When I say “Ridiculously-Easy,” boy-oh-boy do I mean it!
If you’ve got a dehydrator and a spiralizer (I have an attachment for my Kitchenaid stand-up mixer), you can have an entire batch of apple chips in about five minutes of active time. An apple corer and a mandolin – or a sharp knife that will slice the apples nice and evenly, and super skinny – will do in a pinch, though you’ll have to account for the time it takes you to slice.
Considering how relatively expensive a quality batch of dried fruit can be (check next time you’re on Amazon or in the store!), and the fact that I now have three indentured servants living under my roof who are ALL benefitted by the production of apple chips (and ALL excited to make the next batch because it only takes a few minutes of their short attention spans!), my dehydrator and spiralizer paid for themselves within two weeks. It’s definitely not an appliance that sits unused on a shelf!
If you’re really old-school, you can also do these in your oven. However, the recipe holds your oven hostage for six to eight hours, and is subject to drafts and inability to regulate temp and humidity as well as you may want. And I’m less confident about letting the littles do this on their own, like they can in the dehydrator.
And one last word on these: people always seem to be very concerned about oxidation, and the apples turning brown during the drying process. Lots of recipes, therefore, suggest brushing with lemon juice, or a mixture of lemon juice and water, or a mixture of lemon juice, water, and honey to sweeten the apples further. I have found a negligible difference between my lemonized and non-lemonized apples.
Truly, if you don’t believe me, run the experiment: NEGLIGIBLE difference. The same goes for the honey, unless you use super tart apples. And for that matter, I don’t much care for peeling the fruit first, either (even with a specific peeling attachment on my spiralizer, I simply don’t bother). Remember, I’m making four million lunches at a time, and have four million work-related and child-related things to do even when I’m not cooking, so I’d really really REALLY rather spend those extra few minutes pouring myself a glass of wine … er … building homes for underprivileged children (*phew! Good save! I deserve a glass of wine for that!).
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Emi, these turned out great! FYI these can be done with different equipment. I used a mandolin to slice thinly, laid out on parchment lined cookie sheets and baked at 220 degrees F for about 1 hour on each side. I flipped them over in-between. You may have to play around with your oven settings. They crisp up as they cool.
Emi any tips on long-term storage (besides of course an air-tight container). My kids basically ate the entire batch in 2 days but for the purposes of making ahead for lunches — can you freeze these?
Hi Priya,
Fabulous, thank you! These are great tips!
While I’ve certainly dehydrated snacks in the oven at some point in my life, I do so infrequently because I typically need the oven for other lunch purposes during that prep time, so I am FAR from an expert in that area! Tips are greatly appreciated to help other readers can customize the system to their situations!
You definitely can freeze the chips, yes, and they should keep for up to a year. Which is awesome, though If you’re doing small batches in the oven, it may not be super worth it to freeze, unless you have a multitude of other snacks planned (my kids, like yours, would demolish my oven-sized batches quickly!). But if you have access to a second oven, or have other snacks to keep them occupied in the meantime, or if you have a dehydrator (the post I’m ABOUT to put out talks about expanding the capacity of your dehydrator impressively), you can put out a couple pounds of these very easily at a time, and then at TOTALLY worth freezing. Thanks again for the tips and the note! Looking forward to hearing what you think panther next round of recipes!