Make Your Own Garlic Powder

Did you know that you can make your own garlic powder?

To get started you will need:

• Garlic Bulb

• Cutting board

• Small sharp knife

• Large sharp knife or spatula

• Spice grinder or coffee grinder (I use a Cool Knight coffee grinder)

• Dehydrator with fruit leather tray and plastic mesh sheet (I use a Magic Mill Dehydrator)

• Small wire strainer

• Spoon

• Small metal or glass container that can be tightly sealed or small sealable plastic bag.

If you grow your own garlic it will need to be hung dry for at least 3-4 weeks. Or you can purchase the dry bulbs at the grocery store. Once dry, take a bulb and roll it between your palms using a firm grip until the bulb starts to fall apart, into separate cloves. Then I take a clove and put it on my cutting board, lay the flat side of a knife on the clove, then hit the other flat side of the knife with my other hand just hard enough to slightly crush the clove. If you are uncomfortable with this procedure you can use a rolling pin or spatula to do the same thing. Once the cloves have been crushed you should be able to remove the papery skin by holding both ends of the clove and giving it a slight twist to help pull the skin off.

Once peeled, you will need to cut off and dispose of the stem end of the cloves. Then roughly chop the cloves so that they can be dehydrated faster. Put one of the plastic dehydrator meshes on top of one of the dehydrator racks, then place the chopped garlic on the mesh.

Dehydrate the pieces at 105 degrees for 18-24 hours. Test the dryness occasionally. They are ready when one of the larger pieces is crisp and it snaps when broken. Once the garlic is dry, you will grind the pieces in a coffee or spice grinder. You can grind it to a powder if you like, or leave it with a small grittier texture, which is the way I like it. I grind the garlic using a pulsing action, periodically pouring it through a wire strainer and stirring the garlic in the strainer to separate the powder and bits. I will return the bits to the grinder several more times until I have the garlic powder to the texture that I like.

Once I have a texture that I like I transfer it to the fruit leather tray of my dehydrator. At this point you might notice that the powder is still sticky. I spread the powder out the tray and return it to the dehydrator, dehydrating the powdered garlic for another 8-10 hours until it is no longer sticky.

Now you can put the powder in a tightly sealed plastic, glass or metal container. Label it with the contents and date it was processed. Store in a cool dry area or refrigerator for the longest, freshest shelf life.

If you want to see the full video of this process go to the gallery on this website. If you want to purchase this garlic powder return to the store on this website.