Rhubarb Muffins

Rhubarb Streusel Muffins - a moist rhubarb muffin base is studded with fresh rhubarb chunks and topped with a crunchy streusel crumble topping which is lightly flavoured with lemon zest and vanilla. This easy streusel muffin recipe can be made with any fruit but is perfect made with fresh rhubarb.

Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

Hi! Happy Saturday! We can still get rhubarb here at the farmer’s market, so I’m going to keep posting rhubarb recipes just in case you can still find it where you are too. I haven’t made muffins for the site in the longest time, which is a bit silly because we are huge fans around here.

I love making homemade muffins - my vegan banana muffins happen almost weekly, and my chocolate cream cheese muffins are a go to for when I need to make something in a hurry.

These Rhubarb Muffins are super easy to make and come together quickly, and are filled with chunks of rhubarb, and are topped with a super easy streusel topping.

What is Rhubarb?

Rhubarb is technically a vegetable rather than a fruit, although it is most often used in sweet applications. My favourite rhubarb recipes include rhubarb custard pie, rhubarb cheesecake, and rhubarb bars.

When is Rhubarb Season?
I grew up eating it year round, as it does well in more mild climates like New Zealand, but Rhubarb season in the US usually begins in the spring and extends into early to mid summer.

Is Rhubarb Poisonous?
The leaves of the rhubarb plant are poisonous, but the stalks, which is the edible part, are totally safe to eat. You can eat rhubarb raw (although it is very tart!) The stalks, depending on the variety and how it is grown, can be a range of colours, from super green to bright pink

What does Rhubarb taste like?
The taste of rhubarb is quite hard to describe - it is super tart and sour, with a slightly tangy taste. It is for this reason it is often used in baking along with plenty of sugar. I love the taste of rhubarb, and how versatile it is paired with fruit - strawberry rhubarb is a super common combination as the sweetness of the strawberry offsets the rhubarb's tartness.

Super easy rhubarb muffin recipe

These rhubarb muffins are super simple, but I tested them a bunch of times to make sure that my base was really solid, so this will hopefully work for other fruit too if you don’t have rhubarb on hand (I will test it with blueberries hopefully this week, once Rich has recovered from 6 batches of muffins in just over a week). The ingredient list is quite simple:

I added yoghurt into the base to help the muffin retain moisture (you can use sour cream if you like too), and then topped them with a streusel / crumble mixture that is super easy - just flour, sugar, and butter, with a wee bit of orange zest and vanilla bean paste for flavour, along with a bit of sliced up rhubarb for a nice wee finish. The rhubarb cooks down perfectly in the muffin and the streusel mixture goes a wee bit crunchy, giving you all the textures all at once.

Streusel Topping

These muffins have a super easy streusel topping. I added chopped rhubarb into the streusel itself to give a nice textural pop.

Streusel topping can be made ahead / be doubled and kept in the freezer (leave out the rhubarb if you are planning on freezing). It adds a super delicious crunch to the muffins. By all means, feel free to leave it off if you just want a basic muffin recipe.

How to bake muffins evenly

Muffins don’t like being too snuggled up. If you have two muffin pans then you can do 6 muffins in each, leaving a space between each muffin to help them cook evenly. If you don’t have two muffin pans then no worries at all, one works just fine too!

How to store muffins

I like to store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature - muffins will last 2-3 days. To freeze muffins, pop them into an airtight container or a ziplock bag and freeze for up to 3 months. To defrost muffins, leave to defrost at room temperature. Muffins which have been previously frozen are much nicer when warmed up or lightly toasted before serving.

For more Rhubarb Recipes, check out:

Rhubarb Muffin Recipe

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