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Bakery style streusel-topped Rhubarb Muffins are tender, studded with tangy rhubarb bits, and topped with a crunchy brown sugar streusel.
Rhubarb Muffins
These Bakery Style Rhubarb Streusel Muffins have a beautiful high dome covered in crisp brown sugar cinnamon streusel and are a perfect weekend treat!
Truthfully, they make a great treat any time at all, because this is a quick bread recipe that you can make in just a few minutes.
All the ingredients are simple items you probably already have in your pantry. The rhubarb is going to be your hardest-to-find ingredient.
I can usually find mine at several of the little farmstands in our area. Otherwise, a big supermarket should have it this time of year.
Muffin Making Tips
Here are a couple of muffin-making tips that will yield tall, tender rhubarb streusel muffins. (These apply to any type of muffin actually).
DO NOT over stir the batter. You are going to just barely combine the wet and dry ingredients. There should still be many streaks of flour. Over-stirring will result in tough muffins.
When you add the rubharb, it’s going to add a lot of moisture to the recipe. TRUST THE PROCESS, and again, do NOT overmix the batter. Overmixing will yield super dense, tough muffins.
Start baking the muffins at a high temperature for several minutes. This activates the baking powder and creates that nice high dome on top of the muffin. Then turn the oven down to a moderate temperature (350°F) to finish baking them.
They are great to eat warm, but most muffins are best the next day and will be moister after sitting covered for at least several hours.
Can I Freeze Rhubarb?
YES! Go ahead and freeze some while it is in season, that way you can enjoy rhubarb treats year-round.
To use frozen rhubarb in recipes, thaw the rhubarb and drain it, but do not press out the excess liquid. Bake as directed in the recipe.
Rhubarb Muffin Recipe
- Make the streusel by melting the butter and stirring in the flour, brown sugar, and salt until crumbly. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners. Stir together the 3 tablespoons brown sugar and diced rhubarb in a small bowl, set aside. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt in a large bowl and set aside.
- Beat together the butter, sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently stir together. Do not over mix, there should still be streaks of flour. Gently stir in the rhubarb.
- Divide the batter between the muffin tins, (sometimes it makes enough for 13-14 muffins) and then top with the streusel. Bake at 400°F for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, turn the heat down to 350°F and bake for 12-15 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Be sure to check out a few more rhubarb recipes, while it’s in season! Don’t miss Old fashioned Rhubarb Pie, Rhubarb Coffee Cake, Rhubarb Bars, and Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.
And for a couple more quick bread recipes to try, I recommend the Blueberry Lemon Bread and the Cinnamon Roll Bread.
If you love strawberries paired with your rhubarb, check out these Strawberry Rhubarb Streusel Muffins from Self Proclaimed Foodie.
And if you want to double dose on your rhubarb, why not slather on some of this strawberry rhubarb jam from Flavor the Moments.
Rhubarb Streusel Muffins
Ingredients
For the Streusel topping
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Muffins
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2½ cups finely diced rhubarb approximately ¼-inch in size
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup melted butter
- 1 cup sour cream or plain Greek Yogurt
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the streusel by melting the butter and stirring in the flour, brown sugar, and salt until crumbly. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a muffin tin with paper muffin liners. Stir together the 3 tablespoons brown sugar and diced rhubarb in a small bowl, set aside. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt in a large bowl and set aside.
- Beat together the butter, sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently stir together. DO NOT OVER MIX, there should still be many streaks of flour. Gently stir in the rhubarb along with any juices in the bowl.
- Divide the batter between the muffin tins, and top with the streusel. Bake at 400°F for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, turn the heat down to 350°F and bake for 12-15 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Depending on the size of your muffins, you may need a longer baking time – test for doneness and adjust as needed.)
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 5/17/18 – recipe notes and photos updated 3/24/22}
Double Crumb Rhubarb Coffee Cake
I have made this recipe several times, we Love it!!! Best rhubarb muffins ever!
I’m so glad you love them!
I didn’t read the comments until the muffins were out of the oven. I too was concerned about the texture of the mixture but they turned out perfect. SO delicious!!! The rhubarb added moisture especially since it had been in brown sugar and produced a little liquid. Absolutely perfect.
I’m thrilled to hear that the muffins were a hit, Gail!
I just made these muffins and they are really delicious. Will make again for sure.
I’m thrilled you like them, Liliane!
I wanted some nice rhubarb muffins for my family. I have used other rhubarb recipes and they come out perfectly. These are by far the worst muffins I have ever made! I followed the recipe perfectly & this recipe is absolutely disgusting. They were dry, heavy, bitter & nasty. They took quite a bit of time to make them & then to have such an huge disappointment was unbelievably frustrating. All muffins went straight to the garbage! I have never written a bad review in my life but I don’t want others to make the same mistake. Don’t waste your time!
I’m sorry to hear that, Kristen! Did you stir all of the ingredients until the wet and dry were completely mixed? There should still be streaks of flour in your batter when you’re ready to portion it into muffin tins. In any case, I hope your next baking project turns out better.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. My batter was thick but the muffins turned out perfect. The cooking time did take a little bit longer like you said it might. My hubby and I enjoyed them very much!
I’m so happy to hear that, Shelley!
I agree with the other comments.my batter was very thick and glue like .made 24 regular sized muffins. I did not over stir and I feel they are heavy also took longer to cook then stated. I would not make this recipe again.
Thanks for letting me know, Shannon. It sounds like this recipe needs to be re-tested. I’ve had good luck with it in the past, but too many people have left comments lately for me to ignore that. I don’t know if there’s an error in the recipe card or if it’s an ingredient issue, but I’ll look into it. Sorry for the hassle!
Worst muffins ever !! I followed this recipe to the letter and they didn’t turn out. Too dry and not enough wet ingredients
Hi, May! Is there any chance you may have added more wet ingredients than the recipe called for? That will actually result in drier muffins. Sorry the recipe didn’t turn out well for you.
I agree with the others that have commented. At first I thought I had measured wrong or misread the recipe, but after reading the other comments I see I am not alone. This recipe dry to wet is off. I would think that two cups of flour would be plenty. I had to had more milk just so I could get the batter to come together. The streusel was also too dry. Ended up with 22 muffins. Very dense and flavor was just okay. And for me personally dirtied to many dishes. Will not make again.
Hey Trish, adding milk to the provided recipe clearly affected your results. If there is too much liquid in the batter, baked goods will turn out very dense. The batter will appear to be dry, but it does work as written. When you changed the ingredients, you changed the outcome. I’m sorry it wasn’t a hit for you.