Oven baked apple chips

Chips, chips, chips, I love Chips! Miss Vicky's Salt and Vinegar to be exact! This recipe tastes nothing like those, but just the name 'apple chips' had me thinking about them.  Anyway, I do really like crispy snack foods, and especially when I can eat them guilt free. Ali and I have a few other 'chip' recipes to share with you, but I wanted to share this one with you today. I was inspired to make apple chips a couple months after my cousin sent me a picture of the ones she was making for her boys (hers probably came from her apple tree, lucky girl!). This is a really simple way to make a healthy snack, 'treat', or even a great way to use up apples that are going bad.

What you'll need: 

2 Apples, any type will work

Cinnamon, or any spice or your choice 

A mandolin or some fancy knife skills 

Directions: 

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees F.  Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice your apples onto the parchment paper with the mandolin (the thicker the slices the longer you will need to bake the apples) and space them out. I overlap mine a little so I can fit more apples on each sheet (more chips!!) but this tends to make them stick together, which results in you haveing to break the chips apart once they are baked. If you want perfect round apple chips, don't overlap the apples on the sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for approximately 2-2.5 hours or until they are dry and crispy, I overcooked mine a little in these pictures but they still tasted great! 

Enjoy

-M 

Phyllo Apple Ramekins

When you have dinner parties, it is always nice to have a dessert prepared that doesn’t take very long to make, but looks delectable. This recipe saves you the hassle of having to make a pie crust, or if you opt to go out and buy a crust, this saves you from all the calories and fat content found in those crusts. Phyllo is a healthier alternative to using pie crusts as it is only around 85 calories per sheet and has a much lower saturated fat content compared to traditional pie crusts. I actually tried out two recipes, an apple version and the pear version, the apple one was really good but I was not as pleased with the results of the pear one. I will share both recipes and maybe you can give me suggestions on how to improve the pear version. 

Ingredients:

Apple Version to make 3 ramekins:

2 Macintosh apples

~2 tablespoons of finely chopped crystallized ginger

~¼ cup of chopped walnuts

Cinnamon

3 sheets of phyllo

3 tsp of maple syrup

oil

Pear Version to make 3 ramekins:

2 pears

¼ cup of pecans

3 tsp of maple syrup

oil

Step 1: Brush one sheet of phyllo with oil and then cut into half lengthwise and into three’s widthwise, giving you 6 squares (they by no means have to be perfect squares). Push one square at a time to the bottom of the ramekin, resulting in the 6 squares stacked on top of each other in one ramekin. Repeat this step with the following 5 ramekins.

Step 2: Bake ramekins in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 F degrees, until phyllo is lightly golden brown. I found it easier to put all of the ramekins on a cookie sheet so I could easily pull them in and out of the oven.

Step 3: Slice the pears and apples with a Mandolin to give thin slices that will cook fast. Chop up the crystallized ginger, walnuts and pecans.

Step 4: Apple: Press the sliced apple down to the bottom of the ramekin until it is about half full. Add the ginger, dividing it equally between the three ramekins (do not “over ginger” the recipe otherwise the taste will be off). Add more of the apple on top, making sure to pack it down to get the most apple that you can in. Top with walnuts and a dash of cinnamon. Drizzle the maple syrup over the top.

Pear: Pack down the pears until each ramekin is completely full, topping with the pecans and maple syrup.

At this step in the recipe you can leave the ramekins in the fridge until your guests have arrived or even until after dinner, so they will be freshly baked.

Step 5: Cook the ramekins for 25 minutes at 375 F degrees.

Eat as is, or top with vanilla ice cream.

-A