Microwave Chip Maker

Potato chips are a guilty pleasure, and deep-frying your own at home just adds an oily mess to the equation. So when we spotted a gadget that promised to turn vegetables and fruit into crisp chips in the ­microwave—without any oil—we were intrigued. The Mastrad Topchips Chip Maker ($19.99, with slicer) is a perforated 11-inch silicone disk that holds 15 to 20 chips. The included slicer nimbly produced wafer-thin slices of potato, sweet potato, carrot, and apple that we microwaved for approximately three minutes (the cooking time varies depending on the food and your microwave’s wattage), successfully churning out crisp, fat-free chips. While we got similar results by spritzing potato slices with vegetable oil spray and microwaving them on a plate, the advantage of the Topchips product is quantity: You can stack up to three trays (a set of two additional trays is available for $19.99) to make more chips even faster. Plus, the Topchips slicer turns out chips of the perfect thickness; our mandoline-sliced chips were slightly thicker, with a bit less crunch.