Raise your hand if you hear the phrase “Mom I’m huuuungry” about 437 times a day. How children with such tiny tummies, who seemingly eat all day long can be in a constant state of hunger is beyond me. And I even cook for a living! The one thing that fortunately never lacks in our house is food, yet they seem to always need a snack. One thing I care a lot about is having healthy snacks around, for both the kiddos and the grown-ups, because we are definitely a family of snackers. And while my kids love to eat fruit, it’s always a bonus when they don’t realize they’re eating something healthy. These apple chips totally satisfy a craving for the munchies, and my kids especially love the fruity-flavored colorful ones you see in that photo. Apple chips are obviously easy to make in a dehydrator, but just like our Homemade Fruit Roll-ups, you can make them at home without any special equipment. Keep reading to see how it’s done!
These are pretty darn easy, and although they do take quite a bit of time to cook, the actual work you have to put in is less than 5 minutes. Your oven will do the rest! First up, remove the cores of your apples. If you don’t have a little apple coring gadget, the sharp end of a vegetable peeler works great. I just do one side of the apple, about half way to the core, and then flip it over and do the other side.
You’ll need these thinly sliced, and it’s also helpful to have then evenly sliced. If you have some thick ones, and some thin ones, they’ll take different amounts of time to cook. So if you’re using a knife, take some care to cut in thin and even. I use a mandoline, which really comes in handy here.
You don’t have to put a darn thing on them- they’re great baked up plain, but a little sprinkle of cinnamon is great too. I usually do half and half. What works best is if you sprinkle it on first and then rub it in a little.
Just use clean hands and run your finger around each one, it goes super quick.
My kids’ favorite, however, are fruity apples! Sounds ironic since apples are fruit, I know. My friend Britanie made these in her dehydrator for a workshop we did at church once and I thought they were so fun. All you need is a packet of Jell-O. I use sugar free, and with a light hand, just sprinkle it over the apple slices as evenly as you can. Try to avoid getting it all over the baking sheet. You don’t need to use a whole packet, just use enough to give all of the apples a nice coat.
After that, put your pans in a 170 degree oven. It’s super low, basically just on ‘warm’ so I just leave it on and go about my day, coming and going as usual. Baking time will depend on your oven, and your apples, but I usually leave mine in about 7 hours. They should look shriveled up a bit, and the plain apples get a little golden brown. They should feel pretty dry to the touch. At this point, I just turn off the oven and leave them there until they’re completely cooled. They won’t be crunchy until they’re cool.
What I usually do is pop them in my oven in the morning, let’s say 10-11am. Then I turn off the oven around dinner time, and before I go to bed I take them off the sheets and put them in an airtight container, like a mason jar.
Like I said, the process is long, but the work load couldn’t be easier! What results is light, crispy, flavorful chips, perfect for munching on.
My kiddos always go straight for the fruit flavored ones. The added flavor is very mild, it just adds a hint of sweetness and lots of fun colors!
I love that my boys are obsessed with these, because they’re so healthy. They’ll pick these over fruit snacks any day.
And I don’t blame them! They’re one of my favorite snacks too.
The apples shrink up so much to make the crispy chips, that I sometimes don’t let my kids notice I’m baking them. That way I can do a few batches over the course of a few days and fill up a few jars- because they eat them super fast!
It’s a pretty cute gift, too. Fill up a mason jar and tie a ribbon around it and you’re done. I could easily eat that whole jar (which is about 2 whole apples). Yum!
Oven Baked Apple Chips
Recipe by Our Best Bites
Ingredients
apples
optional: Fruit flavored gelatin, any flavor
optional: ground cinnamon
Instructions
Slice apples in uniformly thin slices (1/8 of an inch or less) and place on a parchment or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet in an even layer. Slices can touch each other, but try not to overlap. Fit as many apples on a sheet as you can (they shrink a lot!) If desired sprinkle with cinnamon and gently rub in. Alternately you can sprinkle with dry fruit flavored gelatin (ignore instructions on box and just sprinkle the dry powder).
Bake apples at 170 for 6-8 hours, until dry and slightly shriveled, and curled up around edges. Turn off oven and leave door shut until completely cooled. Remove apples from baking sheet and store in an airtight container.
If you missed yesterday’s giveaway, check it out! We sent so much traffic their way, it was a little slow yesterday, so head over today if you missed it!
I tried these and mine never got crispy. They are still a little chewy and stuck to the parchment paper – maybe I put too much jello on and that’s why they’re sticky? Any suggestions on how to make them crisp up and not stay sticky? They are delicious either way, but can’t put them in the jar because they stick to the sides. Thanks for the great idea!
Did they cook long enough? They may just have needed more time in the oven. That- or too much jello!
I think these would be pretty good lightly salted- the salt could be a nice contrast to the sweetness of the apple, like salted chocolate or salted caramel. I like to put a tiny bit of salt on watermelon when I eat it for the same reason.
Hi 🙂 Is it 170 C or 170 F? And is it possible to cook them quicker at a higher temperature?
That’s F, and when you go higher/faster they don’t really dry out, they bake- so you’ll get a different result.
How long do these last?
We’ve always eaten them super fast! But I think if well sealed they’ll last for up to a month or two.
I know the Jello ones are pretty, but if anyone gifts them or shares them with those outside their immediate family, please let them know that they contain artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners. These things cause real problems for some people. Even in seemingly small quantities.
What kind of apples work best? Can’t wait to try!!
Please post “F” next to your oven degrees to help the non-USA readers not get confused, as for the apple recipe, 170C is a hot oven. 170F.. just warm.
Great ideas. Love these recipes. Nice blog!
Boa! 170ºF = 76,66ºC
Hi Sara! These look divine!!! Im super excited to try these out as soon as Im out for my next grocery trip. I don’t have kids, but Im definitely saving this for when we do because its such a healthy alternative and I love that you can still make it super fun by adding the jello coloring!!
I do have one question, I tried to read through all of the comments and the entire post before asking but I wasn’t able to find anyone else who asked or anywhere where it was mentioned so Im truly sorry if it already was and you are re-answering this!
I’m sure you guys go through these so fast that you might not be able to answer this, but do you know how long they last stored in the glass containers? I doubt that they will last long in our house either but Im always looking for new healthy snacks to store for easy grab and go!
Thanks so much for posting this, I can’t wait to try it out!!
~Bekah
I’ve never really had them last long enough to know, lol. But I’d say a while! I know, super helpful, right??
These look like so much fun! Are you sprinkling/rubbing both sides of the slice, or only one?
Carlyn
I sprinkle both, but either or 🙂
Thanks for posting this…I know I’m a year late commenting 🙂 Was looking for a snack for the kiddos. I always lament that I don’t own a dehydrator because my husband freaks out if I use the oven for too long because of cost. He’s the practical one, I’m not. At first I thought you had sprinkled the apples with kool-aid…I wonder how that would taste?!?!
I am making apple chips today. I hand sliced my Granny Smith apples, which are well on their way to being past prime. I put them on a uncoated, metal cooling rack with little holes. Oven is on 225 and I am venting by putting a wooden spoon in the door. It takes them about 1 1/2 hours to dry, no turning required. The only problem I am having is that they get eaten before I can put them in the container! These are awesome, and I am not afraid to try the jello! Good luck!
Place the cooling rack in the oven…
I went and took it out of the oven. I sprayed the cookie sheets with oil and will dry them that way for now until I can get to the store for parchment paper. Google.com is my friend 🙂
Thank you for these easy to follow directions. I love these, but at $4 a tiny bag a Whole Foods, I was going to break the bank. I thought it was much more involved and complicated to do this and that I needed a dehydrator.
I am now a devoted follower of your blog 🙂
I just put these in the oven with cinnamon. I used wax paper – isn’t that what parchment paper is?
No- wax paper is NOT parchment!
I made these today but they stuck to the paper! Any ideas on how I can avoid that happening next time? The little bits I picked off around the paper were so tasty – what a tease! 🙁
That’s weird! I’d spray the paper with a little non-stick spray next time, I bet that would do the trick. Better luck next time!
I am making these for neighbor gifts and wondering how far in advance I can make them? If I store in an air tight container, how long will they last? The tricky part is going to be keeping my kids from noticing they are cooking because they seem to eat them before they make it to a container :). Thanks in advance!
Made these today w/ the Jello sprinkled on them for my kids. None of us can stop eating them because they are so good. I did raise the temp to 190, and I cut them extra thin with the mandolin, so it took about 6 hours total, including cool time. So crisp and yummy!
Has anyone played around with temps and cooking times at all? I’ve had success previously with standard cinnamon&sugar chips before at ~275 for 2 hours (turning once half way through) and then allowing to cool in the oven, the whole process takes less then 3 hours. Wondering if that will be too high and maybe burn the jello? I really am just too impatient to wait >8 hours for such a simple recipe.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
*EDIT*
225 for 2 hours. Sorry.
It’s so nice to easily make a healthy “chippy” that my kids love.
Is there a mandoline that you recommend? Which one do you have? I looked at the one that you linked and it talked about not being able to do long things. Also, did you buy the gloves that go with it to not slice your hands? I cut myself with a knife often enough that this looks a little dangerous for me. But it looks like I need to try all your recipes that I want to do. Thanks!
Mine is linked in the post 🙂
I have made these two years in a row (from various recipes) and I love the apple crisps but when I take them out of the dehydrator they are crisp but after a day or two even in a jar, they are not crisp. This time they were in the dehydrator for 24 hours almost at 135 degrees. Has anyone else had this problem?
My grandmother used to make these, but she’d just string them on strings and let them dry naturally.
I love the twine that you’ve wrapped around the jars! Is there anywhere you know of that I could get something similar?
it’s called bakers twine. Just google it and there’s tons of places to purchase online!
Had a blast making these with my 3 year old this morning. Wish I would have read the comments and the directions at the bottom more carefully because I didn’t put down any parchment paper and they are stuck like GLUE. Now I have 3 cookie sheets with apples stuck to them and two very unhappy boys who wanted to try them. 🙁 Darn!
We did these for our county fair and all of us got blue ribbons on our entries and my daughter won a sweepstakes for her entry. Not to mention they taste wonderful! Thanks for your great ideas
Oh my gosh- that’s awesome!
So, my neighbor has six apple trees. Six! Soon they’ll have so many apples they won’t know what to do with them, then they give me boxes full of them. You can only make so many apple pies and cobblers. This will be a fun change. Thanks!
I finally got some apples today to try these out, but realized I don’t have any parchment paper. So sad! I’m curious though, could I use the same method to make baked potato chips?
So I totally went and bought that mandoline you recommended, which came today (I’m excited to use it!)…however, my oven doesn’t go very low. The lowest setting is 260 degrees. What would be the best way to work around that for these? I tried the homemade fruit rolls in my oven and it did not go well. I need help! We are totally looking forward to trying these!
Hmm, that’s actually strange- most ovens go to at least 170. That might be a little too high, but you’d have to experiment to find out!
Once the weather cools down out here (Southern Cali) I will definitely try experimenting…wish me luck! We have been throwing around the idea of replacing an oven and I told my husband that my one requirement would be that it needed to go to at least 170. Now I know that shouldn’t be a hard requirement to fill! Thanks for the info!
You could try sticking a wooden spoon in the door to keep it ajar. I’ve heard of people doing that to make fruit leather.
Holy cow this looks not only amazing but like so much fun! These would be WAY healthier than any snack my kids normally eat! I can’t wait til fall when apples are cheaper here! Thanks!
We love dried apples! This adds an extra step (more work, anyone?), but dipping the apple slices in pineapple juice before dusting them with cinnamon is super delicious. Just a little extra tang, and it keeps the apples from turning brown. Thanks, Sara.
For a grown-up version of these, use Granny Smith apples and a mix of sugar and cumin. Tasty!
http://www.food.com/recipe/granny-smiths-cumin-apple-chips-151396