The Rhubarb is coming on strong! Now’s the time to make lots of rhubarb goodies like these delicious muffins. We like muffins a lot so I often make a double batch to stash in the freezer to make a welcome treat for breakfast with coffee or any other time you feel like one! Yesterday I made these muffins and thought I would give some to our neighbours. I placed them on a plate, double wrapped with plastic wrap and placed them outside on the picnic table, well…the phone rang so I ran back into the house and when I got back I discovered one muffin missing. Hmm…I wonder if our neighbours had come down and gotten one? Nope…turns out there was a large crow hanging around and he/she managed to help themselves to a muffin!
Makes Approximately 10 Muffins
2 cups unbleached flour (or 1 ½ cups unbleached & ½ cup wholewheat)
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 ¼ cups finely chopped rhubarb, approximately ¼” pieces
1 large egg
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. finely grated orange rind
¾ cup orange juice
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Prepare a muffin pan either by spraying with non-stick cooking spray or using muffin pan liners. I have found the baking parchment muffin liners work really well.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nuts. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg; add the oil, orange rind and orange juice; add the flour, quickly fold in until just a bit of flour is still showing, then gently fold in the rhubarb. Don’t over mix or the muffins will be tough. Place the batter (an ice-cream scoop works very well) into the 10 prepared muffin cups and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the centre muffin in the pan comes out clean.
