How to Make Roasted Garlic

Roasting garlic changes its character completely, making it less pungent, but also adding depth of flavor and sweetness from the caramelization. It is truly wonderful, and I almost never use raw garlic in my recipes anymore. I am not a fan of roasting whole heads of garlic, though, as it is messy and you lose too much of the garlic in the process of squeezing it out of the skins. Buying peeled garlic saves a lot of time and mess, and the result is even better in my opinion. (If you cannot find peeled garlic to buy, then I recommend using this method to peel your garlic as easily as possible.)

You only need a few ingredients to make roasted garlic:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I like to rinse the garlic and dry it on a kitchen towel, but this is optional. Add the garlic to a large bowl, add the oil, and toss to coat evenly:

Add the salt and pepper, and toss again:

Spray two half-sheet pans liberally with non-stick spray, then divide the garlic cloves between the two pans:

Spread the garlic out on the pans:

Cover the pans with foil, then prick the foil with a fork about twenty times per pan:

Put both pans in the oven for 30 minutes, switching the pans halfway through. Remove the foil, and roast for an additional 5 to 15 minutes, until the garlic is golden brown. (Check the bottom side of several cloves to be sure they aren’t getting too done as they brown faster than the tops.)

Let the pans cool completely, then use a spatula to loosen all of the garlic cloves. Put the pans in the freezer for at least an hour. (Freezing before bagging the garlic keeps the cloves from getting frozen to each other.) Once the garlic is frozen, loosen it from the pan again and transfer it to a Ziploc bag or an airtight container:

You now have a beautiful bag full of roasted garlic ready to use in your recipes!