My kids love apple chips. Yes, the fancy little bags in the produce section of the grocery store that cost $3.00 for 10 oz. or so. The ones that have somehow taken a healthy snack of fruit and turned it into a treat with fat and calories. SO, I wondered….can I make some at home?

Sure can. I found an easy recipe in Wondertime magazine last fall….and finally decided to pull it out and try it this week.

G had fun helping Ken slice up the apples in the should-be-used-more mandoline. We almost always use Granny Smiths for recipes.

Sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg:

…and voila. Yum. These would’ve been crispier, but I had to cut down their cooking time a bit in order to bake some potatoes for dinner. The kids didn’t notice, though. They ate all of them before the next afternoon.

APPLE CHIPS
makes 25-50 chips, depending on slice thickness and size of apple

1-1/2 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
pinch cloves
pinch nutmeg
1 large crisp apple (Braeburn or Granny Smith)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees, then line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Have your helper stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl, then sprinkle half of the mixture onto the baking sheet.

Cut up the apple slices as thin as possible, up to 1/8″. (Don’t need to peel or core it; the seeds will fall off.) If you have a mandoline, cut an apple vertically into rounds. If you’re using a knife, it might be easier to halve the apple lengthwise, then put the halves cut side down and make half-moon shaped slices.

Your child can arrange the slices on the baking sheet in one layer. Sprinkle the remaining spice mixture on top, then bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1/2 hours. Rotate the pan and bake another hour, or till crisp. (If not crisp enough, turn off oven and leave sheet inside oven overnight.)

Loosen them with a spatula, then cool for 10 minutes before removing from parchment. They’ll keep in an airtight container for up to one week.