How to Dry Your Garlic for Homemade Garlic Powder!
The flavor of homemade garlic powder is unbeatable鈥攊t truly tastes like garlic that has just been picked from the garden (and nothing like that prepackaged stuff). Plus, it鈥檚 ready to be used all year long! See how to dry garlic to make your own garlic powder.
Reasons to Make Your Own Garlic Powder
A lot of commercial garlic powder is pretty bad in terms of quality; it doesn鈥檛 even smell or taste like garlic and can have an unpleasant aftertaste. Some producers don鈥檛 even bother removing the skin plus there isn鈥檛 FDA regulation around commodity spices so it鈥檚 difficult to know what鈥檚 truly inside the bottle. Unless you buy local garlic, many of the garlic bulbs sold in stores have gone past their peak (rubbery or soft) and have lost much of their medicinal value.
Truly fresh garlic is pungent, white, hard, and full of a juicy liquid. One way to maintain not only garlic鈥檚 flavor but also its healing powers is to dry it and make it into garlic powder! There are so many ways to use garlic powder, from shaking the seasoning into salad dressings and soups, onto potatoes, and even over popcorn.
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Dried garlic powder has a different purpose than raw garlic; it鈥檚 mellower and milder to enhance flavor versus the sharp taste of garlic in a main dish. Ideally, you could grow your own garlic, as it鈥檚 easy to plant your own bulbs in the fall. Otherwise, we do recommend buying local garlic bulbs for the freshest flavor if you can.
For those who wish to garden, garlic bulbs are popped into the soil in the fall and harvested in the summer once the leaves turn yellow-brown. See how to prepare your soil in our Garlic Growing Guide.
Making Garlic Powder in the Dehydrator
At harvest, I generally pick about eight bulbs of garlic at a time, bundle them tightly together, and tie them with string. I then hang the bundles for two to four weeks in a shady, airy place to begin to dry.
Whether you grow your own or buy your garlic cloves, the first step to making the powder is to separate all of the cloves. This can be a messy job, so do it all at once!
After separating the cloves, I cut the tops and the bottoms of the cloves and try to tear a strip or two of the skin.
Placing these cloves in a dehydrator tray, they are put at a low temperature (below 115掳F/46掳C) overnight. This will help to loosen the peels and aid the next process.
Day number two consists of peeling all of the cloves and then slicing them up in a food processor.
Back into the dehydrator they go for six or seven days. Again, keep the temperature below 115掳F/46掳C as this will help the garlic to maintain its healing properties.
Once the chips have cooled, they can be put in a tight jar until you have time to complete the process.
When you are ready to make the powder, put the chips in a blender (not too many at a time) and hit the 鈥渃hop鈥 button. Wait about a minute after processing before opening the blender, as there will be lots of powder floating at first. I then put the powder through a strainer so that the ultimate product is fine. The larger chips just go back into the blender.
Place into jars and seal. The flavor is unbeatable鈥攊t truly tastes like garlic that has just been picked from the garden. But now it is ready to be used all year long!
Making Garlic Powder in the Oven
Conversely, you can also make garlic powder in your oven. To do so:
- Preheat your oven to 175 degrees F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then place the sliced garlic on top.
- The garlic is ready after anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. Test it by seeing if a piece 鈥渟naps鈥 when you break it in half.
- Then, you need to let the garlic cool completely.
- Grind it into a powder by using a high-speed blender or coffee grinder.
Of course, garlic powder not only adds flavor to your meals but has some glorious health benefits, too. Learn more about the healing benefits of garlic.
Celeste Longacre
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I am not from almanac.com, but have you thought of putting your oven on the lowest setting, leaving it cracked and slowly roasting it? Granulated, roasted garlic would be heavenly.
Thx so much, Theresa. I wondered if it would be same to just use oven but I鈥檓 not sure I have a setting less than 175. I was hoping there was a modification for a regular oven or even a toaster oven but again, I鈥檓 not sure either has such a low setting. I鈥檒l have to check when I get home from work
Hi Cindi! Maybe try in your oven with only the oven light on. I鈥檓 not sure it will be hot enough, but it鈥檚 worth a shot. I proof my bread this way.
I was here to make this same comment. My oven has halogen lights, and with just the light on, it gets to about 120 degrees F inside. You could also set it at the lowest setting and leave the door cracked a bit. Or if you're really committed, you could turn the oven on every once in a while, let it start to heat up, and then turn it back off, just to keep it warm. Dehydrating in the oven is a lot easier for things like jerky that can take a bit more heat. With garlic, I would imagine that too much heat would give it more the flavor of roasted garlic rather than fresh, raw garlic. Which would also be lovely, but might not be what you're going for.
If I wanted to do this and didn't have a dehydrator, I'd probably put thinly sliced garlic on parchment paper in the oven with the heat off but the lights on and let it stay there for a few days until it was nice and crispy. I think you'd be successful with that.
Of course, you were asking this question over 5 months ago, so you have probably already experimented. Maybe you will come back and say what your experiences were!
Thx so much Nicole! I will give it a try!
How are you sealing/storing your finished product ?
I use my spice grinder for making all my powders...Hot pepper, dried Tomato etc. It works very well and makes a very fine powder. Be sure to wear a mask, Glasses, and gloves especially when working with peppers!
We love garlic but smelling like garlic all day? well you know I don't care but family, friends and neighbors sometimes do. We have found a little trick to remove the odor from your hands. Wash your hands while holding a stainless steel dinner knife ( dull type ) or butter knife in your hands as you wash. This also works for onions.
More precise drying times would be appreciated. When you state 'overnight', do you mean 8 hours, 10 hours or 12 hours? When you write 'six or seven days,' do you mean continuously in the hydrator for that long or six or seven days of 8 to 10 hours but not overnight? Thank you.
I think you are probably overthinking this. At such low temperatures, you're not going to harm it by leaving it too long in a dehydrator. All it can do is get dry. The first "overnight" seems to just be to make it easier to peel, which probably isn't even really necessary. So 8 hours, 12 hours, probably doesn't matter. And then I think she probably meant 6-7 continuous days in the dehydrator, but it might not take that long depending on how hot your dehydrator is, what the airflow is like, how much garlic you're drying, etc. Just take a slice out every so often when you think it might be done, let it cool to room temperature, and see if it is perfectly crisp or if it still has some bend to it. If you go longer than you need to, you haven't harmed anything.
