I believe many toddlers don’t like fruit to such an extent as us parents would want. Especially now in cold winter days, when there are a lot of different viruses around us, the vitamin-rich food is even more important. My daughter is one of those little ones, who are straight resisting fruit and vegetables. ;)
(In the meantime, while we’re working on eating fresh ones too) I simply had to find another way of preparing fruits, that will taste good for her too. And it also sounds great–> chips! 🙂 But A LOT healthier than the fried potato ones.
Ingredients: (3-4 portions)
- 4 apples
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Peel the apples and cut them into pieces, add lemon juice and cinnamon. Use a food processor to puree the mixture.
Spread the mixture evenly with a spoon on a silicone baking pan, approximately 0.5 cm thick or a little less. Then insert the tray into the oven at 60 ° C, where the mixture will dehydrate. If you have a fruit dehydrator at home, you can use it instead of the oven.
In order to make sure all the water in the mixture evaporated, it can take from 6-8 hours (or a little more, depends on the fruit). If you have errands outside the home while the mixture dries, simply turn off the oven and turn it on again when you return home (no worries about it).
You’ll know the chips is ready and the mass is dry enough, when you can easily peel it off the silicone baking tray with your fingers (it’s no longer sticky).
You can tear the resulting thin layer into small pieces and the chips is ready! 🙂 Store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator up to a few–days, or you can freeze it in a suitable container for next time.
High amount of vitamins is maintained, because the fruit is heated only to 60 ° C (e.g. Vitamin C begins to denature around 70 ° C [source]).
We prefer to take our homemade fruit chips with us on a trip or a long walk around lake.
My daughter LOVED the apple chips! It was the first time, that I had to make sure she doesn’t eat too much fruit at once. ;)
