The Best Homemade Blueberry Muffins Explode With Berries
When I lived in New York, I would look forward to my trips to the beloved Mary's Marvelous in East Hampton, New York. There were so many reasons to love Mary's Marvelous, not the least of which was their spectacular blueberry muffin.
I'm not even a blueberry muffin person, but their muffins were literally exploding with big plump juicy blueberries. This was not an anomaly. Every time you went into Mary's, you saw these blueberry muffins, and every day they looked and tasted just as good—they really were a work of art.
In September 2021, Mary's Marvelous closed and according to her Instagram account, she planned to write a cookbook. I was excited that she was going to publish a cookbook and the secret to her muffins, and I waited for months for the recipe. After a few months, I just couldn't wait any longer so I went down a blueberry-muffin rabbit hole.
I tried to reverse engineer the muffins and even sent a DM to Mary's Marvelous. I was told to put blueberries on top of the batter in the muffin tin but I interpreted that as leaving them on top to let them fall into the batter naturally. I tried all sorts of tips and tricks, but no matter what I did, I could not re-create her blueberry muffin.
So I turned to the Internet. I looked for an old-fashioned tried and true blueberry muffin. I tried a number of recipes, and quickly saw that many of the recipes are similar and seem to be based on the recipe for the Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffin. The New York Times has a recipe for that one, and it is a very good muffin but it wasn't as good as the one I remembered from Mary's. [The New York Times version also calls for mashing some of the blueberries to add to the batter for extra moisture, but it has a tendency to turn the batter grey.]
The number of juicy fat blueberries in each muffin was what I loved so much about the Mary's Marvelous muffin. In a recent radio interview, she said, in a summer weekend, she would make 100 blueberry muffins by hand on Saturday and another 100 on Sunday. Her motto was 'more berries than batter.'
If you are a blueberry muffin fan, you will be excited to learn that Mary Schoenlein, the owner of Mary's Marvelous, and creator of the infamous Blueberry Muffin, has finally published her blueberry muffin recipe in her new Substack newsletter.
I just found out about the newsletter and was excited to see she wrote about the legacy of her blueberry muffin, provided the recipe and unveiled the technique of filling the batter to the brim with berries. The tip is to portion the batter—with no berries—into the individual muffin tin and hand-fold about ¼ cup of berries carefully into each muffin. On that same radio interview, she said to hand-fold the blueberries into the batter until the berries pop-out of the batter.
To capture the 'more berries than batter' style, large frozen organic blueberries are equally ... More divided. Half are mixed into the batter, and the rest of them are distributed equally on top of the unbaked muffins for an even ratio of berries to batter.
Because I have been making my own blueberry muffin mash-up since Mary's Marvelous closed in 2021, I took her tip of adding blueberries to the top to my current recipe. I divide the blueberries in half and fold 1-cup of organic frozen blueberries into the batter and portion the batter into the individual tins. After that is done, I distribute the remaining 1 cup of blueberries equally among the batter in the muffin tins. I push them into the top, but I don't fold them into the batter.
I've made this recipe with both fresh and frozen blueberries. And, even during blueberry season, I prefer using frozen organic blueberries. I love using frozen because I can make these muffins anytime the craving hits, and I have noticed that the flavor of the blueberries is more consistent and tangier. If you use frozen blueberries, add the blueberries straight from the freezer and note that the muffins will take a little longer to bake, so make sure to start checking at 20 minutes.
You can subscribe to Mary's Marvelous new Substack if you want to make her recipe or you can follow my recipe below for a mash-up of old favorites.
A blueberry muffin exploding with berries is universally loved and easy to make at home.
These blueberry muffins literally explode with bright purple, fat, juicy blueberries. The batter bakes up light and white with a crumb that is not delicate but also not dense. It is just right with a slight lemony aroma and a crunchy cinnamon-sugar top. If you don't like cinnamon, you can leave it out but don't omit sugaring the tops because it makes a delicious crunchy muffin top. I love using the square parchment papers that are sold as hamburger dividers instead of the muffin tin liners for a fancy yet rustic look.
Makes 16 regular size muffins
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated white sugar
Zest of a large lemon
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2 cups flour (un-sifted)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups frozen blueberries, divided
2 tablespoons sugar + ¼ teaspoon cinnamon mixed together for tops, cinnamon is optional but it adds a nice flavor to the top of the muffin.
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