Happy Accidents {Recipe: Jelly Glazed Baby Carrots} (2024)

FAQs

Are baby carrots just big carrots? ›

Baby carrots are just pieces of a fully-grown, regular adult carrot, cut into two-inch fragments by a machine. Once cut up, another machine rounds off the edges, so that the carrots end up looking like the ones you buy at the grocery store.

For one, these days, with all the demand, there aren't really enough weird-looking carrots to fill the need. So baby carrots are also often made with older carrots. As carrots age, the natural sugars turn to starch, which is why you might find that baby carrots frequently seem to taste a little less sweet.

But here's the big secret about baby carrots: They're actually pieces of carrots. "Cut into two-inch pieces and peeled, and put in a bag," explained Jeff Huckaby, the CEO of Grimmway Farms, the biggest carrot grower on Earth. One regular carrot might be cut into two, three, even four baby carrots.

Allow the glazed carrots to cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container. Store your leftovers in the refrigerator for up to four days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove. We don't recommend freezing these glazed carrots, as the texture will become mushy during the thawing process.

For these honey glazed carrots, I reheated them in the oven at 325 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until heated through.

Microwave the carrots on high for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Cooking times may vary depending on the power of your microwave and the size of the carrot pieces, so keep an eye on them to avoid overcooking. Higher wattage microwaves will cook the carrots faster, as will smaller carrot pieces.

Popular cultivars by size include Orbit and Thumbelina for small, round carrots; Baby Spike, Littlefinger, Minicor, and Short 'n Sweet for baby carrots; Red-Cored and Royal for Chantenay; Half-Long and 126 for Danvers; Bolero, Ingot, Coreless, Scarlet, Sweetness, and Touchon for Nantes; and Avenger, Gold Pak, Legend, ...

Beginner gardeners often make the mistake of sowing carrots very closely together and forgetting to thin them. The result is measly roots that look spindly, small, and underdeveloped.

Carrots can grow quite large but baby carrots are harvested when they are between 10 and 14cm long and about 2cm wide. They are much more tender and sweet than large carrots and are higher in beta carotene which helps us to see in the dark.