Did you know that Scotland is the only country in the world where Coca-Cola is not the top selling soft drink?That is because Scottish drink Iron Brew, or Irn Bru as it says on the cans, is the nation’s favorite here. I like it, can’t say I drink it all the time, but it is a very different drink.It’s has ammonium ferric citrate (thanks Wikipedia) in it, which I think gives it the Iron name…
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Recently I was watching Martha Stewart videos, and a clip about no-fail French macaron making. It was with the handsome Thomas Joseph who has a great series on Martha’s website called ‘Kitchen Conundrums’ that goes into the science of cooking and baking.I try and I try, but I cannot make macarons very well, and thought to myself I really must give this recipe a go.
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What do these two things have in common? Well, I had Iron Brew flavouring in the pantry and a desire to make macaron after seeing the video –as you can guess, I decided to make Iron Brew Macaron.
The recipe makes a very thick macaron batter, thicker than I have seen on other tutorials and I wondered if this may be the reason this is a no-fail recipe. I flavoured the mix with the Iron Brew extract, which you can easily find online, and added some orange colouring before piping it onto a lined baking tray.
As it was thicker, it didn’t smooth out liked I hoped it would. They do look a little rustic, I know, a bit lumpy-bumpy. But the baked result was really, really delicious.I sandwiched the macarons together with some buttercream which I had dyed blue. The blue and orange are the colours of the Irn Bru can, that’s what I was going for there. I probably would add a bit more orange next time.
I have to say these are the best macarons I have made thus far and have Thomas Joseph to thank for that. You can follow the recipe, which I have converted to UK measurements, and add whatever flavourings or colours you like.
They were soft and crisp and had a subtle Iron Brew flavor which all my tasters loved. Here’s how I made them…
Iron Brew Macaron
with Scottish Iron Brew
Cuisine: Petit Four Category: Macaron Yields: 20-25 macaron
Prep Time: 30 Mins Cook Time: 13 Mins Total Time: 43 Mins
Ingredients
- 70 grams ground almonds
- 115 grams icing sugar
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon Iron Brew extract
- Orange food colouring paste
- Blue food colouring paste
- 100 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 50 grams icing sugar
- Preheat the oven to 180C and place the oven rack to the lowest part of the oven.
- In a food processor, blitz together the ground almonds and 115 grams icing sugar for one minute.
- Transfer to a sieve and pass through until all you are left with are larger pieces in the sieve.
- Blitz the remaining crumbs again and repeat the process until all but a teaspoon or so is left after re-sieving.
- In the bowl of a food mixer place the egg whites and granulated sugar. Beat together by hand, before beating on high in the food mixer for 5 minutes. The egg whites should be thick and glossy.
- Add the 1 teaspoon of the extract and orange colouring (as much as you like). Stir these through
- Fold the almond mix in the egg white mix, gently, so you don’t deflate the egg whites.
- Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. The rounds should be between just shy of an inch in diameter.
- Smack the baking tray off the worktop to get rid of any air bubbles.
- Place into the oven and bake for 13 minutes approximately.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Beat together the softened butter, 50 grams of granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon of iron brew extract and blue food colouring (amount will depend on color you prefer).
