Crispy, crunchy baked cinnamon apple chips made at home. Healthy, cheap, easy, and addicting

Apples are my jam. Love love love them

I’m going to let you in on a little secret of mine.  I don’t sit around snacking on cookies and cupcakes and cakes and pies and brownies all day.  I lead a pretty healthy lifestyle, full of veggies, running, yoga, fruits, whole grains, and a ton of hummus. (so much hummus!) And there’s the occasional treat of course. All of the decadent recipes I share on my blog are what I’ve made with friends, family, neighbors, and more.  I donate extras to our church, too. We certainly don’t eat it all ourselves. I have a wedding coming up after all!

One of my favorite healthy treats to snack on are apple chips. They’re crunchy, crispety, and addicting.  It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I began to make them at home. Not only are they cheaper to make at home, they are SO easy.  Slice your apples, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar (optional!), and bake. That’s about it

Pure apples. It doesn’t get much healthier than this.

There’s a few little tricks I use to make them extra crunchy and crispy.  First, slice your apples real thin.  If your apple slices are thick, they will turn out to be mushy. Still delish, but not what we’re going for here. The thinner your apple slices, the better.

Slicing these apples sure would be easier with a mandolin slicer (totally registering for one), but I just slice them up with a knife since I don’t have one.  Use your sharpest knife, turn the apple on its side, and slice.  I wish I had an apple corer as well, but alas. I don’t.  Oh well!

Some apple slices won’t be perfect. That’s ok! Spread them out into 1 layer on two baking sheets. Make sure you line them with a Silpat for easy clean up and no sticking.

I love cinnamon-sugar anything, so I always sprinkle the apples with a bit of the good stuff.

And by a “bit,” I mean a ton.  Lots of cinnamon-sugary-ness. Sometimes I opt for only cinnamon, so if you’re watching your sugar intake, you can definitely skip the sugar part.

I only sprinkle one side of the apples with cinnamon sugar.

Feel free to flip ’em over and do the other side too!

Another little secret of mine is to bake the apples at a super low temperature in the oven.  I bake them at 200F degrees for 2.5 hours.  If they aren’t as crunchy as I want them, I bake them for up to three hours.  During this time I like to paint my nails, get lost on Pinterest, upload a million pictures of Jude, or watch SVU marathons. Totally addicted!

After 2-3 hours, and flipping the apples once in between, I turn the oven off. Then I keep the apples inside the oven for 1 more hour.   Sitting in the oven as it cools down, rather than sitting at room temperature, will help your apple chips crunch up much quicker.  The crunchier, the better in my opinion!

I love these easy apple chips so much and it’s such a fun way to eat one of my favorite fruits.  It’s pretty much a hands off recipe besides cutting your apples and flipping them in the oven.   Recipes where I have to do as little work as possible is exactly what I look for in the summertime. Well, all the time actually. 

And just a friendly warning: Before you know it, your entire bowl of apple chips will be gone. I know mine like to completely disappear on me.  Sneaky little guys!

So addicting. And all you are eating is pure apples!

Ingredients:

• 3 apples (I use Granny Smith, Pink Lady, or Honey Crisp)
• ground cinnamon
• granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Set aside.
2. Wash and thinly slice the apples as shown in the photos above. Spread the apple slices onto the baking pans making 1 single layer. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
3. Bake for 1 hour, flip the apples over, and bake for another 1-1.5 hours. Turn the oven off and keep the apples inside as the oven cools down for 1 hour. This will help them get crunchy. Some apples may just be chewy and only slightly crunchy after 3 hours in the oven. Store apple chips at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week.