How do you make garlic powder without losing the flavor?

I have more garlic than I can plant so I tried making some garlic powder the other day. First I peeled the skins off and minced the cloves in a blender. The smell was so pungent that my family were complaining. I moved the tray outside to dry for a couple days. Now that the minced garlic is dry but the flavor is all gone too. Is there a way to preserve more flavor since allicin and other sulfer containing substances are volatile? Commercial garlic powder isn't stronger smelling either but maybe they start with a milder variety too.

How did you dry your garlic May?

Did you use a dehydrator and if so at what temperature?

I normally use my dehydrator and it seldom needs to stay on for more than a day and half at most at no more than 45C.

I spread the garlic in a thin layer on top of a sheet of baking paper or on the silicon trays that come with the dehydrator.

I leave it on overnight and flip the garlic over if the bottom is still sticky and ensure that the garlic is totally brittle before putting into a glass jar, just lightly crushing it.

I then transfer the granules to a pepper grinder.

The flavour is usually more intense than when the garlic is fresh.

I can only guess that perhaps the temperature was too high and the garlic was over dried?

Hi May,
I am not an expert, but I did make a big batch of garlic powder a couple years ago. It was so potent that when I had given some to a guy at work, his wife called him the next day, worried because she thought she smelled something hot and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It was the garlic I had put in a plastic bag, and the smell was coming through. The guy had put it in the cabinet without telling his wife and it smelled up the whole kitchen.

I grew phillips and siberian garlic, harvested it, cured it for a month or so, peeled it, blended it into a chunky paste in the food processor, spread it out on parchment paper in a cheap electric dehydrator. I think it might have been a day and a half... but I don't remember exactly. I did it until it was crunchy. I then used a mortar and pestle to do a course grind of the flat chunks that came out. I would use it that way, but some people I gave it to, preferred grinding to a powder. It looses flavor faster the smaller it is. So I kept it course ground as much as possible. It was still amazing a year later and even 18-24 months later, (in a glass jar with a cork, so not the best storage method), it would still beat the pants off store bought stuff.

While siberian is supposed to be one of the highest in allicin, the phillips is a pretty mild middle of the road variety that just does good in the cold. I kept the batches separate, and while you could taste a bit of a difference, they were both potent for a long time.

My only thought is that maybe the heat of the dehydrator dried it more quickly and kept some of the potency? As opposed to drying outside?

Thanks for the quick replies. I spreaded out the minced garlic of smaller than 1/8" chunks on a parchment paper and left it outdoors in the daytime and brought inside at night. It was sunny at 70s those two days. I felt it was dry enough for further crushing but I smell no garlic flavor at all. I ended up throwing it away. I will try another batch and make bigger chunks. I don't have a dehydrator so I need to come up with some ways to speed up the dehydration too.

I slice it - maybe 1/8" thick(?), and dehydrate it (electric; 105 - 115°F) sliced, then I leave it that way. There are some recipes in which I like slices better, anyway.  Then, I grind what I need powdered, as I need it. It holds its flavor and nutrients/ medicinal benefits better and longer, with less surface area exposed.

Carla, you are right about reducing exposed surface. I used the blender and part of it turned into sticky paste. Also I didn't tried crushing after it dried. Maybe some allicin was still locked up in the bigger pieces.

I've always had success cutting the cloves into slices and putting them into my dehydrator at 95F (it's lowest temp). I haven't made some in a few months, so I can't recall how long it usually takes, but once it is brittle I pull it out. I'll throw everything into a blender for a few pulses and put it into a container.

This is just using store bought cloves. The flavor of the homemade garlic powder is definitely more pronounced than the store-bought version.

Maybe try slicing it and putting it out to dry if you don't have a dehydrator?

Not sure if you’re still looking for suggestions, but I thought I’d throw this out. I have not dried garlic, but I preserve it by fermenting. It really keeps the flavor nicely. I blend the garlic +1.5-2% salt (by weight) into a paste. Put it in a jar (with a lid) and leave it on the counter a couple days before moving to the fridge or a cellar/cold pantry would be fine. It will change colors. First Green or black then a nice golden color. How the flavor changes will vary by batch. The at first it is VERY strong flavored. Much stronger than fresh garlic. Then it mellows out a bit to something closer to fresh (when it’s the golden color). It is salty, but I almost always use salt when I use garlic, so it doesn’t bother me. I like this method because it gives me something close to fresh garlic that is very convenient in the kitchen, and stores a long time.

Our weeks long rainy days are finally over so I am going to do it again with freshly harvested garlic eather than last year's old bulbs. I haven't tried fermenting garlic but I am very interested.  Thanks for the recommendation.