Apple Chips vs. Apple Paper

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with my quilty mentor/friend.  I brought along some homemade apple chips which we fully discussed the making of.  

This is the gadget I used to prepare them:  My apple/vegetable corer/slicer/peeler.

With it, you can choose to peel or not, but have no control over thickness of slices.  Thicker takes a longer baking time, at 225°F for 2hrs. 15mins in a convetion oven.  But a great tool for raw apple snacks.


A few months ago, I purchased a mandolin to assist with salad making.  Works a charm for super-thin-sliced celery, cucumber, carrots, etc.  

My friend suggested that I use it to slice the apples, since one can have control over the thickness. "And don't bother coring them either", she said.

 Brilliant!

I first tried the thinnest slicing option.

Yikes!  You could actually see through them. 

  They took only 40 min. at 225°F, about one-third of the time for the thicker ones.  (I could put in 3 racks of apples, if I had another baker's rack.)

They're so thin and crisp...

I call it apple paper!

The man of the house came home and said he'd like them better with cinnamon, so round 3.

Here's how you can make them at home for about $2 lb., instead of paying around $15 lb. for the prepackaged store bought variety: 

• Slice honeycrisp (or your favorite) apples mighty thin, placing them on a 20x14 grid rack and baking at 225°F for 40 mins. The rack pictured (by Wilton) is the perfect size for the oven, and the grid allows the flow of air and heat from the bottom.

• I have a convection oven, so the time for your oven may be slightly longer.

NOTE:  If you make them paper thin, you MUST peel them off the rack immediately upon exiting the oven.  There is a window of time (about 60 seconds), until they will be stuck to the rack and break into pieces.  If that happens, shove them back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, pull them out and peel off.

I've been sewing several projects this week so come back to see the evidence in the next couple of days.

Teaser