Maple Glazed Speck Wrapped Carrots

These 3 ingredient Maple Glazed Speck Wrapped Carrots are a super easy way to kick your carrots up a notch!

Looking to kick your carrots up a notch? These carrots are wrapped in speck and glazed with real maple syrup, then roasted to absolute carrot perfection.

I'm guessing it doesn't take too much imagination to appreciate the goodness that maple glazed speck brings to lovely carrots. You'll want to just pick them up and eat them like candy. Or if you have a little more restraint than me, serve them on a plate for dinner, to make carrots the star of your meal.

These carrots are so easy, the only question you might have is "what the heck is speck?!". If you aren't familiar with speck, here's a quick primer ...

What is Speck?

Speck is thinly sliced pork that looks similar to prosciutto (and comes from the same cut of pork), but prosciutto is cured, while speck is smoked. As such, speck has more of the taste profile of bacon, except bacon comes from pork belly. So in a nutshell ... looks like prosciutto, but tastes like bacon.

Cook's Notes for Maple Glazed Speck Wrapped Carrots

I believe that Speck is better known in Europe, but it is becoming more widely available and used in North America. When Speck shows up at my local, small-town Ontario Walmart, I know for sure it's gone mainstream here :) That said, if you can't lay your hands on it, you can substitute pancetta rounds or thinly sliced bacon.

When picking out your bunch of carrots, look for a bunch where the carrots are mostly the same thickness, so they will cook at the same rate. Also, look for thinner carrots, where the thickest part of the carrot is no more than about 3/4-inch thick. This will ensure that the carrot and speck cook thoroughly without under or over cooking one of the other.

While maple syrup makes a delicious glaze, it is sugar and sugar will burn and smoke when cooked at high temperatures. That's why I suggesting cooking the carrots/speck part way through before brushing with maple syrup. That said, you may get a little smoke or burning on the pan still towards the end, so be warned if your smoke detector is on the sensitive side. You can minimize the risk by wiping up some of the maple syrup that drips onto the pan before putting it back in the oven.

Test your carrots for done-ness by inserting the tip of a sharp knife near the top of the carrot. It should pass through with little resistance.