Homemade Garlic Powder

I like to buy garlic in bulk because it is something we often use.  Unfortunately, we are not always able to use it fast enough, so I looked for ways to preserve garlic longer.  There are several ways to keep garlic.  It can be frozen, pickled, or pressure canned, just to name a few.  With some methods of preservation, there is a botulism risk, so you definitely need to research to make sure what you are doing is safe.

With our upcoming move, I decided to make garlic powder.  It took a little time, but it was not a complicated process at all.

I started by breaking ten heads of garlic into individual cloves, discarding any that were not good.  Next was the tedious process of peeling the garlic.  There are several ways you can accomplish this.  One method is to put the garlic cloves in a mason jar.  Close the lid and shake it vigorously.

Another is to put the cloves in a metal bowl and then put another on top.  The bowls should be the same size or able to be nested together with no gaps.  Again, this method requires vigorous shaking.  I prefer the old-fashioned way of peeling it by hand.  I take my large cutting board into the living room and peel garlic while I watch tv.

After peeling the garlic cloves, I sliced them.  After I spent a good bit of time slicing the garlic, Chris came into the kitchen and suggested that I use the mandolin.  I was nervous about using it because it is incredibly sharp, and there is an excellent risk of slicing fingers.  There is a finger guard for the mandolin, but garlic is too small to use the guard.  Instead, Chris gave me a cut guard glove.  It has a metal lining and is like wearing chain mail.

I put a rubber glove on over the cut guard glove to keep it from getting dirty and started slicing garlic.  The mandolin was much faster and more comfortable, and my slices were consistent.  I was happy that I had used the cut glove when I saw a slice missing out of the rubber glove.  Much better the glove than my finger!

After slicing the garlic, I covered two sheet trays with parchment paper and spread the garlic pieces out in a single layer.  I put the sheet pans in a 170-degree oven to dry the garlic.  A dehydrator would be excellent for this but, while it is on my wish list, I do not have one yet.  Ideally, the oven would be 150-degrees, but mine only goes down to 170.  I left the garlic in the oven until it dried to the point of being crispy, checking it every half hour.  The process took about four hours.

The final step was to grind the dried garlic into powder.  There are several ways to accomplish this, as well.  You can use a spice grinder, crush it with a mortar and pestle, or mash it with the back of a spoon.  I used the food processor attachment for my Bamix immersion blender.  I worked in batches and had a little over a cup of garlic powder in just a few minutes.

Chris tested it against our store-bought garlic powder and found the homemade had a superior garlic flavor without the extra additives.  I call that a success.