These great tasting carrots are the perfect way to draw out their natural sugars and intensifies their flavor, and is especially useful for less than fresh (but not limp) or too old tough carrots.
15 lbs carrots,
1.25 cup unsalted butter (2+ sticks, 16 Tbs), melted.
5 teaspoons salt
2.5 teaspoons pepper
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425. In a large bowl combine carrots with butter and 4 teaspoons salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper. Transfer carrots to lined cooking sheet and spread in a single layer.
Cover baking sheet tightly with foil and cook for 15 minutes. Remove foil and continue to cook, string twice until carrots are well browned and tender 30 to 35 minutes. Season with salt and pepper before serving.
What we learned:
12 lbs was the perfect amount of carrots for our gathering. Preparation took about 15 minutes, and we did not peel the carrots. 12 lbs spread out nicely on three full sheets with parchment paper, and tented with two strips of foil. We cooked covered for 15 minutes, but they only spent 15 minutes cooking uncovered, and could have used 10-15 minutes more, but we ran out of time, and the dry air of the convection oven began to dry and shrivel the carrots, which did re-hydrate 5 minutes after they came out of the oven and were served in a chaffing dish.
The next time we made this dish, we steamed the carrots (with olive oil and salt) in a foil covered steam pan in the convection oven for 30 minutes at 350, and then 30 minutes before serving them, placed them in a single layer and backed again for 20 minutes. They came out beautiful.
