How to Make Homemade Dried Apple Rings in the Oven

dried apple rings
Dry apple chips in a container – ready to hit the road anytime.

Dried apple rings are one of our favorite snacks.

It’s one of the things we like to make when we’re picking free apples with Fruit Share.  Prairie apples like Goodlands make awesome apple rings; they’re the perfect blend of tart and sweet. When our supply of prairie apples runs out, we turn to Spartans, Granny Smith or McIntosh apples to get our fix.

peeling apples
Peeling apples with a peeler is very handy… especially with piles of apples!
apple rings in oven
Apple rings nicely spaced out and ready to dry on regular oven racks.

Making apple rings in the oven is one of those super easy, hands-off recipes.  Peel, core and slice 3 or 4 apples, sprinkle on some cinnamon, place on cooling racks and pop them in the oven for several hours.  Yup, that’s it.  While they’re drying in the oven, you can be doing your taxes, helping the kids with homework or just chillin’.If you want a few more tips and ideas about soaking apples, whether or not to peel them, how to make apple chips, etc. look at the information in the post on How to Make Homemade Apple Rings in a Dehydrator.

How to Make Dried Apple Rings in the Oven

Print Recipe
4.15 from 7 votes

How to Make Homemade Dried Apple Rings in the Oven

A delicious snack for the whole family.
Prep : 10 minutes
Cook : 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 5 Apples
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 tsp cinnamon or pie spice

Instructions

  • Wash, peel (optional) and core apples.
  • Slice apples thinly and evenly (1/4 inch), use a mandolin if possible.
  • If desired, dip slices in anti-browning solution of 1/4 cup lemon juice in 1 quart of water.
  • Remove slices from water and pat dry.
  • Sprinkle slices with a light dusting of cinnamon.
  • Arrange apple slices on wire baking or cooling racks and position in oven. Or position apples directly on clean oven racks.
  • Set oven at the lowest temperature, about 150°F (65°C) and prop door open with a wooden spoon to allow for air circulation and moisture to escape the oven.
  • Bake for 5 to 8 hours. Times vary due to humidity levels, ovens, apple varieties, slice thickness, etc. Just keep checking.
  • Check apples for any moisture on outside and inside. The slices should feel dry and leathery without any tackiness. Rip a slice in half to see if there is any moisture on the inside – it should look like a dry dense sponge.
  • Allow to cool several hours before storing in an airtight bag or container.
  • Store in a dry, cool, dark place for several months, if you don’t eat them all! If you’re unsure about their dryness store in a freezer.

Notes

Case hardening occurs when the outside of food dries so quickly that moisture from the center is unable to escape due to drying with high heat. Therefore, very low temperatures are recommended for drying food. However, if you’re planning to eat all your apples right away, go ahead and turn up the heat to dry the outside.
Yield 5 apples worth
Tried this recipe?Mention @GetGettyS or tag #GetGettyS

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

Calories: 492kcal | Carbohydrates: 132g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Sodium: 10mg | Fiber: 23g | Sugar: 96g | Iron: 1mg
Course: dehydrated foods, Gifts, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apple, dehydrated snacks, gifts from the kitchen
laying out apple rings
Before: Apple rings on oven racks, ready to go in for their drying time.

Here are a couple more images of the process because I know everyone loves before and after photos!

done apple rings
After: Crispy apple rings, ready for snacking!

For those of you who are interested in making dried apple rings in the dehydrator or want to make batches of dried apple rings for long term storage, be sure to read How to Make Homemade Apple Rings in the Dehydrator.

Enjoy your apple ring snacks! Drop me a line and let me know how they turned out for you and what type of apple you used. So far, tart prairie apples are my favorite followed by Granny Smith.

Want to learn more?  Get Getty to facilitate a home cooking, using fruit or dehydrating session for you, a group of friends or a community group. Getty Stewart is an engaging and enthusiastic facilitator that makes it fun and easy to learn tasty recipes, time-saving tips, and helpful kitchen ideas. She is a Professional Home Economist, author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, mom and veggie gardener.

17 Comments

  1. Pingback: Best Dehydrator Recipes
  2. Here’s a hint we: drape the apple rings vertically over the bars of your racks instead of laying them horizontally–you’ll be able to fit WAY more rings in at a time!

  3. Thank you for sharing, this was the first link I followed from google (lie; I clicked on your dehydrator blog post first- OOPS!). My sister is always on about drying fruits in theirs, but I never gave it a go in our oven… thought it’d be too much work! Yea, right.

    With a busy 20-month old & 5-year old, I have my hands full at the best of times.

    We only have “warm” setting & 200, so I went with warm to be safe.

    I was shocked to smell burning & find 3 of the four pans black! Turns out littlest one ran changed the file to 350 (he grabs them with his toes while being carried….. yikes).

    Lesson learned!

    The one batch that didn’t burn turned out AMAZING.

    We picked our apples for free & being frugal I’d love to make them last. I seen you mention fruit leather, will check that recipe before I use all of ours on this amazing apple chips recipe!

    Thanks again.

    1. Oh dear! Those little ones – fingers and toes all over the place. I remember it well – enjoy every hair raising moment.

      I’m glad you had at least one successful batch to give you a good taste. We found that oven drying only ever produced enough for one evening snack – never could keep them away from the kids to store away for another day. Eventually we got a 9 tray dehydrator and now I can make enough to last a week or two.

      I bet you’ll love the fruit leather too.

      Enjoy and all the best,

      Getty

    1. Hi Christine,
      It must be that time of year! I’m up to my elbows in applesauce and fruit leather right now. Enjoy your apple rings.
      Getty

  4. Hi, My oven only goes down to 170 (it’s digital) do you think this would still work or would it be too hot?

    1. Hi Kristie,
      If you keep the oven door propped open a little, it should work. The concern is that with higher temps, the outside of the apples will dry and harden before the moisture in the center of the slices has a chance to escape (called case hardening). However, I suspect you’re not making batches upon batches of apples to store for several weeks. So, since you’ll likely enjoy the whole bunch within a few days – even if case hardening did occur, it wouldn’t matter. If you are planning on making these to store for a long time, just make sure they’re really dry all the way through. Good luck.

  5. Thank you for sharing!
    Made these last night. Tried a few flavours and some weren’t great, but that’s all me (made some salty and just used WAY too much salt, now I know!) My cinnamon/sugar ones were perfect!

    1. Hi Cassie,
      Glad you enjoyed them – well, most of them 🙂 It’s fun to experiment, even if there are a few flops along the way. I bet a chai spice might work, or maybe just some cardamom?

      All the best,
      Getty

  6. Thank you for the dried apple rings, oven method, Getty. In the UK here I have a glut of very very good apples. The earlier ones are just coming ripe and I can only make so many apple pies! I love dried apple rings just to eat on their own, and drying them means they don’t take up freezer room. The apples I’m processing at the moment are cookers (Grenadier) and in October the Bramleys will be ready. This method is useful for Grenadiers as they don’t keep well raw. The Bramleys should be OK stored in cool dark racks.

    1. Hi Anne,
      Thanks for visiting and sharing your apple harvest with us! Sounds like you have your hands full, but how great that you have early and late varieties. It is quite common that late apples store much better than the earlier varieties – convenient for us. Good luck.

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