Central Florida foodie mecca “The Garlic” draws a large crowd starting every evening. You’ll notice the copious quantities of doggie bags leaving with patrons mostly because they’ve devoured far too much bread with its roasted garlic dip.

Here’s my husband and I there a few months ago.

Being 7 months pregnant with an intense garlic craving, I was ready to jump in my car and drive there until my husband reminded me that I had a large bag of garlic from Costco and could probably imitate their signature starter. The instructions on making the roasted garlic and balsamic glaze are below along with how to bring it all together so it’s like what you’d see at “The Garlic.”

Roasted Garlic

Ingredients

As many heads as you want to roast

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel away all the loose, outer layers around the head of garlic. Leave the head itself intact with all the cloves connected.
3. Trim off the top 1/4 inch off the garlic to expose the bulb
4. Put the bulbs trimmed side up in muffin tin
5. Drizzle with olive and sprinkle with salt and pepper
6. Cover muffin tin with alumunium foil.
7. Cook for 40 minutes.

Balsamic Glaze

Ingredients

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions

1. Mix balsamic vinegar with brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until glaze is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Glaze should coat the back of a spoon.
3. Let cool and pour into a jar with a lid; store in refrigerator.

“The Garlic” Copycat Starter

Ingredients

Roasted garlic – 1 head per bowl

Olive oil

Balsamic glaze

Salt to taste

Bread – I use Costco’s baguettes and cook at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes per the instructions.

Instructions

1. Smush the garlic out of the head into the bowl.
2. Drizzle oil over the garlic.
3. Drizzle balsamic glaze.
4. Sprinkle salt over mixture.
5. Break off baked bread to scoop up and enjoy.