Rhubarb Week continues with this recipe for Ginger Rhubarb Muffins. Rhubarb and spicy crystallized ginger flavor these gluten free and vegan muffins. The top is finished with nutty, crunchy granola bits.
I love the taste of ginger and rhubarb together – last year I made this Rhubarb Ginger Jam. It was my first attempt at jarring jam and it worked quite well after I took this Craftsy class on jam making.
The crystallized ginger bits are the perfect spicy-sweet complement to the rhubarb. I used my new favorite baking ingredient – vanilla bean paste
– to give them an extra rich vanilla flavor. It’s a lot easier to use than scraping a vanilla bean pod.
Vanilla extract
can be used if you don’t want to purchase vanilla bean paste. I’m a fan of all Rodelle vanilla products – read about their awesome efforts to promote small farmers in this Vanilla Bean Cookie recipe post.
These rhubarb muffins can be made with
either all-purpose flour or a gluten free blend.
How to make Gluten Free Ginger Rhubarb Muffins
I gave myself a challenge to try baking with gluten free flours. I love the nutty flavor of almond flour and sweetness of millet flour – so I chose these two to enhance the flavors in these muffins.
After much trial and error, I developed a gluten free flour blend of almond flour, millet flour and tapioca starch that produces a soft cake-like consistency.
Flax seed replaces eggs as a binder to make these completely plant based / vegan muffins.
In this recipe the rhubarb is roasted first with sugar and orange juice. The roasting process softens and sweetens the rhubarb before it’s mixed into the muffin batter. **You can add fresh strawberries to this mix if you’re dreaming of a strawberry rhubarb muffin.
Topped with crunchy bits – these resemble
rhubarb crisp in muffin form.
Let Rhubarb Week last forever!
This gluten free rhubarb muffin has a moist cake consistency and is loaded with rhubarb and crystallized ginger bits for a perfect spicy contrast to the sweetened rhubarb.
- 1/3 cup almonds chopped
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 2-4 stalks of rhubarb chopped – depending on the thickness of your stalks (approx. 2 cups + a few thin slices to garnish the tops of each muffin)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp orange juice (lemon juice will work too)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or GF mix: 3/4 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup millet flour, 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 1/3 granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 tsp ground flax seed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/4 cup chopped crystalized ginger
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In a cuisinart, blend the almonds, salt and rolled oats until they break down into small pieces. Add the maple syrup and coconut oil. Pulse until the crumbles start to come together. Set aside.
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Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF. Slice all of the rhubarb in 1/2 inch pieces except the pieces you'll use as garnish. Set those aside.
Toss the diced rhubarb, orange juice and sugar together in a roasting dish and roast 20 minutes while you prepare the muffin batter.
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Combine the flours, sugar, oats, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon, flax seed, and orange zest in a large mixing bowl.
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Fold in the vanilla bean paste/extract, coconut oil, and non-dairy milk. Let it rest for 2 minutes and it should start to thicken a bit. The batter should be a fairly thick consistency.
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If you haven’t already, remove the rhubarb from the oven. Drain any excess juices and fold the softened pieces of rhubarb and crystallized ginger into the muffin batter.
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Pour the batter into a large greased muffin tin – it will fill 9 spots. Press the slices of rhubarb on top if you’d like to make the pretty accent that I made on mine. Then, cover generously with the granola topping giving it a little press to secure it.
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Bake at 375ºF for 5 min, then lower the oven temperature to 350ºF and continue baking for 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden and crisp and a skewer comes out of the muffins with moist crumbs. Cool in the muffin tin.
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Best enjoyed when completely cooled to room temp.
These look really amazing! With so mqny different textures and flavours I bet they taste just as good, too.
Thanks! I hope you like them!
These muffins looks yummy! I will try these soon. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks! I hope you enjoy them! I ate way too many of them already!
Oh my gooooshhhh!!! Rhubarb (not to mention roasted!?!) plus my new obsession crystallized ginger? This is absolutely incredible. Cannot wait to make!!
Crystallized Ginger is the perfect compliment to the roasted rhubarb! I hope you love them!