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Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins are legendary in the Boston area. We’re sharing the recipe today – including tips and tricks from the man who baked these muffins for 45 years.
There’s a saying that goes, “God is in the details.” Meaning – when attention is paid to small details, it yields great rewards. Such is the case with today’s recipe for The Real Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins!
Jordan Marsh Company was a New England-based department store with its flagship store located in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. Years ago, many Bostonians (including myself) made frequent pilgrimages to the Jordan Marsh bakery just for their legendary blueberry muffins.
The Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins were perfection! A huge, sweet, tender, cake-like muffin that baked up into a perfectly domed, sugar-crusted muffin top! Inside was a generous amount of juicy blueberries – so juicy they stained the muffin batter in parts a distinctive purple-blue color.
If you search online, there are many sites that have already shared the same version of the Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins recipe over the years. I’ve tried that recipe, and while the muffins were very good, they really weren’t the same as the muffins I remember eating from the Jordan Marsh bakery.
So I was thrilled to see a recent local Boston news reporter, Maria Stephanos, interview John Pupek – the now-retired baker who made the Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins for 30 years! Maria convinced John to come out of retirement to share his secret tips and tricks for making those amazing muffins. You can see her broadcast here.
As soon as we saw this news report, I knew I wanted to try making the Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins recipe again! And while Maria shares the muffin recipe, as written, it didn’t reflect all of those little details that John shared with her in the interview. We made three different batches of muffins – listening to the video for additional secrets before we got it right!
Our written recipe below details some specifics including:
Use a blend of bread and pastry flour (we used a 50/50 mix)
Slowly cream the sugar and shortening until lightly and fluffy. (We settled on a mix of butter and shortening. While the recipe listed butter, if you listen to the video of the interview, John mentions “shortening” – but we felt 100% shortening didn’t have as much flavor as a butter and shortening combination).
Use fortified eggs (we used Eggland’s Best which have more Omega-3 fatty acids than typical eggs) and add them gradually to the sugar/shortening mixture.
Mash ½ cup of the blueberries (this helps gives the muffins their distinctive color as well as additional moisture).
Coat the remaining blueberries with some of the flour mixture before stirring them into the batter. (In watching the video, we were certain that they used frozen blueberries rather than fresh blueberries based on the amount of juices in the bowl.)
Don’t over mix the batter, otherwise it will yield a tough muffin.
Generously grease the muffin pans with shortening – including the top of the pan. We also recommend using paper liners – the two batches we attempted without liners stuck to the pan. Then fill the muffin cups with a heaping amount of batter.
Generously coat the top of each filled muffin cup with sugar.
And this is one of our tips: To get that wonderful domed top – start with a very hot oven, then reduce to a lower temperature after baking for five minutes.
After following the tips and tricks from the news broadcast – and some trial and error of our own at home – we think these make-at-home Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins are very close to the real deal! Enjoy!
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
The Real Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 whole fortified eggs such as Eggland’s Best
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups frozen blueberries, thawed
- 1 cup white pastry flour
- 1 cup bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, for tops
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the center of the oven.
- Spray the inside of a 12 cup muffin tin with pan spray (You will only be using 10 of the 12). Then, using vegetable shortening, liberally grease the top of the pan. Place muffin papers into the sprayed holes. Set the pan aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and shortening for one minute with the paddle attachment.
- Add sugar and beat on medium for about one minute.
- With the machine on medium, add one egg at a time and blend to mix. Scrape sides then beat on medium for two and a half minutes. This is important to whip air into the batter.
- Add vanilla and beat for a few more seconds to combine.
- Remove ½ cup of blueberries to a small bowl and mash with a fork or a potato masher. Set aside.
- See how much liquid the blueberries gave up. I determined that it was a bit too much and pulled ¼ cup of liquid out which I did not use in the muffins. I did leave some juice in with the blueberries however, maybe about ¼ to 1/3 cup.
- Take two tablespoons of either flour type and sprinkle over the whole blueberries and toss to coat.
- Mix both flours, salt and baking powder in a small bowl. Just stir a few times to mix.
- Start adding the flour mixture and the milk a little at a time with the mixer running. Once they are both in, do not mix further. You want to just get them incorporated without over mixing. Otherwise the muffins will be tough.
- Remove the mixing bowl to your counter and fold in the mashed blueberries. Then fold in the whole berries with the juice.
- The traditional Jordan Marsh blueberry had a purple/blue tint from the berry juice.
- Using an ice-cream scoop, divide the mixture between ten cups of the prepared 12 cup muffin tin. The batter will be piled high above the rim.
- Sprinkle the final granulated sugar over the tops of each muffin (total 2 tablespoons) and immediately place in the oven.
- Bake for five minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for 20 more minutes. (If your oven has a hot spot, rotate pan halfway through. Do not over bake. They will be soft but 25 minutes is plenty of time and they will bake a little further outside of the oven.)
- Remove to a rack to cool.
- Once cool, gently pry the muffins out by making sure the overhang did not stick to the pan top.
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Jessica says
Great recipe! I will be trying this tomorrow. Did you use salted or unsalted butter?
Martha says
Hi Jessica – We used unsalted butter. Hope you love the muffins!
Denise Kellum says
The recipe at bottom says 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, for tops. Does that mean 2 Tbsp. per muffin? I didn’t think that 2 Tbsp. would be enough for 10 muffins.
Thanks in advance for answer.
Martha says
Hi Denise – I thought the same thing when I found the original recipe – it’s 2 tablespoons total and it’s enough to give all of the muffins a light sugar coating. But, if you prefer a thicker sugar topping, feel free to add more. We hope you love the recipe!
Kimberly says
I cant wait to try this recipe I woke up this morning to a memory of these when I was a kid. One thing I thought when reading several recipes that no one mentioned was that I think he used coarse sugar on top? Thanks for the great post.
Martha says
Hi Kimberly – I was trying to figure that out too when we watched the news interview…he didn’t mention it specifically and it didn’t look like he used the coarse sugar although it was hard to tell for sure. You could definitely use it of course – it would add some additional crunch to the topping! Hope you enjoy the recipe.
Isabelle from France says
Thank you for this muffin’s recipe .
Martha says
You’re very welcome Isabelle!
Jan DiSanto says
Growing up north of Boston, and in my early sixties, I am very familiar with those amazing Jordan’s Blueberry Muffins. My Mother had a recipe titled Blueberry Sugar Tops, which was supposed to be “the recipe”. Mom made these many, many times, usually after we returned from a mountain climb which included picking (and eating) an incredible amount of beautiful wild blueberries. I now live in Florida, and the other day, picked about 5 pounds of blueberries. I just had to make the famous Jordan’s Blueberry Muffins. Not knowing if I had m Moms’ recipe nearby, I decided to search online and was thrilled to find the original, authentic blueberry muffin recipe. They turned out incredible, far better than I remembered! Since I was out of bread flour, and didn’t have pastry flour, I used 1 cup of AP flour and 1 cup of Cake flour (adding 2 tbls. cornstarch). So happy to have found this recipe. I know my Mom wouldn’t have minded my not using her, long time, standard Blueberry Sugar Tops Recipe.
Martha says
Thank you so much Jan! And I’m thrilled that you were able to make those substitutions and still have delicious results! Thanks for writing to us today!
Maria says
My family loved the muffins too but my favorite Jordan Marsh bakery treats were High Hats that were basically like a chocolate cupcake with whipped cream and their fruit and nut cookies. Great memories ! Thanks.
Martha says
You’re very welcome Maria! I agree – great memories!
stephanie says
Where did you find the Bobs pastry flour? I haven’t had any luck 🙁
Martha says
Hi Stephanie! We either found it at our local Stop & Shop or Market Basket supermarket…I can’t remember which one! You can also get it on Amazon – http://amzn.to/28LtWxa – but unfortunately it looks like they only see it in cases of 4 bags which I’m sure is more than you need. 🙁 Hope that helps!
Carol says
Hi Martha,
I saw that same broadcast and had my pen ready to copy the recipe. Thanks SO much for getting all the ratios right. I have the pastry flour and always have bread flour on hand. I heard him mention shortening too but noticed the recipe stated butter. I had read in an article in the paper when John retired that they used shortening. I’ll use what you used.
I’ve been making the other recipe that’s all over the place for years and everyone loves them-can’t wait to try this version. Hopefully soon! I remember those muffins well….my aunt and I used to take the train into Boston and we’d always come home with a half dozen.
Thanks again!
Carol
Martha says
Hi Carol – Such a great memory of you and your aunt! 🙂 I suspect in a commercial kitchen they do use all shortening too (less expensive than butter) but we liked the 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening version best – but either will work. Hope you love the recipe! Marha
Nancy Artesi says
I’ve been making these for years, and they are the best. It’s time for our Jersey blueberries any day now, so your tweaked recipe will come in handy.
Martha says
I agree Nancy – best muffins and Jersey blueberries are some of the best too!
Marsha A. says
Wow! I haven’t thought about Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins in years. What a great memory. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Martha says
You’re very welcome Marsha! Hope you’ll give the recipe a try! 🙂
Debi says
My aunt worked at Jordan’s at the Northshore Mall for years. She gave me this recipe when I was in college, she got it from one of the girls in the bakery scaled down for a home cook – hey I loved the muffins, but I wasn’t going to make 4 dozen!. This one is the real deal!
While JM Blueberry muffins are fantastic, my favorite was the Fruit and Nut with the cherry on the top. I haven’t been able to find a recipe for those anywhere.
Martha says
Thanks for taking the time to write to us Debi! I have to admit, I never tried the fruit and nut muffins (because I loved the blueberry so much!) – but they sound delicious!