Tart and sweet, Mom's quick and easy cinnamon apple rhubarb muffins are hard to beat. With basic pantry ingredients, fresh rhubarb and apples from my garden, these are tender, fluffy, delicious, and nutritious.
Why I love this recipe
It's back to school time and I am back into making muffins. Perfect for grab-and-go breakfasts, lunch box snacks, and healthy(er) desserts, muffins are on regular rotation here. Lots of fruit adds fiber and vitamins to these delicious muffins. Just sweet enough, I bet these will be popular in your house too.
Love a good fruit muffin? I bet you'll love my strawberry rhubarb oatmeal muffins and these easy blueberry oatmeal muffins too. If it's bars you're looking for, I've got you covered with these easy 5-ingredient oatmeal rhubarb bars.
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Recipe Ingredients
This delicious recipe needs only basic, easy-to-find ingredients and whips up in a flash. It's easily done, start to finish, in just 30-40 minutes.
- Apples - Wash and core your apples, then finely chop them with the peels on. Yep, leave them on for extra color and fiber. Chopped small or grated, this works well. Of course, you can peel the apples if you prefer.
- Rhubarb - Delicious in spring, if kept watered, the rhubarb season can go right through to fall. I love this easy-to-grow crop and use it in all kinds of baking. (Find my favorite rhubarb coffee cake recipe here.)
- Oil - Plain old vegetable oil is what I use.
- Flour - This recipe was tested using unbleached all-purpose flour.
See recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions + Variations
- Fruit - These work great with blueberries, chopped strawberries, cubed peaches or mango, too! If you like less fruit, you can reduce the fruit to 1 ½ cups total - ¾ cup each of apples and rhubarb.
- Oil - Melted butter or margarine can be substituted for the vegetable oil. If you use salted butter or margarine, omit the addition of salt to the dry ingredients.
- Sugar - I've used plain white sugar but you can also use an equal amount of brown sugar if you like. These apple rhubarb muffins are not overly sweet so I don't recommend using less sugar but you can add an extra ⅓ cup of sugar if you like a sweeter muffin.
Step-by-Step Instructions
This super easy muffin recipe follows the standard procedure of mixing your dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl, then mixing them together. The key is to mix ONLY until moist and blended. Overmixing can produce a tough and dense muffin so use a spoon, not an electric mixer. Leave a few lumps when mixing and you'll be rewarded with fluffy, tender, and moist muffins.
Heat oven to 400'F before starting. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with large or extra large muffin liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Step 1. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together and set aside.
Step 2. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, add milk, eggs, vanilla, and vegetable oil.
Step 3. Whisk together the wet ingredients.
Step 4. Add the egg and milk mixture into the flour mixture and gently stir just until it is a moist, cohesive mixture. Do not overmix, lumps are ok.
Step 5. Add rhubarb and apple that's been cut into ¼ inch pieces or finer if you like. (You can grate the apple on a box grater for very fine bits of apple.)
Step 6. Stir the chopped fruit through just until combined.
Step 7. Spoon batter evenly into the paper cups in the muffin tray. (Got an ice cream scoop? It's the perfect spoon for scooping muffin batter!) Bake muffins at 400'F for 18-22 minutes until muffin tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Finished! Remove from the oven onto a cooling rack. Let cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then remove and let cool fully on a wire rack. (Or eat one while warm with a cup of coffee or your morning tea.)
Mom's quick and easy cinnamon apple rhubarb muffins last well for 3 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Alternatively, you can let them fully cool before sealing in a bag or container and freezing up to 3 months.
Expert muffin tips
I said it above and I will repeat it here, don't overmix your batter. The less you stir the batter, the fluffier and better your muffins will turn out.
Save this recipe for later
I'd love it if you save this apple rhubarb muffin recipe to Pinterest or share it with your friends on Facebook!
More Great Recipes
Filled with fruit, zucchini, oats and more, I love making muffins with tasty and nutrient-rich ingredients!
- Strawberry Rhubarb Oatmeal Muffins
- Quick Easy Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
- Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
If you have any questions or comments, you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I try to answer any recipe related questions quickly as I know you might be in the middle of making it.
Also check out my FREE PRINTABLE meal planner to make menu planning and grocery shopping a breeze and my shopping guide. And if you like this recipe, I would love it if you give it a star rating in the recipe card.
Cheers and happy cooking, Friends! Sabrina
📖 Recipe
Mom's Quick And Easy Cinnamon Apple Rhubarb Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 c All Purpose Flour
- ⅔ c Sugar
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 c Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ c Vegetable Oil
- 1 c Apples, finely chopped ¼" dice or grated
- 1 c Rhubarb, finely chopped ¼" dice
Instructions
- Preaheat oven to 400'F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with large or extra large muffin liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the first 5 dry ingredients (Flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt).
- In a smaller bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the 4 wet ingredients (milk, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil).
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently stir through with a spoon just until it is a moist, cohesive mixture. Do not overmix, lumps are ok.
- Stir rhubarb and apple chunks through and then spoon evenly into the 12 muffin cups.
- Bake at 400'F for 18-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven onto a cooling rack and let sit 5 minutes, then take muffins out of the tin and let them finish cooling on the rack.
Notes
Nutrition
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