Hi
I had to share this. About a month ago, someone posted a recipe
claiming to be the authentic Jordan Marsh Muffins on the ne.food group I
read. I countered with ‘Martha and Gus’s Muffins” which my mother had
clipped from a paper decades ago (also ostensibly the REAL THING). Today, I
get the message below from a guy who was cruising around on the internet.
———-
> From: “Ed Roberts”
> Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 21:09:07 -0500
> To: [emailprotected]
> Subject: Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins
>
>
> Hi
> I saw your post on Google for JM muffins. I thought that you would get a
> kick out of this story.
> My aunt worked in the JM bake shop for years. She did a big favor for the
> baker. He asked if there was anything that he could do for her. She asked
> for the recipe for the blueberry muffins. He explained that “The Recipe”
> was a closely guarded secret and besides “The Recipe” was for 25 dozen. He
> said that he would give her “A Recipe” for a couple dozen blueberry muffins.
> With a wink he gave her “A Recipe”.
> A few years latter she called the Gus Saunders show and offered a blueberry
> muffin recipe. The way the show worked was if someone wanted to hear the
> recipe they would call Saunders and he would ask the original caller to
> call back. My aunt read the receipe on the air. She told Gus that it was a
> recipe that she found on the street. She called them “trash can muffins”
> For the next few days people were calling Gus’ show saying that they tasted
> just like the JM muffins. Gus asked for the person who gave the recipe to
> call back. My aunt didn’t..she was having too much fun being mysterious.
> The recipe that you posted is exactly the recipe that she gave me about 35
> years ago. I’m pretty confident that it is a cut down version of the real
> thing.
>
> Enjoy
> Ed
What I had posted was (including the recipe) :
“I was the original poster– looking for a cook book collection of old
Boston recipes. As it happens the one recipe I have is a recipe that
approximates Jordan’s.
I have it on no authority that this is the authentic recipe, since there are
about a dozen floating around claiming to be “the one”. However I have made
this over the last 30 years and it comes close. Buttermilk and cake flour
seem to be the secret to the cottony interior texture that most muffins
lack.
I have no idea who “Martha and Gus” are but I wonder if Gus is Gus Saunders
who for years did the Yankee Kitchen call-in show on the radio.
Powdered buttermilk is an acceptable substitution. Follow directions to reconstitute buttermilk on the package. Cake flour is essential.
Also, this recipe has a lot of strange quantities, so measure carefully.
Once I experimented with lopping off all the odd tablespoons, but the end
result was tougher, so I reverted back to the original. Whether you use
blueberries as prescribed, or divide the batter and make some with finely
diced apples, dates, cranberries, raspberries or bananas, this is a really
great recipe.
If you have them, use those giant muffin pans, but this still makes quite a
large batch, at least several dozen, so plan to share or freeze!
Martha and Gus’s Muffins
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon solid shortening
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
5 extra large eggs
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon unsifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 2/3 cups cake flour (Soft-as-Silk)
2 pints blueberries or 4 cups other fruit.
2 egg whites, beaten with 1 tablespoon water until frothy
additional sugar
Preheat oven to 400∂. Cream first all purpose flour with salt, shortening,
and sugar. Add eggs all at once and beat 3 minutes with electric mixer.
Add remaining remaining all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder.
Beat again. Blend in buttermilk and vanilla. Add cake flour and beat until
mixed. Batter will be very stiff. Fold in fruit of choice, dividing batter
if you want to make several kinds. Grease muffin tins well and fill 3/4
full. Brush egg white mixture over tops with brush or your fingertips.
Sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden. Let cool
in tins for 10 minutes, then remove to racks to finish cooling. Batter may
be stored 3 days before baking. I usually add the fruit just before baking,
however.
FAQs
Chilling your muffin batter overnight in the fridge is the BEST thing you can do for amazing muffins. It makes them more moist, tender, and TALLER! It's very similar to chilling cookie dough, which if you know me you know I'm obsessed with chilling cookie dough. Think of it like marinating.
How do you doctor up a blueberry muffin mix? ›
5 Ways To Jazz Up Muffin Mix
- Add Fresh or Frozen Fruit to the Batter. Our Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix comes with a can of blueberries for your convenience, but you can easily add fruit to any of our mixes. ...
- Add a Cream Cheese Filling. ...
- Add Nuts to the Batter. ...
- Add a Sweet Topping. ...
- Make Something Completely Different.
The recipe, as originally written, produced wonderful muffins but they dried out quickly and tasted overly dense. In the past few years, I've worked to improve it by replacing some of the oil with melted butter, some baking powder with baking soda, and adding sour cream for moisture and lightness.
Why are Bakery muffins so much better? ›
The best bakery-style crumb muffins start with cake flour
Cake flour is more finely ground and has less protein, which leaves the muffins with a fine, light crumb and soft texture. Using cake flour is an easy way to avoid heavy, dense muffins even if you end up stirring just a bit too much.
Why are my blueberry muffins so dense? ›
Too much liquid – If there is too much liquid in the batter, the muffins will be very dense. Make sure to measure liquid ingredients in the correct type of measuring cup. There's a big difference between measuring cups for dry ingredients and those for liquids.
What happens if you stir muffin batter until smooth? ›
Realize that overmixing can cause muffins to be tough, bake unevenly, create elongated holes (or tunnels) and/or form peaked tops.
Why are my muffins so dry and dense? ›
For baking you need to use a product that is a minimum of 70% fat. Spreads with less fat contain more water, resulting in dry, less tender muffins. Remember that one stick of butter or margarine is equal to 1/2 cup and not 1 cup. If you confused the two, you will be cutting the amount of fat used by half.
Should blueberry muffin batter be thick or thin? ›
Overview: Ingredients To Use & Why
Flour: This blueberry muffin recipe uses 3 cups of all-purpose flour. The batter is thick and sturdy to keep the blueberries elevated so they won't all sink down!
How to make muffin box mix better? ›
Box Muffin Add-Ins
- Add fresh or frozen berries! Your berry muffin mix will definitely have some berries included, but the more the berrier. ...
- add zest! Zest a lemon, an orange, or a lime and stir the zest into the batter for a burst of citrus.
- fill with cream cheese! ...
- fill with jam or fruit curd!
Start the oven on high
Bake your muffins at 400°F for the first 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to the more standard 350°F for the remainder of the bake time. This method sparks the leavening agents (especially baking powder) in the batter to react quicker, creating that gorgeously risen top.
When I was researching muffin recipes for #weeknightbakingbook, I discovered that muffins dome really well when first baked at a high temperature like 425 (F). Doing so encourages the baking powder in the batter to react faster, causing the muffins to rise more quickly in the oven.
What type of flour makes the fluffiest muffins? ›
Cake Flour - Makes these muffins super tender and fluffy.
Should you let muffin batter rest? ›
Rest the Muffin Batter
The first, most hands-off way to make your muffins pop (literally) is to let the batter rest. Make the batter, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. If you're short on time, just 30 minutes can make a difference.
What to add to muffin mix to make it moist? ›
The traditional options are apple sauce, pumpkin purée, and mashed banana, but puréed white beans or puréed peaches can also work. Remember to adjust your other liquids to account for the added moisture. Increasing the sugar content of the recipe can also help.
Is oil or butter better for muffins? ›
Many muffin recipes use cooking oil instead of butter. Oil, being a liquid, distributes easily in the quick-mix batter and is readily absorbed into the baked muffin, producing a light non-greasy texture. Vegetable oil is ideal because its mild flavour doesn't compete with the main flavour of the muffin.
What does adding an extra egg do to muffins? ›
Using too few eggs will make your desserts dense, but using too many will make them rubbery. The explanation for this lies in the fact that eggs are made up of protein. As Fine Cooking explains, when the protein in eggs combines with the protein in flour, they produce the overall structure of the baked good.
