When I first began my cookie adventure, I knew I just had to get my hands on a dehydrator. I am now an avid user of my little desk fan, although I do occasionally still lean on my dehydrator. Here is a breakdown...
Dehydrator PROS:
In my experience, every once in a while in my dry climate of Utah, sometimes my icing wants to be a beast and just not set nicely. This typically happens at random with a rainstorm creating humidity in the air. Whatever the culprit, setting the cookies in the dehydrator for five to eight minutes on the lowest setting sets my icing well so they are perfectly dry the following day.
Dehydrator CONS:
The dehydrator is loud and large in size.
You risk the potential of drying out your cookies quicker.
It becomes more of a risk issue to ruin your icing decorations moving your cookies around to get them in and out of the dehydrator.
They are more expensive than fans.
Fan PROS:
You get a nice shine when drying your cookies under a fan.
You risk less icing mess ups since you are simply moving a cookie sheet in front of a fan.
It's a great way to quickly dry one section when doing various textures.
It's cheap to buy!
Fan CONS:
I can't think of any...
Whatever your choice, I have to say I am personally grateful that I have both! However, I do lean on my fan 99.9% of the time.
When using a fan, simply place your cookie in front of it for five minutes. When using a dehydrator, you can place your cookies inside on the very lowest setting for five to ten minutes. It is also okay to just leave them in the dehydrator to dry overnight as long as you remember to turn it off after a max of ten minutes.
Here are my products that I use. I found this Mainstay fan at Walmart for under $20. I love it's slick clean look, and it is also nice and sturdy. The dehydrator was purchased off of Amazon for about $250.
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