So I was out in the rain doing a little photoshoot when Fly Guy wandered off and came back eating a large shiny red apple. "Hey, where did that come from? I thought you were just peeing in the bushes!" Apparently several feet from a pecan tree we discovered there is also a tree loaded with delicious apples. This is the best Fall ever!Now what to do with all our apples? And how to incorporate them in brown bag lunches?
Apple chips! Crunchy, sweet, crinkly chips. As a bonus they make your house smell like Christmas while baking.
Now there are several recipes for these chips but you just have to play with cooking times. Different apples have different amounts of moisture. I discovered this when I baked two kinds at once and one variety burned. My final chips are almost identical to the Italian Dish's Apple Chips. Check out how she gifted hers instead of just stuffing her face when she was done.
You don't have to add any flavor. My apples were not sweet or tart when I baked them plain but still tasty. The unflavored ones also seem to cook faster (or it could be my imagination). My kids like the sugar spice variety best.
Several cooks claim to cut these apples by hand. Eh, not for me. I use a mandoline slicer very similiar to this.
Easy peasy.
A few thinly sliced apples (5 for me)
A handful of brown or white sugar (1/3 cup brown)
A few teaspoons of spices (1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves)
Line your baking sheets with parchment paper (I baked 3 pans at once). Mix you sugar and spices in a small bowl then lightly dip one side of each apple slice before laying then on prepared baking sheets. You can lay them close, but don't overlap.
Bake between 200 and 225 for 2 to 2.5 hours flipping once after the first hour. The chips will be a little crunchy when done and further harden as they cool. If they do not seem to be crisping up as desired you can turn off the oven after the initial 2 hours and leave the pans in for the slices to dry out.
