The Best Apple Rhubarb Muffins

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These tender apple rhubarb muffins combine tart rhubarb with sweet, crunchy apples. They're good for a quick breakfast or an afternoon pick-me-up and will keep fresh for days.

muffins on a plate and stand with coffee cups

These rhubarb and apple muffins are ideal for spring when rhubarb is fresh from the garden and readily available at your local farmers market. Rhubarb pairs well with most other fruits (though technically, rhubarb is a vegetable). But when it comes to fresh and seasonal ingredients, foods like berries are not yet available for most of us so early in the season.

Luckily, apples, which store well through winter and spring, are an excellent fruit to pair with rhubarb.

Here are a few other reasons to love these muffins:

Combining rhubarb and apple creates a tasty balance of tart and sweet.
With a decent amount of fruit, these muffins keep moist for days after baking.
This recipe makes decent-sized muffins. While they're not jumbo, they're as big as you can get for a standard-sized muffin tin. Paired with some yogurt or fruit, they make a filling breakfast.

If you're into rhubarb, check out my other recipes for Cherry Rhubarb Pie, Rhubarb Breakfast Cake, and Ginger Rhubarb Gin Cocktail.

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🍎Ingredients
🍓Substitutions & Variations
⏲️Instructions
🌡️Top Tip
📋Storage
💭FAQ
🍵Pairing
📖 Recipe
🧁Related
💬 Comments

🍎Ingredients

Here's everything you need to make these rhubarb apple muffins.

Key Ingredients

Rhubarb - You'll need 2 or 3 stalks of fresh rhubarb to get about 1 ¼ cups chopped, but it'll depend on the size of your stalks.
Apples - I recommend a sweet and crispy apple because the rhubarb already contributes the tart flavor. You'll need one large or two small apples.
Lemon - We'll add the lemon juice to the milk to make an easy buttermilk substitute and the lemon zest to flavor the batter.
Brown sugar - I like the deeper flavor of brown sugar, so we'll use a bit of brown and white granulated sugar. If brown sugar isn't handy, just replace it with additional granulated sugar.
Milk - I use regular or 2 percent milk in this recipe.
Butter - I know everyone loves salted butter these days, but I don't care. I always bake with unsalted butter and add my salt separately, so that's my recommendation to you.
Flour - All-purpose flour is all you need here.
Cinnamon and ginger - I enjoy the combination of ginger and rhubarb, which is why I created this cocktail recipe. And I like to add cinnamon wherever I can.

See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and quantities.

🍓Substitutions & Variations

Other fruits - in place of apples, try substituting pears or your favorite berries
Buttermilk instead of milk - if you already happen to have some buttermilk on hand, you can use that in place of the milk and lemon juice
Add a crumble topping - For a crunchy and sweet topping, combine ¼ cup flour, ¼ cup oats, ½ cup brown sugar, and ½ cup melted butter. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the muffin batter before baking.

⏲️Instructions

Here's how to make these rhubarb and apple muffins.

muffin tin with spray and milk with lemon

Step 1: Add the lemon juice to the milk and let sit. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or fill it with paper muffin liners.

rhubarb being chopped on a cutting board

Step 2: Chop the rhubarb. Peel, core, and chop the apples. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

bowl with flour and small bowls with other ingredients

Step 3: In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger until well mixed.

Step 4: In a stand mixer or electric mixer, beat the butter with the granulated and brown sugars. When combined, add the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Then, add the lemon zest.

dry and wet ingredients together in one bowl with a spatula

Step 5: Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet with a spatula. Mix just enough to incorporate everything and avoid overmixing.

rhubarb and apple being stirred into the batter

Step 6: Stir the chopped rhubarb and chopped apple into the batter.

muffin batter being scooped into the tin

Step 7: Divide the batter among the muffin tin. You want to fill the cups as close to the top as possible.

muffin tin full of rhubarb apple batter for baking

Step 8: Top the muffins with reserved rhubarb pieces and coarse sugar. Bake in the 425-degree oven for 5 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 and continue baking for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

🌡️Top Tip

Remember to lower the heat after the first five minutes of baking. The first minutes at the higher heat help the batter start to rise almost immediately, creating taller, fluffier muffins. But you don't want to bake them the whole time at 425, or they'll turn out too dry and overbaked.

📋Storage

Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days. They may also be frozen, wrapped tightly in foil, and placed in a sealed bag for up to three months.

Whether fresh or frozen, leftover muffins often need a brief reheating. You can either pop them in the microwave and heat for 20-30 seconds or slice them in half and toast them in a pan with a little butter.

💭FAQ

Can I use frozen rhubarb instead of fresh?

You can use frozen rhubarb instead of fresh in these muffins and other baked goods. You do not need to defrost it first. However, you may need to increase the baking time by a few minutes.

Does rhubarb need to be peeled before baking?

You do not need to peel rhubarb before using it in baking recipes like these muffins.

How do you take the tartness out of rhubarb?

One of the best ways to tame rhubarb's tartness is to pair it with sweet fruits, such as apples and berries.