When you find yourself with more apples than you know what to do with, make these homemade apple chips. They’re a delicious, healthy snack—perfect for dipping into your favorite nut butter (perfect with homemade almond butter), adding to salads, or just enjoying on their own. You can also sprinkle a bit of cinnamon for extra flavor! If you want to avoid adding extra sugar, go for a naturally sweet variety like Honey Crisp, Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji, and Golden Delicious. Use Granny Smith, Jonagold, or McIntosh apples for a sharper flavor. Once they’re clean, take a sharp knife or use a mandolin to cut thin, equal slices of apple into 1/8-inch rounds, removing any seeds or core. Alternatively, you can core the apple whole and cut rounds into a bowl.
Cinnamon: A classic pairing with apples, sprinkle liberally for this recipe (you can adjust based on your batch size or taste). Nutmeg: You’ll only need a pinch of this powerful spice – but it adds a wonderful warmth. Pumpkin Pie Spice: Take this fall favorite out of your latte and into some apple slices. Sugar: I find these dehydrated apples sweet enough – but if you want more sweetness, toss with a little sugar (white, brown, coconut, date, maple, etc.) before dehydrating.
Dehydrate the apple at 125ºF/52ºC for 4-6 hours for a leathery/pliable dried apple OR up to 8-10 hours for crisp chips. Remember, the dehydrating apples will crisp up more as they cool. The timings will vary as well, so I recommend checking every 40 minutes after the first 3 hours. It can help to keep the door cracked open slightly to allow the steam to escape as the apples dry. It will take longer, but you may get a better end result. If after cooling the baked chips are still bendy (rather than snapping), put them back in the oven in twenty-minute increments. Cook for 8-10 minutes, flipping twice. Once cooked, transfer the dehydrating apples to a cooling/baking rack and allow them to cool completely. They might still look a little wet when they come out of the air fryer, but they will crisp up as they cool. If they aren’t crispy enough, you can cook them for a little longer. Freezing: You can freeze the chips, but it’s especially important to avoid moisture coming into contact with the slices. I recommend placing them into an airtight Ziplock bag and then putting that in a freezer-safe container. They can keep for up to a year this way!
