Wait! Before you hit the “Back” button on your browser, these are not the mushy, syrupy pieces of sad that you remember from your high school cafeteria. They’re a little sweet, a little salty, and still have a bit of texture to them.
For what it’s worth, I nearly got a fork in the back of my hand when I reached for seconds without asking my wife if she wanted any more. I guess that’s a good thing.
Ingredients
3 cups carrots, diced bite size
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
salt
Directions
You can scale this recipe up or down really easy. You don’t even need to deal with fractions on the ingredients. I love that. (By the way, make sure you open the brown sugar from the bottom of the bag, like I did. I’m not sure why it’s better, but there must have been a reason when I did it.)
Peel as many carrots as your family would eat, and chop off the stems and any flimsy, skinny tail ends.
Start chopping from the small end, about a quarter-inch thick. Keep going until the carrots are fatter than about an inch across, then split them in half and chop the rest of the way.
Once they’re all chopped, measure the pieces to see how much butter and sugar to use. Remember, one tablespoon of each per cup of carrots.
Melt the butter on high heat, add the carrots, salt to taste and stir to coat all the carrots with butter.
Stir often enough to keep the butter from scorching. As soon as the carrots start to change color (they’ll get a little darker) add the sugar and stir until it’s dissolved.
Add enough water to just barely cover the carrots and reduce the heat to a simmer.
Stir occasionally as the water reduces, until there is almost no syrup left in the pan, and it’s all on the carrots.
Pour out into your serving dish and pour over any remaining syrup.
And that’s it.
Coming up the rest of this week is something new I’m starting for the winter. I’m trying to get away from pre-made industrial convenience foods. The only way we can do that is by making my own convenience foods. There are lots of variations on the idea of once a month cooking. I’m doing something a little different.
14 Comments
These look yummy! Guess I’ll have to try them for Thanksgiving dinner! For my husband and myself, I can probably make the recipe smaller, but he will want the whole thing.
Have you taken a vacation? It has been a long time since I’ve seen anything from you!
This sounds good. There is something strange about the pictures of the peeled carrots – it looks like they are almost too orange, whereas your hand is almost black and white. Kind of like that film, Schindlers List, with the girl in colour.
Linda, I just did the fondue on Friday. Geez, miss one day and people think you’re slacking. (Seriously though, it’s nice to be missed.)
Ryan, I’m trying some new lights. I haven’t quite got the camera settings dialed in yet. Getting better though.
Oh my gosh, Drew! This is exactly how I make my carrots! And they are de-li-cious! Kids who say, “I don’t like carrots!” will like these if you tell them they are eating “candy.” (been there – done that!)
Delicious! I just might have to make these tonight! I wonder if some cinnamon would taste good in this recipe!
B., my kids actually like raw carrots. And broccoli.
Meg, I’d try it without the cinnamon first, but have it on hand to add like a condiment. It would be really easy to overpower the carrot flavor.
I love glazed carrots, but was never able to figure out proportions and it was always too gooey and sweet. Thanks for posting how to do it so they turn out great! I’m excited to try this – I’ve got a lot of carrots in the fridge that need to be used.
I actually had a scar on the back of my hand from getting stabbed with a fork until a couple years ago.
I was attempting to steal my brother’s steak…but yeesh.
Stephanie, while researching this one I saw several recipes that called for Karo syrup. Which is just a brand name for corn syrup. Blecch. Honestly I could have gone even a little less sweet than this. I just like how easy it is to remember the proportions.
Sweet Bird, I hope you learned your lesson.
Today, my eating was wholly inspired by your blog.
First were these glazed carrots. My wife loves Cracker Barrel’s glazed carrots, and I was so very happy to be able to make “perfect” ones for her here at home. Thanks!
Second was a batch of Corn Muffins whose mix had also been bought at Cracker Barrell. Recalling that the recipe asked for bacon fat, I baked bacon this morning (200°F, 2:30) and kept the grease per your tutorial.
Then finally, once I had everything laid out for the muffins, I realized I didn’t have the requisite buttermilk. Not wanting to go back out just to buy some bloody buttermilk, I remembered your recent meatloaf experiment with dairy substitution (“How To Make (a whole mess of) Meatoaf”); I found the half-gallon of egg nog in the fridge (http://www.oberweisdairy.com), and in it went instead of the buttermilk. Probably not what you intended, but it worked like a charm!
Mr. Kime, I love reading your blog! You, sir, are teaching me how to cook—the right way. :^D
Thor, this is my favorite comment I’ve received since starting the blog. Not just because of the compliment (oh, but thanks for that, too). It’s because you took one of the ideas I talked about and did something completely new with it. That, to me, is the difference between following recipes and cooking.
It’s never too late to comment right? I love your blog!
Have you ever done honeyed carrots?
Baby Carrots, butter, honey, fresh nutmeg, fresh cinamon, real vanilla extract.
It comes out a little less sweet.
Jaz, do you have amounts for that? My version is not very sweet, so you’d have to go pretty light on the honey to be even less sweet.
I tried this but substituted chicken stock for the water and it was delish! Thanks!