’re going to cook these low and slow.
Create Thin, Even Slices
Using a mandoline slicer, we thinly slice our honeycrisp apples to 1/8” thickness. We highly recommend using a mandoline slicer for this task because we’re aiming for thin, even apple rounds.
When using our mandoline slicer with this recipe, we don’t prefer core our apples. These seeds will typically fall out on their own, and we love retaining that beautiful inner star pattern found at the center of each apple slice.
You’ll notice in our photos that the flesh of our lovely apple slices have a bunch of little holes in them. That’s because we always use a slicing guard or cut-resistant gloves when slicing produce with our mandoline. Safety first!
Use a mandoline slicer for best results.
If you only have a knife handy, use what you’ve got and core your apples before slicing. Just realize that your apple rounds may not achieve the proper thickness and they won’t likely cook at an even pace. So, you’ll need to remove individual dried apple rounds from the oven as they’re ready.
The thicker and juicier the slice, the longer it will take to become dry and pliable. Once we have a nice stack of apple rounds, we’re ready to move onto the our next step.
Slice thin, even apple rounds.
When we slowly dehydrate our apples in the oven, they do brown a bit. If you’re concerned about those apple slices browning, give them a quick soak in a salt water solution for 10 minutes. Then, rinse before moving onto the next step if you want to remove that salty flavor. Truth be told, we like a little salt with our sweet.
Bake Those Apple Rounds
We start by lining two sheet pans with either parchment paper or silicone mats to prevent our apple rounds from sticking to the surface as they dry. Then, we carefully lay down our apples slices on top of parchment such that no rounds overlap. We then sprinkle our cinnamon evenly over the apple slices.
Place rounds on baking sheet and season.
Once we season our apple rounds, we bake them for about 2 hours. To ensure even cooking, we flip them about halfway through. Bake time remains a bit variable here based on the thickness of the slices and the juiciness of the apples themselves. So, we bake them until they are pliable yet dry to the touch.
Slowly bake slices until dry yet pliable.
Our apple slices will continue to crisp up as they cool. If you’re concerned they may not crisp up enough as they’re cooking, you could crack open your oven to release some heat and allow them to cool inside.
Apple slices crisp as they cool.
We’re Ready To Eat!
Because finished apple chips will to absorb moisture from the air, they are best enjoyed shortly after baking. For storage, simply seal leftover apple chips in an airtight bag or container and remove as much air as possible to prevent softening. Although they may soften up a bit in storage, they’ll still taste great.
Our apple chips are ready to eat.
Enjoy them by the handful, crumbled over a bowl of cereal, or alongside our sweet apple dip.
Let’s dig in!
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Recipe Card for Baked Apple Chips
Here’s the recipe card for Baked Apple Chips. Print, share or save!
Baked Apple Chips
Equipment
- Mandoline slicer
- Parchment paper, or silicone mat
- Baking sheets
Ingredients
- 3 large apples Honeycrisp or other sweet apple variety
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200ºF. Using a mandoline slicer, thinly slice the apples to 1/8” thickness.
- Line two large sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone mats. Lay apples slices on top of parchment (or mats), spacing them so that no apples overlap.
- Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over the apple slices.
- Bake apple slices for about 2 hours, flipping halfway through, until they are pliable yet dry to the touch. The apple slices will crisp as they cool.
- Because finished apple chips will to absorb moisture from the air, they are best enjoyed shortly after baking. For storage, seal leftover apple chips in an airtight bag or container and remove as much air as possible to prevent softening.
