For Mothers Day I made my Mum her favourite muffins I used to make when I was working as a Chef at a cafe in town. One of the favourite regulars used to bring in bags of rhubarb from her garden which we would turn into yummy rhubarb crumble muffins!
You can use fresh or frozen rhubarb, frozen takes a little less time to stew then fresh which is always nice when you are in a hurry.
Rhubarb Crumble Muffins
2 C All purpose flour
3/4 C Sugar (I like raw sugar, you could use white or castor)
2 t Baking Powder
2 Eggs
100g Butter, melted
Vanilla Essence
1 C Milk
Lemon rind and Juice
2 C Stewed rhubarb, plus extra pieces for garnish
Crumble Topping:
1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Rolled oats
1/4 C Soft brown sugar
Pinch of cinnamon
Melted butter to combine
To stew rhubarb:
Chop rhubarb into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the juice and rind of a lemon and 2 large tablespoons of castor sugar. Cover rhubarb with water and bring to the boil. Cook until the rhubarb breaks up. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve to remove the excess liquid. Add more sugar if still to sour at this point. If the rhubarb is quite green I sometimes add a couple of drops of red food colouring to make the fruit slightly more pink. Set aside.
Heat oven to 180 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and add sugar. Stir gently to combine.
In another bowl combine eggs, melted butter, milk, vanilla and lemon juice and rind. Whisk to combine then add wet mixture to dry ingredients. Fold together until they are just combined, then half full muffin tins. Add a teaspoon of the rhubarb to the centre, and top with remaining mixture.
Combine dry topping ingredients and add enough melted butter to combine, then sprinkle over muffins. Add a couple of pieces of leftover rhubarb to the top of each muffin.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden.
Cool and eat!! Yum!
