Rhubarb and strawberry. One of my favourite flavour combinations. In season right now. I’ve been making huge pots of strawberry and rhubarb compote. I could eat it by the spoonful for breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between. It’s a while since I have made muffins for Sunday brunch. This weekend I happened across Liz at My Favourite Pastime’s post for Rhubarb Muffins. Absolutely delicious, she was lamenting the fact that over in the northern hemisphere rhubarb season is over. Not so over here. Inspired by Liz’s post I made a strawberry and rhubarb version. A whole tray of soft, fluffy muffins demolished in moments. It doesn’t get better than that.
Strawberry and Rhubarb Brunch Muffins
Original recipe at My Favourite Pastime
Makes 12
The secret to perfect muffins every time? It’s easy when you know how. Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Combine the wet ingredients together in a jug. Pour the wet on top of the dry and fold together very gently. Scoop the batter into well greased (or paper-lined) muffin tins, making sure they are no more than 3/4 full. Bake in a preheated oven until golden. Here in Australia we like to use cup measurements. When baking 1 standard cup = 250ml. If you prefer measurements in ounces or grams visit Liz’s post. She has very generously scribed all the conversions for this recipe.
I do have a confession to make. When I made this batch, in a moment of distraction, I forgot to add the baking powder to my dry ingredients. The curse of multi tasking or rather having a rather lengthy phone conversation as I was baking. Nevertheless they were deliciously soft and fluffy. The buttermilk and eggs acted as a raising agent so thankfully they still had an adequate amount of rise to them. A good excuse to bake these again. With the baking powder. To be perfectly honest no one else noticed.
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk
125g butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup rhubarb, trimmed and chopped into small dice
3/4 cup strawberries, hulled and chopped into small dice
PREHEAT oven to 190°C. Line a 12-hole, medium, muffin tin with paper cases or grease and flour.
SIFT flour, custard powder and baking powder into a medium sized bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre.
IN ANOTHER bowl, whisk together the two eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients into the well and mix until just combined. Fold in the rhubarb and strawberries.
SPOON mixture evenly into the prepared the muffin tin.
BAKE for 15-25 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes, then loosen, carefully, with a flat bladed knife and transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
The Paddington Foodie 
I can’t remember when I forgot to add baking powder but I remember making some muffins two weeks ago, in the morning and forgetting to add sugar. I only remembered after the muffins had been in the oven for 15 minutes, so I just decided to eat them with lots of jam and butter, but without sugar the muffins stick tightly on the paper cases so it was an ugly sight. Thanks for trying out the muffins. I hope you enjoyed them. Have a wonderful week!
I can’t believe iforgotthe baking powder. I had it out on the kitchen bench. They were delicious.Cant wait to make them again. I’m sure I could add any combination of seasonal fruit to the batter.
Oh, they’re beautiful!
Sweet muffins are one of my favourite things to bake, and I love the idea of this combo. I haven’t had rhubarb in years. So wonderful to have both in season at the moment 🙂
Just remember to add the baking powder. This recipe would work with any combination of fruit. It’s well worth trying.