As kids, we used to dip stalks of fresh rhubarb from my Grandma Mary’s garden into bowls of sugar. I still love rhubarb just as much, and it’s great in muffins!

These Rhubarb Muffins have chunks of rhubarb in tender muffin topped with a cinnamon-spiced crumble topping.

baked Rhubarb Muffins

These Rhubarb Muffins Are Perfect for Summer Because…

  • They’re the perfect balance between sweet and tart.
  • The recipe is easy to make.
  • These muffins are moist and delicious.
  • You can make these with an optional streusel topping. It gives the muffins an extra crunch and some added sweetness.
adding wet and dry ingredients to make Rhubarb Muffins

Ingredients for Rhubarb Muffins

Rhubarb: When picking rhubarb, look for medium-sized, firm, and crisp stalks that snap easily when bent. Rhubarb can range in color and sweetness—opt for redder stalks for a sweeter taste or greener ones for a more tart flavor.

Greek Yogurt: I use vanilla Greek yogurt as the creaminess adds moisture to these muffins. You can replace it with regular Greek yogurt or sour cream.

Butter: This recipe uses melted butter for the best flavor, it can be replaced with an equal amount of vegetable oil.

Dry Ingredients: This recipe calls for all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. The salt enhances the flavor, the sugar adds sweetness, and the baking powder helps the muffins rise.

Struesel Topping (optional): Rhubarb is tart, so adding a streusel topping adds sweetness. Get creative; stir in nuts, coconut, or even oats, and sprinkle over muffins.

How to Cut Rhubarb for Muffins

To cut fresh stalks, trim off the bottoms and discard the leaves. Then, cut the stalks into small chunks. Rhubarb is quite tart, so I prefer to have smaller pieces in these muffins.

If you have frozen rhubarb, this recipe is an excellent way to make good use of it. Be sure to thaw it first in a colander and discard the excess juices before proceeding.

How to Make Rhubarb Muffins

  1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (recipe below). In a separate medium bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
  2. Create a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Stirring until mostly moistened.
  3. Fold in rhubarb and spoon the batter into muffin cups or greased muffin tins to ⅔ full.
  4. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Unwrapped Rhubarb Muffin with a bite taken out of it

Holly’s Best Tips for Muffins

  • Do not overmix, the batter should be slightly lumpy. Overmixing can cause the muffins to turn out dense with a tough texture.
  • Do not overbake. Overbaking could make your muffins turn out dry and chewy with less flavor than expected.
  • Fill muffin wells 2/3 full so they don’t overflow the muffin cups.
  • Tossing the rhubarb with flour helps keep it evenly dispersed throughout the muffins.

How Long Do Muffins Last?

Like most baked goods, this rhubarb muffin recipe tastes best served warm and fresh from the oven.

Counter/Fridge: To keep muffins moist and fresh, store them tightly covered in a plastic container or zip lock bag for up to 2 days at room temperature or a week in the refrigerator. To prevent the tops from getting sticky or soggy, make sure they are completely cooled before storing.

Freezer: Rhubarb crisp muffins can be frozen for up to 4 months. Thaw at room temperature, or heat them straight from the freezer for 10 minutes in a 350°F oven or 30 seconds in the microwave.

Extra Rhubarb?

Did your family love these Rhubarb Muffins? Leave us a rating and a comment below!

image of Everyday Comfort cookbook by Holly Nilsson of Spend With Pennies plus text
Rhubarb Muffins on a cutting board
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Rhubarb Muffins

Tender, moist cake studded with tart chunks of rhubarb, topped with a cinnamon-spiced crumble.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 19 minutes
Total Time 39 minutes
Servings 12 muffins
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Ingredients  

  • 2 cups rhubarb chopped
  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg beaten
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup vanilla Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup butter melted, or vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • streusel topping recipe in notes

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 400°. Grease twelve muffin wells or line paper liners.
  • Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with a whisk.
  • In a small bowl, whisk egg, milk, yogurt, butter, and vanilla.
  • Add the rhubarb to the flour mixture and toss to combine. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients.
  • Stir just until moistened. Do not overmix.
  • Divide the muffin batter over 12 wells. Top with streusel topping (below) if using.
  • Bake for 16 to 19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  • Remove from muffin pan and cool completely on a baking rack.

Notes

Streusel Topping (optional):
Combine the following with a fork until crumbly: 3 tablespoons flour, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 ½  tablespoons softened butter, and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon.
  • 2 tablespoons pecans, walnuts, or chopped almonds can be added to the topping if desired
  • do not overmix the batter
Mini muffins will take about 10-12 minutes to bake.
Nutrition information does not include streusel topping.
4.83 from 147 votes

Nutrition Information

Calories: 153 | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 62mg | Potassium: 143mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 59IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 61mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Muffins
Cuisine American
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tart and moist Rhubarb Muffins with writing
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About the author

Holly Nilsson is the creator of Spend With Pennies, where she creates easy, comforting recipes made for real life. With a passion for nostalgic flavors and simplified techniques, Holly helps busy home cooks create delicious meals that always work. She is also the author of “Everyday Comfort,” which promises to inspire even more hearty, home-cooked meals.
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Comments

    1. Hello Fiona. These will last for 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature. They will last a week in the refrigerator. They will keep up to 4 months in the freezer. I hope that answers your question.

  1. Great recipe – I added a bit of orange rind and mixed another fruit like blueberries or raspberries for a different flavor5 stars

  2. Delicious muffins! I had to substitute vanilla yogurt for red berry and they were fabulous! Pinned for all future rhubarb muffin baking!5 stars

  3. At the top of the recipe it says 25min. cook time and in the instructions it says 16-19. Since I am a beginner just wondering which it is. Thanks

  4. I made these rhubarb muffins yesterday. I only had coconut flavored yogurt so I went with that. I decided I might as well go for broke and added coconut to half the batter(I have coconut haters in the family) and a bit to the topping. Both with coconut and with out turned out great!5 stars

  5. I didn’t have vanilla yogurt so I used plain and I chopped the rhubarb fairly small. These were great, even though I forgot the cinnamon.5 stars

  6. these were very moist and fluffy best muffin I have made yet used almond milk perfection. thank you

    1. If you have frozen rhubarb, this recipe is an excellent way to make good use of it. Be sure to thaw it first in a colander and discard the excess juices before proceeding.

    2. I always use frozen rhubarb! I give it a squeeze when adding to mixture to remove excess moisture.

      I have so many generous friends who supply me with their excess .. I couldn’t bake all of it in one session m.

  7. Delicious. Tip: if you don’t have vanilla yogurt like I did not … but have strawberry like I did…USE STRAWBERRY YOGURT!! Sooooo good. Made the streusel including pecans and it was perfect. Definitely making again.

  8. This recipe is outstanding and easy. I only had plain yogurt so I just added another teaspoon of vanilla and the sweetness of the muffin was spot on.
    Saving this recipe to make again. Served for breakfast with Finnish Pancakes (a baked egg dish).5 stars

  9. These were possibly the best muffins I have ever made and I’ve been baking for a very long time. I used fresh rhubarb and a combo of sour cream and ASTRO balkan style yogurt (thats all I had) Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. The flavor was as good as my favorite rhubarb pie. Perfect balance of sweet and tart and very moist. This will be my go to recipe. I might add I also made your banana muffins today and they were excellent! Thanks for this great recipe!5 stars

  10. Mine were not dry. I used melted butter and sour cream. I always fluff then spoon flour into measure if cups.
    Delicious!5 stars

  11. You changed your recipe! Now there is Greek yogurt. Could you please, please add a variation to this recipe back to the one without yogurt! I love these muffins as they were. I don’t have yogurt on hand as I do the other ingredients.5 stars

    1. The recipe has been updated but here is the original:

      1 cup rhubarb chopped
      1 ¾ cups flour all-purpose
      ½ cup sugar
      2 teaspoons baking powder
      ¼ teaspoon salt
      1 egg beaten
      ¾ cup milk
      ¼ cup vegetable oil
      1 teaspoon vanilla
      streusel topping below optional
      Instructions
      Preheat oven to 400°. Grease twelve muffin wells or line paper liners.
      Toss rhubarb with 1 tablespoon flour and set aside.
      Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with a whisk.
      In a small bowl, whisk egg, milk, vanilla and oil.
      Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir just until moistened.
      Shake of excess flour from rhubarb and fold into batter. Do not overmix.
      Fill each muffin well ⅔ full. Top with streusel topping below if using.
      Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
      Remove from muffin pan and cool completely.
      Notes
      Streusel Topping (optional):
      Combine the following with a fork until crumbly: 3 tablespoons flour, 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons pecans or chopped almonds. Sprinkle over muffins before baking.

  12. I doubled the recipe, and it was very sticky dough (but could be because I doubled). I also mixed in some whole wheat flour with all purpose, and a bit less white sugar because I love the tartness of rhubarb!5 stars

  13. Hi Holly!
    I am a frequent user of your recipes and have had great luck with every one that I have tried. I especially like the fact that your recipes are easy to follow and use basic ingredients found in the pantry of most kitchens. Now, concerning these rhubarb muffins I must say I am not understanding the negative comments posted by some readers. My wife and I made a batch of these a few days ago, followed the directions as given (except we didn’t have Greek yogurt on hand so used the same volume of milk instead ), and they turned out perfectly. They were not dry, bland or lacking flavour as other reviewers indicated. We were so impressed by these muffins that we just took a second batch out of our oven a short time ago and the smell in our kitchen right now is amazing! Oh, and for information we did make and add the streusel topping to our muffins, as suggested in the recipe. Overall these are great muffins, don’t be distracted by the negative postings.5 stars