A few years ago, following my sisters lead, I did the Whole30 and I mean The. Whole. Thing. It was amazing and rewarding and really proved to me that I have good eating habits and I make good choices. If you have never heard of the Whole30 I suggest you look it up here:https://whole30.com/ it will change our life. Maybe. Welll..since then I have moved from small town California to small town Texas and discovered breakfast tacos, and Whataburger, and so much queso. Four months after moving I couldnt button my damn pants anymore and I figured losing weight was cheaper than buying new clothes right? I mean Ill eat less which saves money, so thats helpful. Turns out thats easier said than done, but I ended up doing both. I had no choice but to buy new pants, but I also started a workout regimen that I LOVE-Thank you Camp Gladiator!!!
Fast forward to January 2020, I decided that after all the holiday gluttony I really needed to reset my body from a food and nutrition stand point and the best way for me to do that is the Whole30, well maybe more like the Mostly30. Some of the rules dont work for my life, and Im okay with that. The focus for me was getting back to eating clean, whole foods, and foods I know my body appreciates. Sorry Whataburger, you are now a special occasion destination, but dont worry we will always have the Summer of 2018 by which to remember each other..
The first time I did the Whole30 apple chips really worked for me, so of course this time around Im going back to my tried and true recipes. The problem was that the day I had decided to make my favorite apple chips Dagan was using the dehydrator to make beef jerky. So I turned to my oven. And the chips turned out better than ever. They were so much crunchier and crispier I was amazed with the difference, I dont know that I will ever go back to the dehydrator. If you are a die hard dehydrator fan then you can still follow this recipe just the same, and set your dehydrator to the fruit setting (135 degrees on mine) and allow them to cook until crisp, 5-6 hours.
As for the apples themselves I find Pink Ladies are my favorite for making chips, they keep a nice tartness but stay crunchy. My second favorite is Fujis, they tend to brown more than the Pink Ladies, but are still quite delicious. You can use any apple you like just keep in mind, especially if youre using a spiralizer to slice them, that softer apples like Galas will be harder to work with.
Apple Chips
Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 4-6 hours
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 Apples
- 2 tbs. Lemon juice
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Big bowl of cold water
- Preheat oven to 225 degrees.
- Adjust oven racks to ensure adequate air circulation around apple chips, preferable 2 empty rack spaces in between your racks.
- Fill a big bowl with cold water and lemon juice, set aside.
- Use your spiralizer to core and slice the apples, you can peel too if you wish but theres so many nutrients in the skins and I just dont find them to be a problem for me.
- If you dont have a spiralizer you can do this by hand, this recipe is based on apples slices that are approximately 1/8 thick.
- Slice down one side of each apple to make rings.
- Separate the rings and place them in the bowl of water and lemon juice, you may need to mix them up a bit as you go to ensure all the apple slices are able to get a good soak in the lemon water-this prevents browning. Allow them to soak for about 5 minutes.
- Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Drain the water from the apples and gently lay them out on the cookie sheets. Its best to avoid any overlap because those spots will just take longer to cook than the rest of the chips.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Place in the oven for 2 hours, after 2 hours rotate your cookie sheets and let cook for approximately another 2 hours. This time could vary depending on the juiciness of the apples.
- Around the 3 hour mark take 1 chip from the oven and allow it to cool for 2-3 minutes, it will crisp up as it cools. If its not crunchy enough for you then allow them to keep cooking until your desired crispiness is achieved.
- Turn off the oven and leave chips in for at least 30 minutes to cool
- Remove from oven allow to cool completely before storing in a zip lock bag. If the apple chips are still warm when you put them away condensation will occur inside the bag and ruin the amazing crunch you just worked so hard for.
Now you have a delicious and nutritious snack with no added sugars, GO YOU!!!