Royal Icing Drying with Strange Texture in Dehydrator

Did you store your icing then mix the colors you added color into, but not re-stir the white? Did you add white food coloring only to the white? Did you move your white into a different bowl/spatula/bag that may have had residue on it? (Plastic can have invisible grease in the texture, etc.) Did you decorate them all at the same time? Do you have a parakeet using your dehydrator as a sauna, that likes to bump its beak against white or dark pink things?

Lol, I'm a little stumped. There must be something different that happened to the odd ones, but it can be hard to figure it out. My vote is the parakeet. Hopefully someone else has a better idea.

Maybe to much water in your royal icing plus humidity and slow dry time (weather humidity)?  It looks like the bubbles on your royal icing took time pop there.   Crumble means not total dry.

Anyone here who has Sherlock Holmes's number? He could rule out the impossible, and what remains will be the answer, however unlikely. It might be the parakeet, sounds reasonable *lol*

 

OK, deduction:

I don't believe the color has much to do with this effect, as you have the strongest outcome with no color. Should be some matter with the icing itself. It looks indeed like millions of tiny air bubbles broke through the surface after it had already crusted. I'm not sure, but when I look at the cookie on the left and middle, I think I can even see trace marks of the tip you used to flood. Do you let your icing sit for a while after adding water for the right consistency? If not, this would explain the bubbles, but still not the overall outcome, as not all cookies turned like this. There must also be something else.

 

As you dry in a dehydrator, and those cookies were on the bottom racks - were they the ones you iced first? Because it might be that they had already crusted slightly - more than the ones on the higher racks anyway - when you started the dehydrator. I am not familiar with that device, but I guess it makes some noises, hums a little, etc.? If yes, it also vibrates, however slightly, even if humans don't even notice.

 

Now my theory: you had a batch of white RI with more air bubbles than usual. You iced all of them, put them on the trays and started the dehydrator. The ones on the lowest racks had already crusted a little at that time, but not enough to have a stable surface. The slight vibration of the dehydrator causes the air bubbles to rise to the surface, and as the weird ones were the closest to the bottom, they got more vibrations than the others. Additionally they already had a crust, so the surface couldn't smooth out anymore after the bubbles rose AND they were farthest from the heat/fan. Due to that reason the surface crust didn't become thick enough to prevent the bubbles from breaking through.

Air dried longer than the others, a tiny bit more vibration, and the least ventilation - et voila, you have a very cool ripple effect.

 

At least to me this sounds logical, but this is really only guesswork. Could be aliens who played you a prank, too

Questions to help deduce the problem:

 

1. Were the other cookies in the top racks also white and mixed with the same batch of icing? (Trying to establish a control.)

 

2. Were the other cookies in the dehydrator on top of these two trays for the full two hours? Or were these cookies in the bottom two trays with empty racks above them the entire time?

 

3. Why did you dry for two hours? Weird stuff can start happening to colors/icing after a half hour at the lowest temp - cracking, mottling of color, etc. Seems too long to not have something strange happen.

This happens to most of us at some point, but can be caused by a variety of things. You may want to try narrowing the cause down to environmental, technique, and ingredients. Jotting down notes of the temperature/weather, times, etc. can help, as can video taping yourself.

Next time you make cookies, try be as consistent as possible. Wash everything at once, store icing in identical containers, use a timer to be sure each thing is mixed or dried for the same length of time, etc. Use a variety of different colors and consistencies during the same time period, so any problem with a specific color will be obvious. You will know it could have not been environmental because that would have caused a problem with every color.

The problem could be completely unrelated to the cookies, lol. Running your washer or drier or oven can cause vibrations, temperature changes, and add moisture to the air. The same thing goes for opening a window, etc. Don't forget kids and pets (and spouses) can be sneaky! Maybe your child can only reach the lower racks of the dehydrator, or your dog only licks a trayfull cookies while you are out of the room?

I hope you figure it out quickly and easily!

Thanks so much for all the responses! 

 

To answer some of the questions:

I made the icing and used it right away, just plain, no white food colouring added. 

All the cookies were iced with white, same batch of icing, just adding more to my piping bag as I went along. I iced them, put them on the racks, but didn't turn the dehydrator on until I was finished them all. I wasn't sure how long they should be in the dehydrator for - is it just until they crust? I usually forget about them, hence the 2 hours. 

 

I did decorate those ones first, so they ended up at the bottom of the stack of cookies. I think it could make sense that there was air in the icing that bubbled up and caused the weird texture. And then as I iced the rest, the air bubbles in my icing batch probably came to the surface and were released as I took out more icing for my piping bag. Next time I'll make my icing and let it sit for awhile before I start to decorate -- any suggestion on how long to wait? Maybe I'll skip the dehydrator next time too. Not sure it makes any difference on the sheen. The racks sure are handy for storing a bunch of cookies though! 

 

Thanks again everyone!

Darn, I was hoping for the aliens! It sounds like you found a solution. I am curious, could the same thing have happened with the red? Just for kicks you could do a couple the same way next time, and confirm it was the cause. Maybe even take photos, if you think it could help. Someone else will have to answer the dehydrator question, as I don't have one yet.

You only need to wait a little while for the bubbles to rise, I usually give it 15-20 minutes. Pay attention when you add color and see if stirring removes the bubbles, or adds more. Gently running a spatula through after the bubbles rise can sometimes pop most of them. I also tap my cookies after icing them, and pop any that rise with a turkey lacer or scribe tool.

Also, thank you everyone, especially Laegwen, for inspiring a new idea.
After writing about the vibrations from appliances, I may put my bowl of icing on the dryer to see if it banishes even more bubbles!

I don't think it has anything to do with air bubbles settling out of the icing. I only say this because I never let my icing rest, and it only get marginally less bubbly as I ice. If the cookies on the top trays looked good, my guess is one of two things: (1) the ones sitting on the bottom sat there too long without good air circulation or (2) the dehydrator was overfilled, preventing good warm air from getting to the bottom rack. I think if you dry as you go, placing the wettest cookies in the top rack, and then moving them out as the icing is just set on the outside, you'll get a better result. That Nesco dehydrator is small, and if anything blocks the central air channel, you can get weird air flow and bad results (rippled/wrinkled icing, for instance). 

Sorry I may not able to answer your problem. But I'm using dehydrator for all my cookies and some dry more than 10 hours. I'm using americolor. I have no problem at all and the surface is smooth.

Will be probably the type of dehydrator or the heat too high? Or icing consistencies?

Just remember I did experience when my icing too runny and dry with dehydrator, the surface more rough and with tiny holes everywhere.

Hi, I haven't used this recipe and I don't use a dehydrator but I have had that same texture twice. Once was some of the black sections of the soccer balls in my profile picture. I assumed the problem was the high amount of gel colour because I had heard that black icing can be problematic. But, I had the same thing happen a year later with pure RI, no colouring agent at all. So the problem is NOT the dehydrator and NOT food colour related. I thought it might be grease from the cookie itself, but that doesn't explain why only some of the icing crinkle/cracks. Possibly it is a consistency issue or it might have been mixed too long. This problem is actually why I joined this site, lol.

Thanks for the info - your experience doesn't mean that it wasn't a drying issue though, and thus doesn't preclude the possibility that poor positioning in the dehydrator (slow drying) could have contributed to the problem.