Spring at my parent’s house means rhubarb season. And rhubarb season means all kinds of cooking and baking with rhubarb.
A few years ago when I visited my parents in the spring and realized that their rhubarb was ready to be picked, I knew I needed to do some baking with it.
Rhubarb is one of those things that many people have never had. It is more of an old fashioned type vegetable that not very many people grow.
And yes according to my research rhubarb is a vegetable although most people think of it as a fruit since it is often cooked like fruit would be cooked.
Growing up my mom made all kinds of things with rhubarb. Cakes, pies, jams, sauces, and more. She still makes all kinds of things and during the spring gives rhubarb away to almost anyone she knows that wants some.
My mom has a rhubarb cake recipe that our family loves and we decided to turn it into a muffin while I was visiting.
The recipe worked perfectly as muffins.
And I apologize for the photos. I did not take my camera with me, only my phone, so these photos were taken on my iphone, in my parents kitchen, which is not the best for lighting.
These were so good. Perfect for a breakfast treat!
I told my dad that if you want to eat cake for breakfast you just turn it into a muffin!
Now that is not exactly true, these are pretty sweet for breakfast. These are definitely more of a cake like sweet muffin, but they are similar to a coffee cake, so they do make a good addition to breakfast for a special treat.
If you have never had rhubarb these muffins are a great way to try it. And if you have a rhubarb patch in your garden these muffins are a great recipe to use some of it up.
How many of you have had rhubarb? And is there anyone that grows it? I would love to hear your thoughts on rhubarb.
Need more rhubarb recipes? Try my mom’s old fashioned rhubarb cake.
Mom's Rhubarb Muffins
My mom's Rhubarb Muffins are the perfect muffin for spring.
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- 2 ½ cups flour or gluten free flour blend ( Use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free blend for gf muffins)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups rhubarb, cut into small pieces
Topping
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 11/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- In a bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
- Add egg, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix together using a wooden spoon. Do not use a mixer for this. It is best to stir it by hand.
- Stir in rhubarb.
- Scoop into a muffin tin that has been greased or lined with muffin liners.
- In a small bowl combine topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over muffins.
- Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
Notes
These muffins are great gluten free. I use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend to make them gluten free.
Originally posted April 2015. Updated April 2019.
Strawberry rhubarb pie or bars. Yum. Rhubarb sauce. Yum. Can’t wait till it’s ready here so I can start finding some to use. Everyone has some and wants to share.
My sister and I grew up with strawberry/rhubarb pie. It has always been our favorite. This year she decided to plant some so will look forward to trying your recipe. Thanks
My mom used to make strawberry rhubarb pie all the time. Strawberries and rhubarb are a great combination!
love your comments on rhubarb. if you grew up in an older part of an older town, like i did, the boundaries between yards were very natural and all kinds of things grew there including a lot of rhubarb!! we always had rhubarb or rhubarb/strawberry sauce and just had it as a side dish all summer.
I too grew up with rhubarb in my moms and grandmothers and great grandmothers garden. They made all kinds of things out of it; rhubarb pie, canned rhubarb etc.. Such fond memories!
I tried growing it in my garden, but didn’t have much luck. So I rather buy it from a farmers market. I will give your muffin recipe a try! It looks delicious!!!
Is that supposed to be a streusel type topping on these muffins? If so, I think your recipe omitted the flour. Or is it supposed to be a buttery mix your brush onto the tops of the muffins? In the recipe, the last ingredient for the topping is “INGREDIENT”. Is it just my computer or is that the way it’s displayed for everyone??
The topping for this is more of a sugary crusty type topping, not a streusel topping, but you could easily do a streusel topping on these instead. It would be great that way too. The word ingredient was a formatting issue on the recipe. Basically something behind the scenes was messed up on the post. I am not sure why or when it happened, but I fixed it. Sorry to confuse you on that. The word ingredient shouldn’t have been there.
Thank you for the clarification.
My gramma gave me her recipe for rhubarb cake with creamy butter sauce (which is served while warm) and it’s outstanding. Pretty similar to this recipe in some ways actually.
I love rhubarb sauce, cooked down, for topping on homemade ice cream. It’s also kind of a funny way to use it but my family likes to dip cream puffs (unfilled, of course) into rhubarb sauce if I make a buttery/creamy version.
My mom and aunt have made rhubarb sauce for years and my dad loves it. I kind of thought that was something only my family did. I am glad to know others enjoy it as well. I haven’t had it in years.
When my Mom made rhubarb sauce, she generally added just a touch of irish whiskey (soooo smooth) or even the more syrupy Irish Mist. It added a great flavor and the alcohol cooked off, of course, so it was for kids and everyone. She always had Irish Mist on hand because she made a recipe called Irish Tiramisu that is fantastic. Don’t hear much about these days (she made it back in the 1960’s and 1970’s). It always surprised me that she was into Irish recipes because we are Swedish!