Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins (John Pupek, NewsCenter 5)

By zircon50

The store is just a memory and the recipe's been out in the world for a while, but many of the secrets to what made the muffins so good are in the techniques used by baker John Pupek.

"Did you love making the blueberry muffins?" WCVB anchor Maria Stephanos asked him.

"It was my life," Pupek answered with a smile.

After Jordan Marsh's closed, Pupek opened his own shop to produce the special muffins for a loyal customer base. Eventually, however, his body told him it was time to retire.

During a recent interview, Pupek willingly shared his legendary baking wisdom. He explained the blend of flours in his recipe and the fistful of sugar tossed on top of each sweet muffin before baking. Mixing the blueberries with some of the flour before adding them to the batter was another of his tips.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups flour (unsifted, blend of bread and pastry) SEE NOTE BELOW FOR MAKING PASTRY FLOUR)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups blueberries, tossed with some flour to prevent sinking into batter.
• 2 teaspoons sugar (for tops)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

Step 1

On low speed, cream butter with sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. and mix until blended.

Sift dry ingredients; add to eggs and butter mixture alternating with milk.

Mash 1/2 cup of berries, stir into mixture by hand. Add rest of berries whole, stir by hand.

Grease muffin tins well with butter ; grease top surface of pans as well.

Pile mixture high in each muffin cup, and sprinkle sugar over tops.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

MAKES 1 DOZEN MUFFINS

NOTE: PASTRY FLOUR MIXTURE:
Here's the substitution offered by JoyofBaking.com, using all-purpose and cake flour, which are both much more widely available than pastry flour. I've used this sub before for pastry and it's worked fine!

2 cups (270 grams) pastry flour = 1 1/3 cup (175 grams) all purpose flour + 2/3 cup (80 grams) cake flour