Drying Sweet Potatoes

We are approaching the end of our inventory of sweet potatoes that we harvested back in the fall. There's only a portion of a milk crate left.  Naturally, the biggest ones get eaten first as they are easier to peel.  We like to roast them, make mashed sweet potatoes, make sweet potato fries, bake them, and make sweet potato latkes out of them.  What else can we do with two medium sweet potatoes and a long, skinny one?

Well, let's get the dehydrator out and dry some sweet potatoes.  First, we have to get the food processor out and put on the slicing blade.  It takes no time to transform the sweet potatoes into something that resembles orange potato chips.  In about 12 hours they'll look even more like potato chips except they won't be fried.

Once they are sliced, you soak them in a bowl of water for a couple of hours.  This draws the excess starch out of them.  Make sure they are all wet by stirring them around from time to time while you wait.

After an hour and a half or two hours, take them out of the water bowl and shake the excess water off of them and then put them on a dish towel and pat dry.

Place them on the dehydrator trays and brush them with a light coating of coconut oil.  I'm wondering if this step could be sped up by putting them in a container and shaking them with coconut oil, but maybe the time saved would be offset by the time it takes to clean the container?

Then sprinkle the sliced sweet potatoes with cinnamon and flip them over and do likewise on the other side.

Put the trays on the dehydrator and turn the setting to 145 degrees Fahrenheit and allow them to dry for 10-12 hours.  You'll be surprised at how much they've shrunk, but all the flavor has condensed into sweet sweet potato chips.

We store them in a mason jar.  (But we don't have to store them for long!)