The Delights of Rhubarb

Some of you may be familiar with my obsession with rhubarb. I get it in my CSA box whenever I get the chance. I buy it at the grocery store whenever I see it. And yes when we get around to getting our vegetable garden in, I will have rhubarb. I love, love, love rhubarb . . . in a pie, a crisp, a muffin, a compote. You name it, and I’d probably like it. One of my kids said, “Mom, I like rhubarb, too, but not as much as you.” I will admit, I am fanatical.

Things I am looking forward to trying this season . . .

• Roasted Rhubarb
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble with black pepper, pine nuts, and port wine (wow!)
• My friend A.C.’s Buttermilk Rhubarb Cake

I love blogger Molly Wizenberg’s (Orangette) summary of her adoration for rhubarb recipes:

“At this point in my life, if all goes well and life expectancy charts are accurate, I probably have about fifty springs left, which means fifty more rhubarb recipes to love. The fifty springs part is sort of depressing, but on the upside, it’s really quite a lot of rhubarb. I’m looking forward to it.”

I think I found my recipe to love of the season–Rhubarb-Strawberry Muffins with Cardamom Streusel. I wish you could have been in my kitchen while they were cooking. I had to try very hard to wait for them to cool, or I surely would have burned my mouth on them with my eagerness to try them.

I found inspiration in my CSA box–the rhubarb and the pint of strawberries and I had my mind set on making muffins this go around. I had a rhubarb muffin recipe, but not one with strawberries. Searching the web I did find one that caught my eye as it used part whole-wheat pastry flour (trying to bake more with whole-wheat) and maple syrup instead of sugar. I thought the stick of butter, while surely delicious, was a bit much, and tried my luck with substituting 1/2 of that with applesauce. The original also called for buttermilk, but I substituted plain low-fat yogurt for that. Taking inspiration from my “just” rhubarb recipe, I added a bit of cardamom, which in my opinion is one of the most delightful of all spices to smell. I also pulled the cardamom streusel topping from that recipe to round out my heavily adapted rhubarb-strawberry recipe. I loved this subtly sweet, tangy muffins. The streusel, delicious. These truly are best right out of the oven, but could be kept for a few days. Try reheating them in the oven, if you have time, otherwise the microwave for about 20 seconds for one.

My final recipe:

Strawberry – Rhubarb Muffins with Cardamom Streusel (printable pdf)

Makes about 12 muffins

For the streusel:

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the muffins:

1.5 cups unbleached flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cardamom

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup maple syrup

½ stick melted butter

¼ cup applesauce

1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt (or ½ cup buttermilk)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp grated orange rind (optional)

1 cup chopped rhubarb

1 cup sliced strawberries

Combine ingredients for steusel topping. Use fingers to make it into a coarse meal and set aside. Mix dry in a large bowl. Mix wet separately. Add wet to dry. Stir in berries and rhubarb. Spoon into greased muffin pan. Top with rounded teaspoon of streusel topping. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Devour, especially if warm.

Note:

If you aren’t looking to lower the fat . . . replace ½ stick + applesauce with one stick of melted butter.

My inspiration recipes:

Rhubarb Muffins with Cardamom Streusel

Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins (seeing the beautiful food/cooking photos on this site make it worth a visit)

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