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
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup plus 1 TBS (250g) self rising flour.
- 1 teaspoon baking powder.
- 3 1/2 TBS (50g) butter, at room temperature.
- 6 1/2 TBS (75g) caster sugar (fine granulated sugar)
- 3/4 cup (175g) blueberries.
- the finely grated zest of one lemon.
- 2 large free range eggs, beaten.
- 9 fluid ounces (250ml) milk.
Fluffy Muffins
Muffin recipes are usually made with a simple batter including vegetable oil. This makes them softer and less dense and sturdy than a cupcake made from butter-based cake batter.
When making blueberry muffins What should you do to the blueberries to keep them in suspension? ›
Dust the berries with a little flour before stirring them into the batter to help keep them suspended. If that doesn't work, leave the berries out of the batter.
What does an ideal muffin look like? ›
What is a cafe-style muffin? To me the perfect cafe-style muffin is one that looks like looks like it's wearing a Mexican hat with a rounded top. It's the kind you draw when you're doodling (or is that just what I do?) and it's the kind that can be hard to achieve until you have some 'know-how'.
What is the secret to moist muffins? ›
How to Make Homemade Muffins Moist: Our Top Tips
- Tips to Make Homemade Muffins Moist.
- Keep Wet and Dry Ingredients Separately.
- Add All Flavorings Last.
- Consider Paper Liners.
- Don't Overfill the Muffin Cups.
- Check the Temperature of Your Oven.
- Test if Muffins Are Fully Cooked.
- Top Your Muffins with Flavor.
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.
What Makes Muffins Dense? Like other quick breads, dense texture can happen based on that trendy buzzword, gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, and it acts as the building block of bread making. Once you have the trifecta; gluten, water, and some form of agitation (stirring), gluten does its job effectively.
What type of flour makes the fluffiest muffins? ›
To achieve that at home, you'll need to have cake flour on hand. You can use cake flour in place of all purpose flour in any muffin recipe; just add an extra two tablespoons of cake flour per cup of AP flour that the recipe calls for.
What not to do when making muffins? ›
Common Muffin Making Mistakes To Avoid
- Over mixing the batter.
- Overfilling the muffin tray.
- Leaving the muffins in the pan after they have baked.
- Berries, nuts, and chocolate chips sink to the bottom.
It is really hard to find wild blueberries “fresh,” so I use frozen. Wild blueberries are smaller, and so they disperse better in the batter, in my opinion. You can use what you like. Frozen berries kind of “bleed” into the batter if mixed too much, so that is the only downside I can really think of.
Coating the berries with a spoonful of the recipe's dry ingredients prevents sinking. Instead, it helps the berries adhere to the batter, keeping them well distributed throughout the muffin. And if you're using frozen blueberries, the flour will also help minimize how much the berries bleed into the batter.
Do you drain blueberries for muffins? ›
If you don't drain them, you'll end up with blue-colored muffins! Also, draining helps keep excess liquid out of the batter.
What is the most important rule to follow when baking muffins? ›
The number one rule for successful muffins is: Don't over-mix the batter. Use a rubber spatula to quickly fold (gently stir) the liquid ingredients into the dry ones. A few streaks of flour still showing is okay, especially if you plan to add in extra ingredients like fruits and nuts.
Should you let muffin batter rest? ›
Quickbreads and muffins are hydrating batters, which means the flour absorbs the liquid over time, resulting in a very moist muffin, and improving the flavor. So let your muffin batter rest, up to 24 hours if possible.
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.
Should blueberry muffin batter be thick or thin? ›
Top the muffins with lots of blueberries and sanding sugar for a true bakery style muffin. Bake at a higher temperature initially to cause the muffins to rise quickly. Because the muffin batter is so thick, the blueberries stay in place and don't sink to the bottom of the muffins.
Why do berries sink to bottom in muffins? ›
There are a few reasons: Chunky ingredients are denser and usually heavier than the batter—so down they go. The heavier the ingredient, the more it will sink, until you have a nice bottom crust of blueberries instead of evenly distributed, gooey berry goodness.
What are the ingredients in blueberry muffin mix? ›
Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Artificial Blueberry Bits (Dextrose, Palm Oil, Pregelatinized Yellow Corn Flour, Wheat Flour, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Red 40 Lake And Blue 2 Lake), Dextrose, Canola And/Or Soybean Oil, Contains 2% Or ...
What color does berry juice turn when added to muffin batter? ›
But pie is one thing. Muffins, scones, cake, and coffeecake are quite another, frozen berries bleeding juice into batter to turn these golden-hued beauties a sickly shade of purple-green.
