Don't Throw Away Your Apple Scraps: Make This Tasty Snack Instead

For creative cooks, finding delicious ways to reuse food scraps can be a fun way to get innovative in the kitchen. From boiling leftover chicken bones into a hearty stock to making your own spice blend from garlic and onion peels, there's an abundance of zero-waste ways to make the most of your ingredients. Apple lovers especially should hold on to any peels left over from making an easy apple crumble or preparing a pie by turning them into tasty cinnamon sugar apple chips. Food Republic spoke to Imam Mansoor Rafiq Umar, CEO & president at Halal Watch World LLC, to learn how to transform apple scraps into this simple crave-worthy snack.

Though you can use any kind of peels, "I like using Honeycrisp apples, which have the perfect sweet firmness," says Imam Umar. To start, preheat an oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, then gather the discarded skins of about four or five apples. "Toss the peels with a mix of one tablespoon sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon," says Umar. Then, space the peels out in a uniform layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure they lay flat and have enough space between them for even cooking. Once everything is ready for the preheated oven, bake the apple skins for an hour to an hour and a half and flip them halfway through. You want them to be "crispy but not charred," he says.

Not only are apple skins edible (albeit, after being thoroughly washed of wax and pesticides), they're also chock full of vitamins A and C and contain nearly half of the fruit's natural fiber. While peeling your apples will allow them to soften more easily into a dessert or create a perfect aesthetic finish, throwing the scraps away means missing out on key nutrients. Making apple chips is an incredibly easy way to elevate those scraps, which can be used in a number of delicious ways. When preparing your chips, try sprinkling in small amounts of other spices like ground cardamom, allspice, or even ginger powder to create different flavor combinations. 

Use your apple chips as a textural topping for desserts like a cardamom ginger apple cake, or crumble them into your morning oatmeal for an added crunch. Dip them in your favorite caramel sauce, or drizzle them with honey and serve them as an accompaniment for soft goat cheese or baked Brie. You can also skip the seasonings altogether to create plain apple chips that are a perfect topping for fresh leafy salads. Dried peels can also be steeped in hot water for a fragrant apple tea, or blitzed in a blender or food processor to make apple powder, which can be used as its own spice.