Christmas Carrots
(my adaptation of the Piccadilly restaurant's recipe for carrot soufflé)
4 pounds of baby carrots (pre peeled in bags)
2 sticks of salted real butter
5 large eggs, well beaten
3 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ cups sugar
4 Tbsp. flour
3 tsp. pure vanilla extract
powdered sugar for dusting
1. Boil the baby carrots until very tender and drain them well. While the carrots are hot, puree them in a food processor until smooth. I have a large food processor, so I puree them in two batches. Divide the butter into how many batches that you are going to puree. For me, doing two batches, I use 1 stick of butter in each batch. If you are doing 4 batches of puree, then you would use ½ stick of butter with each batch. It will depend on how large your processor is as to how many batches of puree that you will need to do.
2. Measure dry ingredients and add them to a mixing bowl and set aside. Once you have finished all of your puree, add puree to dry ingredients and mix with a heavy spatula. Take out 2-3 Tbsp. of the mixture and add to the bowl of beaten eggs to temper the eggs. Once mixed, add the egg mixture back to the large bowl of the carrot mixture and blend thoroughly.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9" x 13" baking dish with non stick cooking spray. Pour the soufflé mixture into the baking dish and bake at 350° for 1 hour. If using a disposable aluminum dish, choose the 9" x 13" lasagne pan. If using a dish of your own, a 9" x 13" glass dish works well.
4. Dust the top of the soufflé with powdered sugar and serve hot.
This dish has become one of my immediate family's favorites, so much so that no one want sweet potato casserole anymore. I made this on Christmas Eve for an extended family gathering. It went over very well, especially considering that it was being served to a "die hard" sweet potato casserole crowd!
It's so good that you can even eat it as a dessert!
Enjoy!
