Baked apple chips are one of the easiest snacks you can make and they are irresistibly good. Your family will beg you to make more of them. They’re healthy and far less expensive than the apple chips that came in individual bags. These are the best apple chips you’ll ever try! These delicious baked apple chips take minutes to make and are perfect for healthy snacking.

Apple Chips

Apple chips are thinly sliced apples that are lightly sprinkled with cinnamon, then baked until pleasantly crisp. Healthy homemade apple chips are a remarkably addictive snack. Unlike their store-bought counterparts, however, this apple chips recipe uses no sugar and the chips are baked, not fried. This is healthy snacking at its finest!

These chips are a hover situation.

As in, I’m going hover in the kitchen, hover over the container, and hover anywhere else where I can feasibly sneak another little handful before someone else beats me to it.

Because these baked cinnamon apple chips are a healthy snack, you can hover to your heart’s content.

About These Apple Chips

My first experience with homemade apple chips was elementary school, when my dad purchased a food dehydrator and decided that we were going to dry everything.

At one point, we had such a backup of assorted dried fruit and jerky that we probably could have hiked the Appalachian Trail.

While I don’t plan on purchasing a food dehydrator myself anytime soon, I still love apple chips and, fortunately, they are easy to bake in the oven.

In fact, I’d argue that baked apple chips taste even better than the machine-dehydrated ones because:

• You can make them truly crisp, versus chewy, similar to ones you’d find in a shiny bag.
• They don’t require an extra piece of bulky kitchen equipment that takes up precious counter space.

While I baked these often when Ben was in law school, I hadn’t busted out a batch in years.

After bringing home a particularly large apple haul from my local Wisconsin grocery store, however, I decided to refresh my memory and try making them once more.

They were outstanding! Dear Apple Chips, I won’t forget you again.

How to Make Apple Chips

These do take a while to bake (2 to 3 hours of low and slow), but I promise your house will smell magnificent by the end. Your cinnamon baked apple chips will be crispy, and after one bite, you’ll be hovering over the pan too!

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Ingredients

• Apples. Aside from being totally delicious, apples contain vital nutrients like vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants that have been shown to boost heart, brain, and digestive health.

THE BEST APPLE VARIETIES FOR APPLE CHIPS

I used a mix of different Wisconsin apples, but any sweet-crisp apple will do nicely. Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, and Honeycrisp are four widely available ones, and if you are apple shopping in Wisconsin, look for Macouns, Cortlands, and heck, more Honeycrisps because ❤️?.

• Cinnamon. An apple’s BFFE. You just cannot beat the aroma and flavor of cinnamon with apples.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
2. Wash, core, and thinly slice apples.

3. Arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake. The apples are ready when a single apple chip removed from the oven is crisp when set out at room temperature for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Turn off the oven and let the apples cool in the oven for 1 hour. ENJOY!

Baked Apple Chips

Baked apple chips are a healthy snack made with your favorite apple variety. Cinnamon enhances the flavor while cutting the apples into thin slices, and baking at a low oven temperature for a few hours ensures super crispy chips.

Are you looking for that healthy snack that can satisfy your sweet tooth without the guilt? I have the perfect crispy treat for you, tasty homemade baked apple chips with cinnamon. The recipe is only three ingredients: your favorite apple, a light dusting of powdered sugar, and some cinnamon. That’s it – nice and straightforward!

Once you’ve chosen the apple, there are a few key steps to deliver thin and crispy chips. Using a mandoline makes slicing a breeze. Baking the apples at low oven temperatures helps to gradually drive off the moisture without burning the fruit. It takes just a few minutes to prepare and with a little patience, you’ll have a tasty treat to nosh on.

What type of apple can you use?

Apple season varies depending on the type of apple, but common varieties like Granny Smith or Red Delicious are available year-round. This versatile recipe can be used with any variety, so use any enticing fruit available at your local market. Some of my favorite apples are Fuji and Honeycrisp for their balance of sweetness and flavor.

Are apple chips really healthy?

Fresh apples are packed with fiber, phytonutrients in their skin, and natural sugar coming from fructose. According to the USDA Nutrient Database, 1 large apple contains 116 calories, 30 grams carbohydrates 5.4 grams fiber, and 23.2 grams sugar. The recipe uses 2 apples and makes about 30 chips for a low calorie and low-fat snack.

Drying the apples causes a significant amount of the moisture to evaporate, while the flavor and sweetness are concentrated. I use a light dusting of powdered sugar, but it can be omitted if you do not want to add extra sugar.

How to make baked apple chips

• Use a mandoline to thinly slice the apples, 1/16-inch thick. Make sure the apples are consistent in size, so they bake evenly. Slice from the bottom of the apple.
• Place apples in a single layer on a piece of parchment paper or Silpat mat to make it easier to flip over.
• Lightly dust each side with a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon for extra flavor and crispiness. This step is optional.
• Bake at 200ºF (93ºC) for 1 hour. This will partially dry the chips.
• Make sure to flip the apple slices over when they’re still warm, so they don’t stick the paper. Bake until the pieces feel mostly dry and crisp on the edges, about another hour.
• To test if the chips are done drying after 2 hours, let them sit on the warm sheet pan for 5 minutes. If they feel crispy, they’re ready. If not, keep drying in 15 minutes increments.

Ways to add more flavorful

Cinnamon is my go-to spice for sprinkling onto apple chips. It’s got a warm, sweet aroma and the flavor mimics the taste of sugar but without all of the calories. I mix it with some powdered sugar to make it easier to sprinkle evenly on the chips.

The powdered sugar also has a little cornstarch, so it helps keep the chips dryer when storing. You can omit the powdered sugar and still get tasty results. Other spices like nutmeg, ginger or cardamom can also add an extra punch of flavor.

How long do they last?

If you’re using resealable plastic bags for portioning, transfer them the day you plan to eat them. The plastic bags don’t give a good enough moisture barrier compared to plastic containers or glass jars.

This recipe makes for a nutritious, lightly sweetened treat that is a popular request by my children. My son loves helping me make them, and the bowl of apple chips tends to disappear the same day if I don’t quickly pack them away!

What makes these chips crispy?

The key to making apple chips crispy is cutting them as thin as possible and gently driving off the moisture. Slowly baking the chips for about 2 hours in a low 200ºF (93ºC) oven ensures crunchy chips that do not taste burnt. Fructose, the fruit sugar in apples caramelize and brown at around 230ºF, so keeping the cooking temperature below this level is key.

Baked Apple Chips

Homemade Baked Apple Chips! They’re perfectly easy to make, amazingly crisp, lightly cinnamon sprinkled, and they have such a delicious concentrated apple flavor. Easily one of the best snacks!

Easy DIY Baked Apple Chips

These baked apple chips are a nutritious treat you can feel good about eating, and they can even curb that dessert craving with their natural fruit sugars.

They’re a fun little kitchen project, and after you’ve made them a time or two it will be a total breeze from there on out. You can prep them in minutes.

The trick is just to use a mandoline slicer. Not only does it give you perfectly even slices that bake evenly but it cuts the prep into a tiny fraction of what it would be without one.

Just plan some time because they do need a few hours to completely dry at a lower oven temperature.

These are one of those things you’ll want to make time and time again once you see how simple and tasty they are, plus everyone loves them!

Best Apples to Use for Baked Apple Chips

I recommend using a sweet crisp apple for apple chips. Here are some great choices:

• honeycrisp
• gala
• pink lady
• tango
• fuji

Adding Spices or Sugar

• Really you don’t even need cinnamon but you can add it if you love that extra hint of flavor. Use 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. If you love spices feel free to include others like nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, cloves or allspice.
• I never add sugar but if you want more of a treat you can add a tablespoon or two. Or if you only have tart apples such as granny smith you may opt to sweeten them so they aren’t sour.

How to Make Apple Chips in the Oven

1. Set racks, heat oven: Place oven racks in upper third and lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Prepare baking sheets: Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
3. Slice apples very thin: Remove stem from apples then carefully cut apples with a mandoline to 1/10th to 1/12th-inch thickness. Optionally remove seeds that are stuck in centers.
4. Set on baking sheets: Align apple slices side by side on baking sheets (they can tilt up the inner rim of the baking sheet along the edges if needed so you can fit more, just don’t overlap).
5. Bake until dry and crisp: Bake in preheated oven 1 hour and 15 minutes.
6. Rotate pans to opposite oven rack and continue to bake until apples are dry (and crisp when rested at room temperature for 2 minutes), about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes longer.

How to Store Apple Chips

• Apple chips will keep for 1 week stored in a well sealed, airtight container.
• Just be sure they’ve been thoroughly dried in the oven or they can go stale after a day or two.

Helpful Tips

• I only recommend making these with a mandoline. It’s very hard to slice the apples so thinly by hand and impossible to cut them all even.
• Don’t be tempted to increase the oven temperature. They need to bake low and slow to dry out properly without burning up.
• You don’t need that much cinnamon, you don’t want to hide the apple flavor. And keep in mind the apples shrink as they bake and the juices evaporate so the cinnamon will seem more concentrated as well.
• I like to use a tiny sieve to evenly dust the cinnamon, though this is optional.
• Keep the apples in a single layer. It’s tempting to want to overlap them so you can squeeze more on the pan but the overlapped areas wouldn’t dry as well. I did however find it was okay if they needed to tilt up the inside edge of the rim of the baking sheet to fit.
• Apples curl up more when using parchment paper and a little less on silicone baking mats (they do stick just ever so slightly to the mats) but really there’s no issue here it just depends on which you prefer.
• Avoid using the very upper and lower few slices of the apple. These mostly peel portions don’t dry up as well or taste as good.
• Let apples cool for a minute or two before you test for doneness. They need to cool just a little to be completely crisp.