Friday, May 14, 2010

Quick and Healthy Fruit Chips - Simple Saturday


No matter how healthy I try to be, when I hear a bag of chips being opened my head spins around. Old habits die hard and....well...gosh, salty sweet chips taste good. So, here's what we can do:
Quick and Healthy Fruit Chips
I have found that it's a lot easier to convince myself, children and friends to eat better IF I have something positive to offer, instead of a list of what we CAN'T eat. These chips take almost no effort, in fact I purposely show them (in the picture below) without a mandoline or anything fancier than a regular potato peeler. The biggest secret to great tasting fruit chips is having amazing product (read that as: farmer's market produce, fresh out of the ground/off the tree/picked from the bush deliciousness.)
Even in the heat of summer, you can easily slide a tray of these goodies into the oven because it doesn't need to get any higher than 200-220F.

It's as easy as:
Slice good, firm fruit into the thinnest slices possible (mandoline is great, but a potato peeler works too, or just carefully with a sharp knife).
Some fruit (ie, apples and bananas) do well with a little sprinkle of lemon juice to keep their color, but it's not required.

Place on a Silpat topped baking sheet (makes for easiest fruit chip removal).
Place for one hour in a preheated 200F oven
Remove and let fruit cool. If slices are sticky, try for a few more minutes, but don't let over-brown. (Bananas can take twice as long.)
When cooled, fruit chips will crisp up.

Optional extras to sprinkle - according to personal likes, allergies and age of chip-consumer:

sea salt
barbecue powder
Garam Masala

Wanna get fancier? Crumble the dried chips into a powder to sprinkle over seared scallops, ice cream, or fold into macaron batter.

Now, don't you feel chipper?

8 comments:

Brynn said...

This sounds so delicious and gluten free! I'm thinking I need to have a vanilla yogurt dip and some fruit chips for Sunday brunch!!

Unknown said...

I love this idea! Thanks for sharing it.

Rebekah said...

This is a great idea! So healthy and tasty!

Caroline said...

This is such a great idea! Definitely what I'm going to be snacking on this weekend!

Steff @ The Kitchen Trials said...

Saw a photo for these on TasteSpotting.com and had to see what they were all about. And now... I think I have a fun recipe for this coming weekend. Thanks for sharing!

Naomi Devlin said...

They look amazing - I can't believe they only take an hour! I guess the secret is getting the slices as thin as possible? Definitely making some cinnamon spiked apple chips this weekend.

x x x

showfoodchef said...

Brynn: Thx, hon. Let me know if you try them - LOVE the vanilla yogurt with them idea.

Megan: Thanks for stopping by - it makes the sharing worth it :D

Rebekah: Thx! Hope you try it.

Caroline: Let me know which fruit you make and how you liked it. Thx!

Steff: Thx for letting me know how you got here and for stopping by. Hope you try it.

Naomi: Cinnamon spiked is such a great way! Yeah, you can def make thicker slices if you have more time, too. Let me know how yours go. :D

Jackie @ Domestic Fits said...

Love these Fruit Chips! I used it in my post today about healthy treats for kids:
http://domesticfits.com/2011/12/01/world-aids-day-atrue-story-of-aids-in-an-elementary-school/