OldMansd – You’re welcome. Hope that recipe works out for you!
Muffy1938 – As to your question about dehydrators, here are several things to consider: I have an old Excalibur 9-tray that I love. They are expensive but if you don’t need to get one right away and can afford to wait awhile, they seem to come down dramatically in price during flash sales. For example, Woot.com had the Excalibur 9-tray model on a flash sale in May 2018 for about $180 (plus tax and shipping), and then in December 2018 they had it on a flash sale again for about $155 (plus tax and shipping). They sell out very, very quickly (usually in one day or less) at those prices so if you want to snag one the next time they (hopefully) go on a flash sale I’d suggest you sign up to receive Woot.com’s emails. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a used Excalibur at a good price on EBay. If you want to get a dehydrator right away though, or want to spend less than a new Excalibur’s flash sale price or a used Excalibur’s price, I’ve heard several people say very good things about their Nesco square-shaped stacking-type dehydrators.
If you end up getting an Excalibur (or a different brand of box-shaped dehydrator with the heating/fan at the back), I’d suggest you try to get a 9-tray (or similar height) model. With that extra height you can use the dehydrator as a temperature controlled space to raise bread dough, or (as OldMt Woman said) to incubate yogurt, or to remove alternating trays to allow for the dehydration of taller food items on the remaining trays or simply to improve airflow and thus decrease the drying time.
Other features I would look for in any dehydrator would be the ability to select the temperature at which the drying takes place, and the ability to run the dehydrator at a low temperature (such as about 105 degrees Fahrenheit or lower) as well as at higher temperatures (For example, it is better to dry herbs at low temperatures). An optional feature that is nice to have is a timer (about a 26+ hour timer is nice) however, if you find a dehydrator you like at a good price that doesn’t have a built-in timer, you can usually get a separate, fairly inexpensive lamp-timer at a hardware store that you can plug into a wall outlet and then plug the dehydrator’s power cord into. If you go with a stacking-type dehydrator, it is good to get a brand for which you can purchase extra trays and “Fruit Leather” sheets if you decide you want to use those. Fruit Leather sheets are also available to fit Excalibur dehydrators if you end up getting one of those.
For my Excalibur, I ended up also purchasing a replacement door with a plexiglass panel in it so I could look through and visually check the progress of the dehydration. It’s nice to have but certainly is not essential.