Name: Roasted Maple Carrots with Browned Butter
Total time: 1 h
Ingredients: 2 pounds baby carrots (two 16-ounce bags); 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon table salt; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Why This Recipe Works

For our roasted carrot recipe, we wanted to release the sweetness from the carrots, yielding a caramelized exterior and a smooth, tender interior. We liked prepared baby carrots, which require no cleaning or cutting. Tossing them with olive oil and salt (no pepper—it masks the carrots’ flavor) and roasting them on a broiler pan in a hot oven for 20 minutes got us the roasted carrots recipe we were after.

Before You Begin

Inspect your bag of baby carrots carefully for pockets of water. Carrots taken from the top of the supermarket's carrot pile are often waterlogged. This not only makes carrots mealy, it also dashes any hopes of caramelization in the oven.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Toss carrots, oil, and salt in broiler-pan bottom. Spread into single layer and roast 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, while carrots continue to roast, heat butter in small saucepan over medium heat, swirling occasionally, and simmer until deep gold, about 1 minute. Off heat, stir in maple syrup and drizzle mixture over carrots. Shake pan to coat, and continue roasting about 8 minutes longer, shaking pan twice more, until carrots are browned and tender.