Baked Apple Chips with Salted Caramel Dip

Some recipes are so easy to make it’s hard to take credit for the effort. So it goes with baked apple chips. Apples are pretty darn good all by themselves, but slice them thin and bake them for a good long while and something spectacular happens. As the water is cooked away, the flavor intensifies and these wafer-thin slices of goodness develop a chip-like consistency positively perfect for casual snacking. All-natural, fiber-rich and hard to stop eating, they may take several hours to bake, but prep time is less than five minutes and the results are irresistable. If you have a hard time accepting the compliments they are sure to garner, remember - you did sprinkle the cinnamon on there by hand. Not exactly a secret ingredient, but a recipe is a recipe.

A note on slicing. Dried apples are lovely too, but the get the crisp consistency that earns this snack chip status, the apples need to be sliced super thin. My knife skills are decent, but I break out the mandoline to manage the paper-thin cuts needed to achieve a crispy chip.

For those who feel a chip just isn’t a chip without dip, we’ve got you covered. Few things work together as well as apples and caramel and our recipe for homemade salted caramel sauce does not disappoint. Easy to make and ridiculously good, apple chips served with salted caramel apple dip are an instant fall favorite. Caramel apples with an attitude.

Baked Apple Chips

• 3 apples (any variety will work - We suggest Granny Smith or Fuji)
• Powdered cinnamon

Using a mandoline slicer, slice apples as thinly as possible.

Remove seeds and arrange apples in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Dust lightly with cinnamon powder.

Bake in a 225-degree oven for 90 minutes.

Flip slices and return to oven to bake another 90 minutes or until dry.

Turn off oven and allow to cool completely in place (apple slices will become crisper as they cool).

Store in an airtight container.

Salted Caramel Sauce

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons sea salt

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.

Whisk in sugar and bring to boil.

Stir in cream, return to boil and cook 5 minutes.

Once sauce begins to darken and thicken, remove from heat and stir in vanilla and salt.

Transfer into an airtight container and refrigerate (sauce will continue thicken as it cools).

Store in airtight container up to 2 weeks.