Sometimes I get up on my high horse and declare that I will never waste food ever again.
I will keep every broccoli stalk and every orange peel because one day I will find a way to use them!
And then sometimes I throw my hands in the air, and give up.
I really do feel that food is a precious resource and I don’t like wasting it. I’d like to use every bit of it in some way, to make sure I never buy too much, or let something go rotten in the bottom of the fridge. But seriously, who am I kidding?
Some weeks I can barely get dinner on the table, let alone figure out how to cook broccoli stalks so my kids will eat them. My intentions are good, but I know that sometimes I have to let some of them go in order to keep going.
So this week I let go of the broccoli stalks and fed them to the guinea pigs. I let go of the orange peels and burned them in the fire so the room smelled nice for a moment or two. And I let go of beating myself up over it all… but I couldn’t let go of the apples.
There was a whole bowl full of apples that had been declared ‘yucky’.
I could have made apple crumble, or chunky apple bread, but I wasn’t feeling virtuous enough to make crumble for the apple haters. But I wondered what else could I do with these apples so that my picky kids would eat them?
Then I thought of dried apples, my kids love apple chips, I wonder if I could make apple chips in the oven?
With nothing top lose but a bowl of ‘yucky apples’ I decided to give it a go.
How to Make Oven Baked Dried Apples
I was surprised at just how easy it was to dry apples in the oven!
It does take quite a while so you will need to do this when you don’t have anything else you need to cook. If you had an apple slinky machine (affiliate link) the prep work would be much quicker and easier. But all in all, oven baked apple chips are easy to make and delicious, even if you use ‘yucky’ apples!
We dried our apples until they were soft and leathery, but not crispy. If you dry them longer they will keep better, but if you like them a bit soft and chewy like we do, then you’ll need to eat them within a day or two.
You can add a sprinkle of cinnamon to the apples before you bake them, or leave them plain. Either way they are delicious!
Oven Baked Apple Chips
Make apple chips in your oven! No need for a fancy dehydrator!
Ingredients
- Apples
- lemon juice (optional)
- cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
Line a tray with baking paper or a non-stick mat.
Peel and core the apples and cut them into thin slices.
Dip each apple slice into some lemon juice - this stops them from going brown, but you can skip this step if you like, they will still taste the same.
Arrange the sliced apple on a tray in a single layer.
Sprinkle the apples with some cinnamon if you like.
Put them in the oven at the lowest temperature possible - around 90 C is optimal, or you can alternate having the oven on low and then turning it off for 30 minutes, then back on again.
Check on the apples every hour or so, and turn them at least once during baking/drying.
The time it takes to dry them will depend on how thick the slices are, how warm your oven is, and how dried you like them. Expect them to take around 6 hours.
Please note: this recipe uses Australian measurements and temperatures, if you need to convert measurements or temperatures you can find our printable cooking conversion chart here.
So next time you have a bowl full of ‘yucky’ apples, try making some oven baked apple chips!
Please tell me I am not the only one who has kids who are picky about their apples????
my kids love dried apple too. I have a dehydrator but might try spicing them up too. I don’t even bother to peel now, just core and slice. But I am incredibly lazy LOL
I wasn’t going to peel them… but I have this one really picky eater and I figured I’d rather peel than argue LOL
looks delicious…thanks for sharing
Very clever. I need to be more creative with food scraps and wastage.
Yu-um! I love the look of these. We waste far too much food. It’s so sad and I chastise myself every time. I really need to work harder to change it though, it’s just not right.
So glad the yucky apples were transformed! And that all sounds so much easier then I would have expected :-) I try so hard to not waste food too, I hate throwing it out (although it does go to the lovely worms in the compost, but still!) And hee hee, I do have that jar of citrus peels!!
So tell me about your jar of peel… does it matter if it has a lot of ‘pith’ on it? Does it really work? I keep thinking I should try it considering how many oranges are being eaten around here at the moment…
You can dry peel in the oven in the same way! I did lemon peel, in the oven at 80-90c with the door ajar, for about 3 hours- i took it out and left the apple slices in. The peel was very finely sliced though. It did have pith on it. I also experimented with slices of ginger. Think i am going to make a tea… I found your instructions simple, and confidence inspiring, thanks :-). I left the door ajar because i could see condensation on the glass, so i thought i’d give it a shot. Found the whole thing so fun i have just bought a dehydrator.. Now all my seasonal veggie gifts from green fingered friends will get used..
what a great way to make use of yucky apples. I stew our old ones… but there is only so much mushy apple the kids will eat. I am intrigued about the orange peel on the fire, I might try that too.
orange peel in the fire… supposedly the heat releases the orange oil and it smells nice. Would probably work better for us if it was an open fire rather than a wood fired heater box with a door! LOL
“I wasn’t feeling virtuous enough to make pie for the apple haters.” hahaha That made me laugh so hard! These look great. We love dried apples but I don’t buy them because they’re so pricey and I worry about the sulphites. I’m definitely going to try these.
I don’t like the price or sulphites on dried fruit either! I am guessing that our dried apples won’t keep having no preservatives on them, but I did three trays of apples on Sunday and they were gone by yesterday afternoon… so I don’t think I have to worry about spoilage LOL
Yum! We like dried apples too. We have a dehydrator, which makes it a bit easier.
We also save broccoli stalks, and we use them in our veggie soups!
I also believe in using everything we possibly can. But you can’t always and sometimes you have to go easy on yourself :)
I so wish we had a dehydrator…. it’s on my wish list for when our renovations are done :)
thank you for all the great recipe it took pinterest to figure out how to make dried apples I belong to two weight loss programs and neither had a recipes thank you all for the help ( very happy)