Jordan Marsh Muffins

Way back in the day, there were these things called department stores where you could find basically anything (a lot like malls or, y’know, the Internet).

Sarcasm aside, bakeries were a critical part of the department store experience—or so I’m told, although the only place I know of left to observe this phenomen is Harrod’s—and like the infamous Neiman Marcus cookies, Jordan Marsh muffins were renowned far and wide.¹ Yes, they’re really that good.

The original recipe is for blueberry muffins, but I think the best addition by far is peaches. This makes at least a dozen muffins.

Ingredients

1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c milk
a whole bunch of your preferred fruit
cinnamon or brown sugar for sprinkling

Prep

Preheat the oven to 375
Grease muffin tin cups

Process

Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to the wet mixture alternating with the milk. If the fruit is damp (i.e. chopped peaches or frozen blueberries) flour it lightly. Fold in the fruit, then spoon the batter into the tin. Sprinkle the tops generously with the brown sugar or cinnamon. Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool a few minutes before removing from the tin.

¹ Jordan Marsh was a large Boston-based department store chain that merged with Macy’s in the 90s and lost the internal corporate brand war to the Macy’s name; many of the Macy’s around the country were originally Jordan Marshes, including the enormous Boston location, formerly Jordan Marsh’s flagship, and where my mom—who gave me this recipe—had her first JM muffin.