Cinnamon Spiced Apple Chips

Simple, 2-ingredient recipe for homemade Cinnamon Spiced Apple Chips! This light, crispy, & sweet snack has zero added sugar or oil. It's paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free & vegan-friendly!

Cinnamon Spiced Apple Chips are one of those throwback snacks for me. Tart, light, crispy, and wouldn’t you know it...EASY (and pretty darn cheap) to make at home. All it takes is 2 ingredients and a little bit of time.

Growing up, apple chips were a tried and true favorite for both me and my sister.

Fruit in crispy, crunchy, hand-held chip form. What's not to like?

We devoured bags of them in the car on our way to park-hop. My parents clever, budget-friendly way of entertaining their kids for hours upon end. We could pick any public parks we wanted to go to and "hop" from park to park all day long.

We had free reign over all playgrounds in the city. Veritable queens of the kiddie kingdom. Stomping over every square inch of jungle gym or clambering fearlessly over every strange, climbable animal sculpture. Trying our best to not singe ourselves on sun-heated metal monkey bars and jungle gyms. "Sunny San Diego" takes on a whole new meaning the first time you sit your bare legs onto a hot park bench.

In between swings and slides, we would dash over to my mom to refuel. Hurriedly crushing matching Capri Suns and grabbing handfuls of delicious apple chips. We’d shove them into our mouths quickly (and greedily) before rushing back to the pressing business at hand – maniacally running our small selves round and round to the edge of total exhaustion.

So yes. I will admit that these healthy little snacks are heavy on the feels for me. A happy little bag of baked nostalgia.

To this day (much like my undying love for gooey s'mores or a simple PB & J sandwich), I still love snacking on these little guys.

When you flip over a bag of apple chips, the ingredients are usually pretty simple and straightforward (as they should be). To me this is always an encouraging sign. It whispers “make me at home”, “you can do it”. And so one day, I did.

I broke out my trusty OXO Mandolin Slicer and got to work. Do you have one of these? I have gotten a surprising amount of use out of mine. Hot, homemade, ever-so-slightly salted sweet potato chips anyone? Perfectly thin zucchini slices to layer into a low-carb weeknight lasagna? YES, please. And they aren’t crazy expensive either. Plus the cost of sparing my fingers when I try (and FAIL) to cut things thinly by hand?

PRICELESS I TELL YA.

It takes just a few minutes to wash the apples, prop up the mandolin on the counter, and start making thin slices. No peeling or coring needed.

Just twist the stem off and bingo. You are in business. Keeping the skin on gives the final baked product even more of that tart flavor. It also adds just a touch of that homey, rustic look. So if you’re gifting them to someone, it’s like a miniature sign that says “No. REALLY. I totally did make these at home. See the skin?”. Cue Vanna White gesture to showcase nutrient-packed apple skin.

I use granny smith apples because I love their combination of a bit of sour in with the sweet, but you are welcome to use whichever one is the (brace yourself, horribly predictable // tacky pun coming) apple of your eye. Fuji works awesome too. Whatever you choose just make sure it’s a firm, crisp variety.

A quick (but careful) run through the mandolin will give you uniform slices effortlessly. I set mine to the ⅛ inch setting.

Once you’re finished slicing, take a look at the slices that crosscut through the apple core. If you see any seeds or extra fibrous areas, go ahead and use your fingers to pick them out by hand. A quick knife cut will help you take off any trickier, more stubborn pieces.

From then on, it is super smooth sailing. Spread the apples out evenly on two baking sheets that you have lined with parchment paper. You may need to cut the paper with a pair of scissors to fit the sheet just right. Sprinkle with cinnamon and pop the tray into the oven.

Low and slow is the name of the game. Similar to my Oatmeal Cookie Granola recipe, this involves very little effort for prep and a decent amount of time sitting in the oven. No fearful opening and closing of the oven or hovering over them like a hawk.

You flip them once halfway through and that’s all. Just a teensy bit of patience on your part, and these thin, delicate, cinnamon-y apple crisps are all yours!

This means you can go do something else while they do their thing. Something fun and fabulous and just for Y-O-U. I mean you’re making apple chips at home, from scratch. All by yourself. Clearly, you've got it all together.

You’ve earned this quality you-time.

Maybe crack open that book that you bought four months ago on a whim. You know that one I’m talking about right? The novel staring back at you, lonely and neglected on your nightstand. The one with the pretty cover, that is now a motion picture, that you bought so you could read it before you saw the movie so you could be one of the movie-goers who is “in-the-know”. Yeah that one. (The one I put my glasses on TOP of every night before just dozing off with promises that tomorrow night I’ll make it past that dog-eared corner on page six. Yep.)

OR perhaps now is the perfect time to rearrange your living room furniture and finally get all those feng shui vibes in order.

Clear a little room so you can use that yoga mat that you have tucked away in a closet somewhere. Mine is currently collecting dust (but fingers crossed, not a colony of spiders) in the corner of the room.

TOOLS + INGREDIENTS USED IN THIS RECIPE:

FYI THESE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS – WHICH MEANS IF YOU USE THESE LINKS I WILL MAKE A SMALL COMMISSION OF WHATEVER YOU PURCHASE. THE PRICE OF THE ITEM REMAINS THE SAME WHETHER OR NOT YOU USE THIS LINK AND IT’S AT ZERO ADDITIONAL CHARGE TO YOU. ALL COMMISSIONS SUPPORT THIS BLOG.

• OXO Good Grips V-Blade Mandolin Slicer

• Cinnamon

MORE EASY + HEALTHY RECIPES:

• Easy Overnight Oats

• Berry Green Smoothie

• How to Make Hazelnut Milk

• Instant Pot Bone Broth

• Avocado Quinoa Power Salad

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Cinnamon Spiced Apple Chips

Simple, 2-ingredient recipe for homemade Cinnamon Spiced Apple Chips. A light, crispy, & sweet snack. Paleo, gluten-free, sugar-free & vegan-friendly!

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Course: Snacks

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 5 minutes

Servings: 2 servings

Calories:

Author: Lauren Kenson | Free Your Fork

Ingredients

• 2 granny smith apples
• cinnamon

Instructions

• PREP BAKING SHEET: Preheat oven to 200 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• SLICE APPLES: Using a mandolin slicer (or very careful super impressive sharp knife skills), slice apples ⅛” thick. You don’t need to core or peel the apples beforehand. Just make sure you’ve given them a good rinse and you can use your fingers to knock out any seeds or bits of stem out of your slices. Lay apple slices out on the parchment paper lined baking sheets, making sure the slices do not overlap.
• SPICE: Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Do this the same way you would salt something, holding the cinnamon shaker high up from the baking sheet so that it separates evenly in the air on its way down to the apple slices.
• BAKE: Bake for 1 hour 30 min. Remove trays from oven, flip the slices over. Rotate the trays in the oven (swap the one that was on the top rack to the bottom rack, and vice versa). Bake for another 1 hour 30 min until the chips are crispy with wavy, curled edges.* Allow to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes. Remove from tray and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes

* If they aren’t perfectly crispy when you first bite into these straight off the tray, don’t fret. They will get crisper as they cool. You just don’t want them to still feel wet to the touch or squish in half when you try to pick one up. If this happens, put them back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

These take a little longer to crisp since we are keeping them naturally sweetened and not adding any additional sugar.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving

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