Apples and Pears

As I'm trying to prepare healthy, delicious snacks to bring along on our six-week road trip to the Pacific Northwest (yes, six weeks!  That's a lot of snacks as one of our friends mentioned, one seems to get hungry more often when on the road.  Now, you can form several hypothesis based on that observation... but, I digress), I keep coming back to a favorite snack - Pear and Apple Wafers (recipe below).  I have also substituted peaches with some success but my family decided that kiwis need to be crossed off the list - they were really sour.   In fact, I'm puckering at the thought!

Pear Wafers recipe (from Food and Wine, easily substituted with apples)

Makes about 50  wafers
Calories 98 kcal
Total fat 0.7 gm
Saturated fat 0.3 gm

When fresh pears are sliced extra thin and oven-dried at a very low temperature, they turn into crisp or chewy wafers. Their tart, concentrated flavor becomes even more intense as you eat them. The wafers make lovely snakes and beautiful garnishes for fruit desserts; or serve them on a plate with cookies.

The pears should be fragrant and ripe but still firm. For best results, slice them by hand on a mandoline. I slice them whole, with pits and stems intact, to get cross sections that resemble botanical prints. If you have perfect, full-flavored pears, you can skip the sugar syrup.

For two large pears, you will need one large sheet pan or two smaller ones. This recipe can easily be multiplied. If baking sheets are in short supply, you can arrange the pear slices on parchment paper and carefully slide the paper right onto the rack of the oven to use every available inch of space.

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 large firm pears (I always have enough sugar syrup for 4 pears)

1. Preheat the oven to 200F for crisp pear waters or 165F for chewy wafers. Line 2 large flat baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and stir over moderate heat until the sugar is dissolved. Sitr in the lemon juice.
3. Using a mandoline, thinly slice the pears lengthwise a scant 1/8 inch thick. Dip the pear slices in the sugar syrup, shaking off the excess, and arrange them on the lined sheets as close together as possible.
4. Bake the pears on the middle and bottom racks of the oven at 200F for 2.5 hours, or until crips; alternatively, bake them at 165F for about 8 hours for leathery wafers; shift the baking sheets from top to
bottom several times as the pears bake.

This year, I may try experimenting with plantains chips.  What's on your fruit crisps list?

Good Eats episode:
Apple Family Values (Season

• It's a Wonderful Waldorf
• 10 Minute Apple Sauce
• Baker, Baker

American Classics II: Apple of My Pie (Season 11)
Super Apple Pie

You might also be interested in:
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Apples
The Story of the Apple
The Great Book of Pears