It’s only the third week of May and my rhubarb plant is already a few feet tall (when you count the leaves) and I can pull off thick two foot tall stalks of rhubarb. How is this even possible with the weird, cold spring we’ve had this year? But when the plant is producing that much rhubarb, I feel like I need to use it. So last weekend, that’s exactly what I did. I made myself some rhubarb muffins for breakfast.
I was planning to try some breakfast tortilla casserole thing, but the rhubarb was just calling to me and I wasn’t disappointed. These muffins were awesome, moist, tender, packed with rhubarb, and have a nice sugary crunch on top. You know rhubarb is a vegetable, right? That means these are healthy veggie muffins!
I tweaked a recipe I found on Fine Cooking by using white whole wheat flour and adding milk. I’ve noticed that whole wheat including white whole wheat flour tends to absorb more moisture so you need to add a little more or the muffins can be dry.
Here’s what you need:
We’re going to prep all three pieces to the dough then combine them together. That means, dry ingredients, rhubarb, and wet ingredients. But first, a start on the wet ingredients. Melt a stick of butter and set it aside to cool.
Then mix together your dry ingredients which are white whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Chop some rhubarb into ¼ inch pieces until you have about a cup and half. I can’t tell you how many stalks to use because it’s going to vary widely depending on the size – even my plant is extremely varied.
Now let’s mix together the wet ingredients. To the melted butter add, 2 large beaten eggs (I like to beat them first so I can beat them enough to get them foamy), sour cream, and vanilla.
Now gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Notice how I stop when there is still some flour showing? That’s because it will finish combining when we stir in the rhubarb next.
Stir in the rhubarb.
Scoop into a muffin tin lined with paper or foil muffin cups. The batter will be mounded just slightly over the top of the muffin cups. Tap the pan on the counter gently to settle the batter.
Now to finish them off, sprinkle the tops with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. This will give them a nice sweet crunch on the top. If I were to do this again, I would use the turbinado sugar I keep for crème brulee. It’s coarser and would add more crunch on top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The muffins will be lightly golden.
Cool in the pan for a few minutes then remove to a wire rack.
Serve warm.
- 2 c white whole wheat flour
- ¾ c sugar
- 2-1/2 t baking powder
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- ½ t baking soda
- ½ t salt
- 8 oz container sour cream
- 1 stick (8 T) butter, melted and cooked
- 2 large eggs, beaten until foamy
- 1 t vanilla
- 2 T milk
- 1-1/2 c rhubarb, diced into ¼ in pieces
- 3 T sugar
- ½ t cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper or foil lined muffin cups.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, ¾ c sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream, butter, eggs, vanilla and milk until smooth.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spatula until almost combined. Fold in the rhubarb. Do not over mix.
- Divide the batter among muffin cups. Gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter, which will be to the top of the cups or a tiny bit higher.
- Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Cool slightly in muffin pan, about 5 minutes, before removing to a wire rack.
- Serve warm.
Leave a Reply