Healthy, Easy & Delicious Homemade Apple Chips! No need to heat up your kitchen with the amazing Brod & Taylor® Sahara Folding Dehydrator!
How many of you LOVE fresh fruits, veggies, meat – especially when they are on sale? You buy in bulk and either have to hurry up and cook it all up or freeze it. Now if you’re like me, you tend to take advantage of sales and farmers’ markets as much as possible. In the past, I would buy so much that I was forced to cook up foods before it went to waste because my freezers were overflowing. I’d end up feeding half of my neighborhood. That honestly wasn’t wise or practical. I don’t have limitless funding; almost none of us do. That’s when I started to look seriously into dehydrating foods for longer-term solutions.
Dehydrating foods reduces waste, are all-natural, crazy less expensive than buying processed snacks, and honestly, tastes amazing!
When my friends from Brod & Taylor posted a sneak peek of a new product that they were unveiling this summer I was like “YES!! It’s like they read my mind and knew that I was looking for a dehydrator!” I’m just going to go with they were creating it just for me. lol, As you know, I’ve been working with them for years. From their very first inception of the Folding Bread Proofer to their modified version that is both a Folding Bread Proofer AND Slow Cooker to their Austrian Knife Sharpener. I’ve been a HUGE fan for years. Simply put, they are AMAZING!
Check out my Brod & Taylor Sahara Folding Dehydrator unboxing video!
It set up in minutes and is super easy to set up! Plus it’s lightweight and stores compactly away!
Pretty amazing, right? So let’s talk about practical details (you can see the technical specs here).
- Does it get hot? – No. The unit doesn’t get hot nor does the surface it sits on
- Is it loud? – It has a quiet fan that runs the entire time the machine is operational but it’s not super loud. Like we could sit at the island where it was processing the apple chips and have a normal conversation. You will hear the fan but it’s not loud.
- How compact does it get? – About a third of the size. When fully set up, it’s 11″ high, when it’s completely folded down, it’s 3 3/4″ tall. The shelves and drip tray are stored in a separate, zippered container that is a little over an inch tall. I store mine on a shelf in my pantry
- Do I need any special other equipment with this? – I would say the ONLY thing else you would need is Mandoline to slice your fruits and veggies of an even thickness. If you can cut even slices consistently then you don’t need one.
- Does it use a lot of electricity?– The Sahara Dehydrator has 2 independent heating circuits of 375w each. The fan uses very little electricity. Per Brod & Taylor, “Typically the energy consumed over a full cycle of dehydration is less than 0.4 kWh/hr. Depending on where you are in the world in the US this is $0.04-0.05 USD per hour used. In Germany, it’s about € 0.12 per hour used. So for this recipe, you’re looking at $0.35-0.60 USD.
- How much does it cost? – It ranges from $425 to $495 depending on which shelves you purchase.
- Is it worth it? – ABSOLUTELY! It’s an investment guys. Look at it this way – a bag of apple chips are maybe $5 a bag. Jerky is $15 for a large bag. Fruit leathers are $4 a box. That’s almost $20 for 3 things that are gone in a day or two. Not to mention that you’re limited to one flavor or each. What if one person wants cinnamon chips and the other wants plain. And don’t forget the folks that only like a certain flavor of jerky. And those fruit leathers come in a bajillion flavors. You could easily spend $100 on a single shopping trip pleasing everyone… ONCE. If you did that a little over 4 times, you could have purchased this machine AND made countless batches of your own stuff. A bushel of apples are only a few bucks and you can make as much jerky as you want and as many flavors!
I love this Sahara Dehydrator!
Honestly, guys, I love this machine. With all of the farmer’s markets now I’m making a bajillion different types of ‘chips’. I’m a chip girl. It’s that texture; that crunch element that I need. From kale chips (because that’s still a thing) to now beet chips – you can make any flavor you want. The booklet that comes with the machine gives you times and instructions on how to do fruits, vegetables, and meats.
Now one thing I didn’t know or even think of that is that when you make dried meat – jerky (beef/chicken/turkey) and HELLO… bacon jerky (seriously LOVE this stuff) is that it actually has to be heated and fully cooled before drying. Red meat has to be 160F and poultry at 165F. This way you’ve ensured that it’s safe to dehydrate. I highly recommend you read this article from the USDA on food safety. Please know that the Sahara does, in fact, reach 165F. The unit has a built-in feature that the temperature range is 85 -165 °F / 30-74 °C.
See the Brod & Taylor Sahara Folding Dehydrator in action!
It’s so simple and easy to use! Just add your apples, set the temp and time, and let it go! My biggest advice is to use a Mandoline when slicing fruits. Most of the thinner chips were done in 7 hours where the ones I cut thicker (totally rookie error as I couldn’t reach my mandoline as Mr. Fantabulous had my stool) took about 10 hours. Again, not a big deal. They still came out crispy and delicious!
And we have delicious and healthy apple chips!
I don’t know who was more excited about this recipe – myself or Mr. Fantabulous. I love apples but can’t digest raw ones so apple chips are a lifesaver for me. Plus the chip crisp-factor is a HUGE win for me! I’m constantly buying apples for him as he eats them like it’s his job.
When these were done, you could smell that sweet, apple scent throughout the kitchen and those cinnamon ones. Seriously divine! As I plated them into the bowl you could hear the clink! clink! of the crunchy chips hitting against the porcelain. I swear he had dog-hearing as he heard that sound from a mile away and made a bee-line for the kitchen. We both reached for a chip and took a bite.
CRUNCH! We looked up at one another, locked eyes, and smiled. We both knew I did a good thing; a very delicious GOOD THING! Those 2 bowls lasted exactly one night here. We took them downstairs to snack on with our movie. We both agreed that these were a million times healthier than the regular bag of chips/pretzels or candy.
Buy one today so you can take full advantage of all those fresh fruits and veggies! With it being summer, we’re outside – hiking, biking, road trips and just being one with nature! Dehydrated fruits, veggies, and meats are absolutely PERFECT to keep on hand. They are delicious without sacrificing flavor and nutrients!
Other FAVORITE Brod & Taylor products that I LOVE
The absolute BEST Knife sharpener! As a Chef, I highly recommend this sharpener from Brod & Taylor. Read my article about it!
The Folding Bread Proofer & Slow Cooker – seriously, this changed how I made my dough! Read my article about it and how I made the BEST slow-cooked chicken thighs EVER!
This post is being sponsored by Brod & Taylor® featuring their Sahara Folding Dehydrator. As always, all opinions my own. Thank you for supporting partnerships with brands I trust and believe in.
Homemade Healthy Apple Chips
Healthy, Easy & Delicious Homemade Apple Chips! No need to heat up your kitchen with the amazing Brod & Taylor® Sahara Folding Dehydrator!
Ingredients
- 4–6 large Gala or Fuji apples, cleaned and dried
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Cold water to coat the apples
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1–2 drops of cinnamon oil
Instructions
- Assemble the Brod & Taylor® Sahara Folding Dehydrator.
- In a large bowl add the lemon juice and cold water, gently stir. Clean the apples and remove the stem. Using a Mandoline or sharp knife, slice the apples about 1/4-1/3″ thick. Place the sliced apples into the lemon water. Gently stir to ensure that all of the slices are coated with the lemon water. Soak for a 30 seconds to a minute.
- Drain the apples completely. If making cinnamon apples, place the drained apples back in the bowl, add in the cinnamon oil and ground cinnamon. Gently mix to combine.
- On each rack add a single layer of apples. Once all of the apple slices have been placed, close the doors of the unit and turn it on.
- Set the time to 7 hours (if the slices are very thin) or 10 hours (if they are thicker) and the temp to 135F. Press start and let it go.
- Once done, test a chip. If it is crispy and crunchy then your apple chips are done. If not, continue cooking. To store, place in an air tight container.
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