Crispy Baked Carrot Chips (Sweet or Spicy!)

My oven has an Appliance Identity Disorder and it thinks it's a microwave. Is there a support group for that? Crunchiness doesn't  just happen in my oven - I have to make it happen. Anything that needs to be cooked thoroughly AND become crunchy needs to be baked on the very top rack, practically touching the top of the oven. Otherwise the bottoms are going to burn and whatever I'm baking is going to be raw and soggy. When I saw these Crispy Baked Carrot Chips on Gina's blog, Running to the Kitchen, I knew I was going to have to babysit the oven while the chips baked in there.

Pumpkin Spice Carrot Chips 
Are they not beautiful? The little slices are Pumpkin Pie Spice flavored, and the long strips are Spicy Cayenne Pepper chips. The original recipe for the sweet little slices calls for ground cinnamon, but because 'tis is the season to eat pumpkin everything I figured I'd go with half cinnamon and half pumpkin pie spice. My spicy chips aren't too spicy because I am a heat wimp. I baked them in two batches, first the spicy strips and then the sweet slices, because I knew each batch would require my full attention or my oven was going to burn them. Know thy oven - wise words.

Spicy Cayenne Carrot Chips

While my chips were baking I watched them like a hawk, and I took out a few of the chips that were browning faster than others so they all got a chance to cook evenly. Some of my strips didn't crisp up much, but the ones that did were perfect! They are not hard and crunchy like a thick carrot chip that spent hours in a dehydrator, but they are delicately crispy so that you can grab them by the handful and stuff them in your mouth like a savage. At least that's what I did. My oven baked the slices more evenly than the strips (all the slices were crispy) so I will probably stick to slices from now on, at least until we can buy a more reliable oven. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Gina!

Today's cute-creature photo features a little flock of Red-Winged Blackbirds that found a delicious feast in our backyard. This picture was taken last winter. We haven't had any blizzards this year... yet!

Snowy Red-Winged Blackbirds (Winter 2012)

Comments

  1. Oooh carrot chips! Nice alternative to the sweet potato chip varieties.

    That photo of the blackbirds looks like a scene from an Edgar Allan Poe story… LOVE IT.

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    1. Definitely! I will stick to slices from now on though, because my oven can't quite handle the strips.

      The picture does look kind of dark and spooky! I need to teach these birds how to say "nevermore" :)

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    2. And then you have to watch the Gilmore Girls episode with the Poe society visiting!

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    3. Ha! I forgot all about that episode! A rewatch might be in order...

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  2. I lurve me some veggie chips, I really like the idea of making them at home but my oven is also a total failure in the crispiness department, my options are squishy or burnt. Looks like I'm going to be watching the oven like a hawk when I make these. Now the only question is, will this work for sweet potatoes, because I need me some of those.

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    1. What's up with these silly ovens not fulfilling their only duty in this world?! Let me know if your sweet potato chips get crispy so I can make some too!

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  3. Wowowo those chips sound great! I'll have to head over to the site to see the recipe.
    I'd love to eat some of these while watching some snow come down :)

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    1. And then if you run out of carrots for your chips, you could just "borrow" Frosty the Snowman's nose! :)

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  4. Yum!! My oven is a piece of crap too. But I'd like to try these in someone else's oven (I have 3 friends' houses within a few blocks from my house, so I've been know to borrow an oven from time to time).

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    1. What's up with ovens that don't oven? I wonder if a gas oven would be better at making things crispy than an electric oven.

      Do your friends let you use their ovens as long as you leave behind a batch of whatever you're making? :)

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  5. These look so freakin' delicious and easy to make! Did you use a mandolin slicer to get them that thin? That picture with the crows totally reminds me of some Game of Thrones ambiance (though they usually have crows, I think).

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    1. I actually used a good old potato peeler, with emphasis on the old, which could explain why my strips were not too even. A mandolin might actually help them bake more evenly though. Bed Bath and Beyond, here I come!

      I think I am the only person left in the world who has never watched a single episode of Game of Thrones.

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  6. Those look delicious! And the photo of those birds is just gorgeous - nice shot!

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    1. Thanks, Becky! I don't know why I hadn't shared that photo before. I have a massive backlog of unshared bird and duck pictures! :)

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  7. These crispy carrot chips look amazing! Keeping my fingers crossed that we still have some carrots at home so I can give these a try. The cayenne pepper ones sound like they'd be a big hit in my house!

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    1. All my fingers and toes are crossed! The spicy ones are really tasty, especially because the natural sweetness of the carrots compliments the heat from the pepper. Next time I make these (and I will stick with even-baking slices, I think) I will try adding some chili powder to them. I hope you enjoy them too if you make them!

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  8. Gorgeous! Just saw them on FG and then went to Gina's site and saw hers! I need these in my life!

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    1. Once you let these beauties into your life you'll never let them go! :)

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  9. I WANT THOSE! I'm having a primal reaction to the carrot strips so I must post this quickly and head to the source. Bye now.

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    1. A primal reaction! Now that you mention it I realize that I have primal reactions all the time, and they always manifest themselves after looking at food pictures. Now I know what to call my sudden drool incontinence when I see a picture of something delicious!

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  10. What is it with ovens and lack of crisping? Our oven is a few years old, but even when it was brand new crisping was not easy to achieve.
    Those chips look like they were worth the baby-sitting.

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    1. So it's a worldwide phenomenon then! Yesterday I read something... somewhere... (a message board? a blog post? I can't remember!) that suggested cracking the oven door open a little to let steam out and allow things to get crispy. I tried it with some roasted cauliflower and it kind of worked. Kind of.

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    1. Definitely! Hopefully your oven is better at its job than my soggy-doggy oven is.

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  12. a fan of both sweet and spicy, i tossed them together and turned out a some soft, some toasted (south ms oven troubles too!) and they barely lasted 5 minutes :D awesome recipe

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    1. Pesky ovens! That's the good thing about them lasting only five minutes - the chips that come out toasty don't have time to go soggy! :)

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