Goodness, where does the time go? Teaching this summer is really quite exhausting, and I find myself falling back on old standbys for our meals, like build-your-own burritos or the simple pasta sauce recipe I’ve posted about before. I guess this is my way of saying I haven’t been cooking much that’s too interesting lately. Last weekend I didn’t really cook anything at all, including bread, and the weekends are usually my cooking time. What’s worse is that I actually have a back log of pictures, waiting for posts, but I get home at night and am too wiped to do anything but surf the internet. But tonight I’ve found the energy, and hopefully I’ll get those posts out over this weekend, when (mercifully) I don’t have anything really planned.

Those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning may remember my quest for rhubarb earlier this summer. Not having any nearby farmer’s markets, eventually found it at a farmstand after much traveling. A few weeks later, our local produce-heavy grocery store had it in bundles for sale, mocking my effort before. At least I knew the stuff from the farmstand was really fresh. Anyway, given that I love rhubarb, I had to buy some more now that it was convenient, and that meant finding a recipe. I didn’t want to go the standard strawberry-rhubarb route, nor really did I want to make a crumble or a cobbler. I like making sweets that are contained in individual servings, so we can easily transport them and eat them for dessert throughout the week. I thought about ice cream, but then I decided to go muffin. I hadn’t really thought about rhubarb and cinnamon/spices before as going together, but when I found this recipe, I had to try it out.

This is one of those one bowl, how easy can it be recipes. The fat in this is actually vegetable oil, which is supposed to keep the muffins good longer than just butter. Since, like I said before, we eat these throughout the week, things that stay good a while are a plus

In goes the flour; the original recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour, which I didn’t really feel like buying specially for this recipe. While I thought about throwing in some plain whole wheat flour for kicks, I decided to go all-purpose instead.

In goes the rhubarb, cut into chunks. Though they’re as crisp as celery when they go in, they soften up completely and nearly lose all structure when baked in the muffins.

That’s it as far as the batter goes: simple as that.

Evenly divided into twelve muffin cups, the batter filled them pretty much to the brim. It’s a little fuller than I would normally fill them, but the muffins puffed up without overflowing too much.

I substituted almonds for walnuts in the cinnamon sugar topping that gets sprinkled on top. In the future, I think I might press the nuts down into the batter a bit to keep them from falling off. As it was, they pretty easily rolled off the baked muffins.

Perfect. The muffins were tender and very moist, helped both by the rhubarb and the oil in the batter. They would make great breakfast muffins, but they were delicious for dessert after dinner as well. Like I mentioned before, the rhubarb hunks lost all their structure and became little bursts of tart rhubarb in between the sweet, spiced muffin batter.

Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins (adapted from Eggs on Sunday)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup almonds, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF and line a muffin pan with muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg) and whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (eggs through vanilla)
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold to combine. Do not overmix. Fold in the rhubarb, and divide among prepared muffin cups.
5. In a small bowl, toss the almonds, cinnamon and sugar together with your fingers or a spoon. Sprinkle over the tops of the muffins and press nuts lightly into the batter.
6. Bake for about 18-22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. The tops should spring back to the touch when they’re cooked through.