Summer is here!  Yippieeee!  I spent the last two days at the beach and am all the happier (and slightly redder) for it.

I know I haven’t shared a recipe in some time.  I spent two weeks of May in Croatia and Bosnia on a much-deserved vacation.  Now I’m back home and back in the kitchen.  I’m playing catch-up on several recipes that I wanted to try as well as creating new flavors for the Sweet Jumbles line of Marshmallows.  I’ve recently created Piña Colada, Blackberry (ohmygosh!), and Caramel just to name a few.

Just days after I got home from my vacation, I spotted some rhubarb in one of my local farmers markets.  Some of you may recall that rhubarb is one of my all-time favorites.  (In the past I’ve blogged Rhubarb Apple Pie and Rhubarb Tart.)  Since this tends to be hard to find, I bought a lot.  I froze most of it, so you may see it come up again in future blog posts.

For my first rhubarb recipe of the season, I decided to make Rhubarb Muffins.  They were very moist, with a cinnamon topping and chunks of rhubarb throughout.  These would be a good breakfast muffin, though I ate them any time of the day.  🙂  The recipe below is for 2 dozen muffins, though I halved it and everything worked out well.

As a quick aside, did you know that you can freeze buttermilk?  I always have extra (because why must they sell it only in the larger carton?) and hate throwing it away.  If you pour this into ice cube trays and then once frozen store in freezer bags, you can thaw it out for use later on.  I would only do this for a baking/cooking recipe – not like a salad dressing or anything like that – because there is slight separation.  But it’s perfectly safe and once it’s mixed and baked you’d never know!

Rhubarb Muffins
source: All Recipes

2 ½ c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
½ t salt
1 ¼ c brown sugar
½ c vegetable oil
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1 c buttermilk
1 ½ c diced rhubarb
½ c chopped walnuts
1 T melted butter
1/3 c white sugar
1 t ground cinnamon

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper cups.

• In a medium bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

• In a separate bowl, beat the brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla, and buttermilk with an electric mixer until smooth. Add in the dry ingredients and mix by hand just until blended. Stir in the rhubarb and walnuts.

• Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, filling almost to the top.

• In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter, white sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of this mixture on top of each muffin.

• Bake in the preheated oven until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pans for at least 10 minutes before removing.

serves: 24
calories: 170