Anyone who has been following along with me knows that I was playing around with Beet Chips the other day but couldn't get them to turn out the way I wanted. There was some Butternut Squash kicking around, so I sliced that up and threw it on the tray with the last of the beets. My thinking was that baking the beets at a high temp would burn the sugar, so they should go in at a low temp. That didn't work so well for the beets, but the squash was great!
Today I tried both again - still can't get the beets the way I wanted them. Rather than 250, I tried them at 300 degrees today. Instead of tiny beet chews like last time, I got average-sized chips, but they didn't look like some of the pretty ones I've seen online. Maybe I'm just being fussy, or maybe it's the difference in soil content depending on where you get them from. What do I know? I'll keep working on it. The funny thing was that my sister recently read or heard that you could nuke pepperoni slices to make them into chips. We tried it, and it made them kinda like bacon, so I joked that we should zap some of the beet chips that weren't as crisp. All kidding aside, she went ahead and did that - threw them in for 30 seconds, waited a minute and we tried them. Not only were they perfectly crisp, but that actually brought out the seasoning for some reason. I had whisked some olive oil, vinegar, salt, and garlic pepper and tossed them with that. When they came out of the oven, you didn't notice the garlic pepper so much, but you definitely did when they came out of the microwave!
Because the squash had come out so nicely last time at 250 over 2 hours, I was hoping to up the temp a bit and shorten the time, so I did the first batch at 275. They started to brown and develop bubbles before they actually got crisp, so I dropped the temp back down for the rest. They definitely like to take it slow!
Two squash "necks" sliced thin with a mandoline.
Tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
We also sprinkled smoked paprika on some.
Baked (on parchment) at 275 for 45" then flipped and baked for another 45".
See the bubbles starting?
Bummer since they're still not crisp enough.
Finished batch baked at 275.
I took a few parting shots of the last tray - the ones cooked at a lower temp that came out nicer - but when I pulled the pics up on the computer, I saw that they had come out blurry. Sorry! Imagine them like above, only brighter and less crinkled. :)
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