Here’s how to make crispy apple chips with just apples and cinnamon in the oven. It makes a naturally sweet, healthy snack!
Want to try making apple chips? These sweet bites are crunchy, tasty, and the perfect healthy snack to have on hand. Sure, you can buy them at the store: but they taste even better homemade!
Apple chips are a fun project for weekends. Alex and I make them when we’re in the mood for a kitchen project, and they’re perfect for kids (our son Larson loves them). Oh, they make your kitchen smell incredible! You don’t even need a dehydrator for this one: just your oven.
What You’ll Need
For this recipe, there is no dehydrator required! Many fruit chips or veggie chips recipes require a dehydrator to dry them out. Here, you’ll just bake the apple chips at low heat for a few hours until they completely dry out. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Apples: I like to use crisp tart apples like Honeycrisp, Pink Lady or Gala here.
- Ground cinnamon: You’ll just need a light dusting.
- Parchment paper: This keeps the slices from sticking as they dry.
- A mandoline: A mandoline, a sharp slicing device, is a great tool for apple chips. If you don’t have one already, consider finding a mandoline for the job of slicing the apples as thin as possible. It’s much better for consistency in the thickness of the apple slices. Slicing with a knife makes too much variation in the apple chips, and they’ll all cook at a different rate. I also recommend wearing a safety glove when you use a mandoline.
How to Make Apple Chips in the Oven
Making apple chips is a simple concept! Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Preheat the oven to 225°F. Using low heat dries the apples slowly without browning them.
- Slice the apples. I already said it, but using a mandoline makes uniform thin slices of apples quick and easy! Also use only 4 apples at one time: you need enough room on two baking sheets to lay out the apples in a single layer, and usually this is all that fits.
- Bake 1 to 2 hours: bake time varies. The exact timing will vary: the cook time is between 1 and 2 hours, based on the thickness of the slices and how crunchy you’d like them.
Pro Tip on Batch Size
A final note: there’s one problem with these apple chips. We can eat an entire jar in a fraction of the time it took to prepare them! Keep in mind that the serving size is relatively small, so it might take a few batches to build up a good stash. Or, just hoard these apple chips and savor them!
How to Store Apple Chips
Last note before we get to the recipe! How to store these apple chips after you’ve made them? I eat them so quickly we barely need to store them. However, the best way we’ve found is to store them in a large mason jar.
You can use any sealed container, but this jar even looks beautiful on your counter! Store the chips at room temperature for up to about 1 week (if they last that long!).
Dietary Notes
This recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, plant based, naturally sweet, and refined sugar free.
Apple Chips (Oven Baked!)
Here’s how to make crispy apple chips with just apples and cinnamon in the oven. It makes a naturally sweet, healthy snack!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Snack
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 4 apples (crisp apples work best)
- Parchment paper
- Ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 225F.
- Wash the apples, then slice them as thinly as possible using a mandoline (or very sharp knife — but we’d recommend a mandoline for consistency). Leave the cores in the apples, but remove any seeds as you cut.
- Line baking trays with parchment paper. Lay the apples on the tray in a single layer, as close as possible without touching. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Bake for 1 to 2 hours, until as crisp as desired (a shorter baking time yields a chewier chip; baking time also depends on the thickness of the chip). Cool the chips completely, then store the apple chips in a sealed container or mason jar at room temperature for about 1 week.
What a great post! Very thoughtful and well-written. Absolutely gorgeous photos.
I’m looking for something healthy that I can stock up on and have ready for when I’m too tired to eat right. Just a little something to get me the energy I need to get real food. These look pretty perfect. Can you say how long they will last, and what is the best way to store them? Thanks!
Hi, thanks! We store the apple chips at room temp in a sealed container. They probably last at least a week, but get a little less crisp each day. They rarely last more than a day or two at our house :)
I just came across this post and recipe and felt touched after reading your words. Now I’m wishing I could have a conversation with you as well. Anyhow, I am looking forward to making the apple chips with my four-year old. She loves to make “projects” with mommy, to include cooking and baking. Sprinkling on the cinnamon sounds like the perfect part for her to play in this newfound project. And here’s to healthier eating!
I clicked through to here from the IWFM newsletter. Thank you for the thoughtful post; what a lovely way to start my work-day. I’m going to the IWFM this weekend to get apples to try this. I can’t wait!
Just saw this from the IWFM newsletter. I think I will go there Saturday (if we aren’t totally snowed in!), get some apples and make this! My last attempt at apple chips wasn’t very successful, but now that I have my mandoline I shouldn’t have any trouble!
Thanks, Sonja and Alex! Love this blog and will soon invest in a mandoline. I love anything cinnamon and apples, in that order. Will try this!
I’m thrilled! A quick and easy snack. Filled in a jar it is even a wonderful self-made gift idea:)
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OMG!!! that is so funny!… so I have been working on starting my food blog. I am super novice and for my very first blog post I decided to make apple chips ( that was adopted from Giada’s new cookbook after I attending the book signing). Well, since have been follow a few world class, famous blogger you included… I want to learn how to take great pics. I spend a bit of time trying to take a perfect shot of my apple chips and then I saw your….. and now I am question if I should even post mine:) love, love your blog, love,love the photography…… thank you for the inspiration!!!.
I love simple snacks like these! My granny used to make these around Christmas – I miss them!
Oooh I found a brand new Börner mandolin in a second-hand shop a couple of weeks ago, this seems like the perfect recipe to christen it with!
Lovely post, thanks!
Rose
What a lovely post! Those apple chips look great, I think it’s time to dust off my mandoline!
Decided I’m making some this afternoon. Thanks for such a lovely post!
What a thoughtful post today! I really liked it. I’ve just gotten into cooking and am really enjoying finding and trying out new recipes, of course starting out with the simpler ones. Simple, healthy and homemade is always ideal (for me, at least), so thanks for posting these kinds of recipes!
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