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Rhubarb muffins are a great joy of spring: tart, rich, only marginally sweet, and studded with whatever nuts you fancy — or none at all — this is a great recipe to learn because you can sub various ingredients in and out as the seasons progress.
I learned about rhubarb muffins in the quirky cookbook From Pine to Prairie, a hodgepodge collection of home recipes from the 1960s to 1980s collected by the Telephone Pionees of America. If that ain’t pure heartland gold, I don’t know what is.
There are several recipes for rhubarb muffins in that book, and this one is an amalgam of those, plus elements from my huckleberry muffin recipe, which also uses sour cream.
There’s a fair bit of rhubarb in these muffins, but, weirdly, you barely notice their texture. I chop them finely, and they soften a lot in the cooking process. You can increase or decrease the amount I use by up to 1/2 cup. The more you use, the more you’ll notice the rhubarb in the muffins.
I like a crunchy note in my muffins, so I added hickory nuts. Obviously, that’d be a tall order for most of you because you can’t really buy them; you have to gather and crack them yourself. So pecans or walnuts will do. Or use sunflower seeds if you have a nut allergy. Or just leave them out.
You’ll also notice I don’t use all that much sugar for a dozen muffins. The original recipe in the book called for an alarming 2 cups! I cut that in half and they were still nicely sweet. But you do you.
I use sour cream here, but buttermilk is an almost perfect substitute. I’ve used regular whole milk, too, and you can get away with it because the rhubarb is tart. I’ve heard that some people use apple sauce as a dairy substitute, but I’ve never done that. If you do, let me know in the comments.
Melted butter is a non-negotiable for me with these muffins, but you can use oil. It works, but will give you a different effect.
Other than that, these are simple rhubarb muffins. I always eat a few while still warm, usually for breakfast, then let them cool completely and set them on a paper towel in a lidded container. They’ll keep a few days like this, and will only really be stale after maybe 5 days.
You can freeze rhubarb muffins, too.
Rhubarb Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped rhubarb
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a muffin tin with butter or spray oil.
- Cut the butter into chunks and melt gently. Keep the butter liquid, but cool(ish) as you do the rest.
- Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix the honey, sugar, egg, sour cream and melted butter. Whisk this constantly as you add the butter so it doesn't cook the eggs.
- Pour the wet into the dry, stirring all the while. Add the rhubarb and nuts and keep stirring and mixing them all in. When you have a thick batter, spoon it evenly into the muffin tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Set the tin on a cooling rack for 5 minutes before you pop them out of the tin to cool further.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have already processed the rhubarb I got from my Dad’s patch into sauce. I can use it in that form, right? There is sugar in the sauce but not a lot so don’t think that will throw off the recipe. Your thoughts?
Laura: I don’t really know, sorry. This uses fresh rhubarb.
Muffins turned out excellent!!! Great way to use our first rhubarb harvest of the year.
These are some of the best muffins I’ve ever have. Super light and fluffy but also rich! The finely cut rhubarb also leaves a delicious tartness throughout the whole muffin. The one change I made was substituting 1/2 cup of acorn flour for part of the AP flour. I used your recipe for cold leached acorn flour in the fall and I still had some, so I decided to add it. It was amazing! It gave it a ginger and cinnamon flavor as well as delicious nuttiness!
I will definitely be freezing rhubarb to make these again!
These are DELICIOUS, taste and texture. My rhubarb is an old prairie variety and not very red, so I sprinkled just a bit of coconut sugar on the tops to keep them from looking like “booger” muffins – tee hee! Toasted and chopped pistachios for the nuts, which was a superb choice. 12 good size muffins, too.
I can see this working with other tart fruits/ nut combos, looking forward to trying as the season progresses.
Thank you for a great recipe!!
Used rhubarb from making Rhubarb syrup (another recipe from Hank), otherwise exactly as shown. Absolutely superb and will be replacing rhubarb crisp as our go to rhubarb dish.
This recipe was great. I was a little shy on sour cream and used dry buttermilk powder reconstituted to make up the difference. I used 2 cups of tiny dice rhubarb. Made some mini muffins out of my batch too.
I made these today using pecans. The muffins are fantastic, very light and airy. This is my new favorite rhubarb recipe.
I made these yesterday. Amazing!!! The only change I made was to sub 1/2 cup of strawberries for rhubarb. So moist, and not too sweet. Killer. Thanks!
Looking forward to meeting you in Portsmouth.
Hi Hank! As my current job in the public school system comes to an end it leaves me asking, ‘’ What next?’’
I’ve decided to give the ‘’cottage kitchen’’ a serious go at it.
I had decided to use rhubarb as kind of a signature ingredient in many of my recipes – partly because it’s unique where I live and partly to get back at my ex-husband since it’s one of his favorite foods! ???
As I sit checking my emails while waiting on my only son and his new wife to gather last minute items for moving out of state this morning to her hometown near Portland, OR, (I’m in central Texas), your Rhubarb Muffin Recipe pops up!
I had just bought out every stalk of Rhubarb Natural Grocer had on their shelf and was wanting to use it in muffins. I can’t wait to bake yours!
Hank, as I sit here teary-eyed pretending like I’m excited for my son’s new adventures and wondering what my next move should be, it just dropped into my lap.
Hank, thank you for becoming a part of this day that you might have just saved!
I made these muffins and they were delicious!
I ordered hickory nuts and waited on them before baking but the ones I received tasted like pecans to me so I used pecans since they were already shelled.
I thought I had all of the ingredients but was missing sour cream so I substituted whole milk cottage cheese!
My rhubarb pieces were more rustic and bigger than “finely chopped” because I wanted the flavor bold.
I made a glaze from powdered sugar, vanilla and a Strawberry Margarita (Ready to Drink) Wine Cocktail (as a fruit juice substitute) to barely drizzle on top and added a sprinkle of dried lavender buds.
I tried posting a pic but can’t.
It’s the third product I’ve baked in my cottage kitchen and I tHANK you for it!
I’m not a muffin person but if I do I like to slice them in half and toast them. Obviously butter too. I wonder if you could sub in nut flour just for flavor. I’m sorry ??I had an actual suggestion but forgot it as soon as I started typing, weird. I like your blog.