by Texas Homesteader
*affiliate link
RancherMan loves crispy dehydrated apple slices topped with cinnamon sugar. I dry them in the dehydrator and then a quick stint in the oven to make them crisp. Check it out!
(Note: Some links in this post are for further information from earlier posts I’ve written. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click them and buy something (almost anything, not just the item noted) I could receive a small commission. But the price you pay will NOT change. It’s an easy way to support this blog without anything coming out of your pocket. So click often! Thank you!)
Different Ways To Preserve Fresh Apples
Today I’m continuing on with my series on Preserving Fresh Apples. My aunt shared many bushels of apples from her tree this year and I’m making sure to get them all preserved. I certainly don’t want that apple deliciousness to go to waste!
I’ve been busy making and canning apple pie filling, apple butter, applesauce, etc.
Dehydrated Cinnamon/Sugar Apple Chips
But one of RancherMan’s favorite ways to enjoy these apples is for me to sprinkle apple slices with with cinnamon & sugar and dehydrate them into sweet apple chips.
When he discovered these cinnamon/sugar apple chips when we visited my aunt.
She told me she simply used this handy *apple corer/slicer/peeler, sprinkled the apple slices with cinnamon and sugar and put them on a tray in her oven set to 200 degrees for about 9 hours to dry and crisp them.
It seems she told me she cracked the oven door open during their drying.
But I just couldn’t stand the thought of having my oven turned on for that length of time pumping heat into the house during the hot & humid dog days of our NE Texas summer.
Deciding To Use Dehydrator For Apple Chips
So I thought I’d try to dehydrate them in my *Excalibur dehydrator instead. I can set that bad boy outside and have the drying heat stay outside where it belongs!
So RancherMan & I hit the kitchen slicing/peeling and coring apples using this amazing peeler that has a suction cup to secure it to our counter.
I’m not gonna lie – I’m in love with this thing! We can peel/slice and core an apple in seconds!
When my aunt made hers she left the apple rings whole. But I liked the thought of half rings better so I cut all my slices in half.
Cinnamon/Sugar Technique For Apple Slices
I placed my dehydrator trays on a metal rack with newspaper beneath it. That way when I sprinkled the slices with cinnamon and sugar I could capture and reuse all the sugar/cinnamon mixture that would have otherwise fallen through the trays and been wasted.
I just brought up the edges of the newspaper so the cinnamon and sugar would slide to the middle of the paper. Then I poured it all back into my shaker bottle. EASY!
Drying The Sweetened Apple Slices
Once my apple slices were sprinkled with the cinnamon sugar mixture I placed the dehydrator on a small table on our back porch and loaded the trays into it.
The temperature dial was set to the highest setting available – 155 degrees. I rotated the trays after a couple of hours to help the apple slices to dry evenly.
The trays of apples dehydrated in about 14 hours. But although the apple chips were completely dry they weren’t crunchy like my aunt’s were.
I guess my dehydrator just didn’t get hot enough to actually crisp them. Hummm, what to do….
I moved the dehydrated slices to a couple of large baking trays and placed them in my oven. I turned on the oven for only about 2 minutes to get the oven good & hot.
Then I turned the oven off again. I left the trays in the oven just soaking up that drying heat until the oven cooled completely. When they were cool I tested them for crispiness- success!
Dehydrated Apple Chips Are A Hit!
RancherMan says these little apple chips are fully addictive. He loves to grab a handful to snack on during the day. I must agree with him, they ARE addictive, deliciously crunchy and sweet!
And now that they’re dehydrated they take up very little space and no additional energy to store. I just placed them all into airtight containers on my pantry shelf.
But I won’t be able to tell you how long these crispy cinnamon/sugar apple chips will store because my handsome RancherMan is eating them up quick!
But I guess that’s what you hope for when you preserve the harvest… that the fruits of your labor will be eaten and enjoyed. Now that makes my heart happy!
~TxH~
5 Delicious Ways To Preserve Fresh Apples:
- Apple Pie Filling
- Cinnamon/Vanilla Applesauce
- Apple Cider
- Cinnamon/Sugar Apple Chips
- Fruit Leather Rollups
Other Delicious Apple Recipes
- Homemade Apple Pie
- Apple Pies Baked In Canning Jars
- Single-Serve Apple Hand Pies
- Apple Crumble from Apples in Syrup
- Baked Apple Pie Tortilla Roll
- Quick, Hot Apple Dessert
- Applesticks – Frozen Applesauce Sweet Treat
- Quick Spiced-Rum Fried Apples
- Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Snacks We Love
- Homemade Honey-Graham Crackers
- Fresh Pico de Gallo
- Homemade Hummus
- Rosemary Crackers w/Olive Oil & Garlic
- MYO Pita Chips Using Flour Tortillas
- Pumpkin Bread (with Cake-Mix Shortcut)
- Cantaloupe Bread w/Pecan Praline Glaze
- Easy Blueberry Muffins
- Fresh Pear Cake
- Rice Krispie Treats With A Chocolate Twist
- Healthier ‘Ice Cream’ Using Bananas & Fruit
- Easy Cookies-n-Cream Ice Cream Cake
- Easiest 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
- Cake-Mix Cookies – Only 3 Ingredients!
- Double Chocolate Banana Chunk Cookies
- Sugar-Free Chocolate No-Bake Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Truffles
- Getting Your Family To Snack On Healthy Veggies
- Watermelon Smoothie (or Daiquiri)
- Rich & Creamy Fudgesicles
- …And MANY MORE!
See All Recipe Posts
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page. It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing!
And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
If you’d like to receive an email when a new blog post goes live,
subscribe to our Blog!
*Amazon Affiliate
Did it like you came out great
Last year attempted to make these and I ended up heating them up to much in the over and burnt most of it Ugh!! This year we have success. I did not need 14 hrs mine finished up at 12 hrs. Next day put this in the oven as you suggested pre-heating (i used 350) turned it off placed them in and let it cool. Happy Dance…..My thought was to bundle up some for the grandkids – not going to last that long I can already tell.
I love apple chips – these look delicious! Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner link up!
Ooo definitely saving this for later. I want to go apple picking soon and it’ll be perfect to make treats for the kids in the dehydrator! Thanks for linking up at #SustainableSundays!
Yum! What a great idea to use your dehydrator for most of the heavy lifting then finishing in the oven. Thanks for sharing on the #WasteLessWednesday Blog Hop. Can’t wait to see what you share this Wednesday.
We are leaving shortly to go apple picking which means tomorrow I will be processing lots of apples…now I have one more way to enjoy them. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have both fresh apples AND an Excalibur, so I may be trying this very soon! That’s a great tip about putting newspaper underneath!
These sound great. I have the peeler but no dehydrator. Need to get one.
Thanks for sharing at Wake Up Wednesday,
Bev
These sound dee-licious!!! 🙂 Thank you for sharing this recipe idea!
We have one of those corer/peelers and I love it, too!
Does the excaliber have metal racks or plastic racks? We got a cheaper local model to learn on; and while we do like it, I’d like to get an excaliber. Hubby wants metal racks and I don’t know if that is possible.
Thanks for the great post. Very educational.
My Excalibur has plastic racks – I don’t know if I’ve ever seen metal racks but I’d be afraid they would get too hot. Maybe not? I love my Excalibur and I’m so glad I opted for the 9-tray (I was debating on that or the 5-tray model) I use it fully loaded all the time. ~TxH~
That makes sense. The metal racks might affect drying. I think ours has 6 trays? Can’t remember at the moment; but I’ve told hubby when we get another one, it needs to be bigger!
Thank you!
Oh, Yum. They would be good tipped / coated in chocolate. Add some other dried fruit, dried bananas, raisins, etc. and you have a nice trail mix