These oven-baked dried apple rings are soft and chewy - almost like candy! But with no added sugar, these apple rings are a healthy and delicious treat.
Is there a secret to coring apples? Please tell me that there is and I'm doing it wrong.
I have an apple corer and I can never get it to go in through the stem and out through the bottom - it always goes out slightly to the side of the bottom and then I have to core my apples twice. And twice-cored apples are not as nice looking as once-cored apples.
Anyways... I made apple chips last fall and I decided to revisit that idea, but with the addition of chai spices - cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and just a pinch of cloves.
Instead of baking the apples until they were crispy, I baked them until they were soft and chewy. Erin from Texanerin Baking posted chewy apple chips last year and I wanted to see if I could make my recipe chewy too.
Because the only descriptor I like more than spiced is chewy. Chewy is never not good! Yes, I said never not!
You Don't Need a Dehydrator!
Apple rings and chips are really simple to make at home. While it's nice to have a dehydrator for these sorts of things, you don't need one - an oven set at a low temperature works too.
When you make your own dried fruit, you can avoid adding sugar (a lot of dried fruit has added sugar!) and sulfites.
Sulfites are added to dried fruit to help make it last longer, but they can be a trigger for migraines, so I try to avoid them as much as possible.
So homemade dried fruit might not last as long as the kind you buy at the store, but it's so tasty, you'll probably want to eat it all within a day or two anyway. (Maybe even within an hour or two!)
More Apple Recipes
If you love these apple rings, be sure to check out these other delicious ideas:
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 extra-large apple, (Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Braeburn, and Fuji work well)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom
- pinch of ground cloves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 225°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Core the apple and use a mandoline slicer to slice it between ⅛- and ¼-inch thick. (If you don't have a slicer, don't worry, you can do it by hand too!) Place the apple slices in a large bowl.
- Combine the spices in a small pinch bowl. Sprinkle the spices over the apple rings and use your hands to gently toss to coat.
- Transfer the apple slices to the baking sheet. Bake the apples for 60-90 minutes, or until they're dried and shriveled, but still tender.
Melanie says
Really appreciate having the UK converted measures! Just need a lower heat for a fan-assisted oven.