Whenever I need to peel apples for something, I always feel that throwing away the peels is wasteful. So I started dehydrating them for a later use.
I could put them in tea blends, I thought to myself.
Or, I could grind them into powder and add to my oatmeal, or as a topping on baked goods.
Even better, why not mix that powder with spices and sugar?
Above: three average-sized apples gave me the peels on the drying rack; and I saved the peels from maybe 3 apples previously. When ground in my mini food processor, this resulted in approximately 1/6 cup.
The method is pretty straightforward:
The next time you need to peel apples, try to keep the peels in large pieces. Arrange them on a rack, set on a baking pan, and dehydrate. I set these in the oven at 175F, and then forgot to turn the oven off when I went to bed (thankfully, I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered!), so it was on for about 10 hours. I assume they were done sometime well before that!
You don't need to dry them in the oven, if you have the time and space, you can just let the peels air-dry. But I think the low heat actually cooks the sugar a bit, I got a very nice toasty flavour from the peels this way!
Crush the dried peels in a food processor, spice grinder, or whatever implement you like, until it's a consistency you like. Mix in sugar and spices as you like. I used a raw small-granule sugar, ground cinnamon and ground cloves.
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