Banana Rhubarb Muffins

These Banana Rhubarb Muffins are great for breakfast or as a snack and ideal for children's lunchboxes. They are soft and springy, full of banana 🍌 goodness and speckled with little chunks of soft sweet rhubarb.

So I've been having one of these Banana Rhubarb Muffins for breakfast for the last week now and I’m still going strong. And I don't feel as guilty as I would were they "normal" muffins because they are packed with banana and rhubarb goodness...which can only be a good thing right?! 🍌

They are certainly a great way of secretly getting some goodness into children who are picky eaters. Believe me I've been there, getting my son to eat when he was little was a daily challenge to put it mildly.

Honestly though, I truly love making these Banana Rhubarb Muffins because, besides tasting so good, they are just so INCREDIBLY EASY!

All you need to basically do once you've melted your butter and chopped your rhubarb is:

• sift your dry ingredients;
• mix together your wet ingredients;
• stir it all together than dollop a blob into a muffin case.;
• bake.

Boom. Done.

And, oh boy, these babies smell sooooo good whilst they're transforming into muffin goodness in the oven.

So bake yourself up a batch, they're easy peasy and mega tasty.

For a great Rhubarb Jam Recipe try my
Rhubarb and Apple Jam

Why make these Banana Rhubarb Muffins?

A perfect mingle of banana and rhubarb flavours ✔️

Super easy and quick ✔️

Light and fluffy ✔️

Tasty breakfast or lunchbox snack ✔️

Ingredients and Substitutions

Fruit ingredients

Rhubarb: two stems of rhubarb are chopped up into little cubes for this Banana Rhubarb Muffin recipe. I prefer to cut the rhubarb into cubes of about 1 cm square, this gives a rhubarb zing to the muffins which contrasts well with the rest of the sweet flavours.

Light brown sugar: we mix the rhubarb in light brown sugar and leave it for 10 minutes so that the rhubarb juices soak into the sugar.

Two medium bananas: the bananas are mashed up just before they are added. They can be overripe or just ripe, either is fine. Not green though. That would be nasty.

Dry ingredients

Baking powder and Baking soda: both of these leavening agents are added to help the Banana Rhubarb Muffins to rise. See FAQs below for more information on how this works.

All-Purpose (Plain) flour: to help give our muffins structure. You can use self-raising flour, if so reduce the baking powder to 1 teaspoon.

Cinnamon: just a teaspoon for another flavour revelation, cinnamon is quite a strong spice so any more will overpower the other flavours in the Banana Rhubarb Muffins.

Nutmeg: just a little to add another spice dimension.

Fine salt: to help bring out the flavours, fine salt should be used as it disappears quickly when baked.

Wet ingredients

Unsalted butter: our butter is melted and cooled. We use this method because it ensures the muffins have a soft crumb. Melted butter works well in any recipe where it is important not to overmix, such as this one. The reason we add more leavening agents (baking powder plus baking soda) is because we are not using the creaming method of butter of sugar for these Banana Rhubarb Muffins, so we need extra help with the rise.

Two large eggs: eggs are there to bind everything together. They need to be at room temperature to do their job properly though, so take them out of the fridge for 20-30 minutes before you start baking, depending on how hot your kitchen is!

Natural yogurt: I love adding natural yogurt to cakes. It gives them such a springy softness and moistness so they just melt in the mouth. It also gives the baking soda a push and gets it doing it's job properly to ensure the Muffins rise.

Vanilla extract: again adds a bit more flavour

Optional ingredients

Demerara sugar: sprinkled over the top of cakes before they bake, to give a nice crunchy texture to the top.

Equipment

Muffin tin
Bowl
Wooden spoon
Spatula
Fine mesh sieve
Small whisk
Cooling rack

Instructions

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1. Line your muffin tin with cases or grease the muffin tin cavities with some softened butter if you do not have any cases.
2. Melt your butter gently and leave to cool.
3. Mix your chopped rhubarb with your brown sugar and set aside for 10 minutes. Keep giving it a mix to ensure the sugar soaks up the rhubarb juices.
4. Sift together all of your remaining dry ingredients.
5. Add your eggs, yogurt, cooled melted butter and vanilla extract to a bowl and give it a beat with your small whisk.
6. Mash your bananas and beat them into the egg mixture.
7. Make a bit of a well in your flour mixture and tip in the wet mixture.
8. Fold in until combined, stop as soon as everything is mixed in.
9. Add your rhubarb and sugar mixture and fold in until combined.
10. Wipe down the sides and base of your bowl with your spatula to ensure everything is equally mixed in.
11. Fill your muffin cases equally, until about 1 cm below the edge of the muffin case.
12. Sprinkle over your demerara sugar.
13. Bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden.
14. Remove from the tin and place on your cooling rack, allow to cool fully.

Top Tips

• Don't be tempted to over mix your muffin batter. It will kill off the fluffiness. Just mix until everything is just combined and no more.
• Mash your banana just before you add it, so it doesn't turn into a brown mush.
• I like these muffins to have a little bit of a rhubarb "bite" to them, but if you want them sweeter chop the rhubarb smaller and leave it to soak in your brown sugar for 20 minutes.
• Make sure your eggs and yogurt are at room temperature, that is sooo important to the overall texture and fluffiness of your muffins.

Variations

To be honest you can use this basic mix for any kind of muffin.

Blueberry and banana works very well. However you'll want to dunk your blueberries into some flour first and then just prod them into the top of the cake batter once it is in the muffin cases so that their little black heads are just poking out a little. This stops them all congregating on the muffin base during baking.

Storage

Keep your lovely Banana Rhubarb Muffins in an airtight container and they will happily survive for 2-3 days. They do go a bit sticky on top, but that just adds to their appeal.

Keep them in your refrigerator, again in an airtight container, and their life span is a whole week.

FAQ

Linked Recipes

Rhubarb and Apple Jam

📖 Recipe

Banana Rhubarb Muffins

These Banana Rhubarb Muffins are great for a breakfast snack or treat, and ideal for children's lunchboxes. They are soft and springy, full of banana 🍌 goodness and speckled with little chunks of rhubarb.

4.91 from 11 votes

Rate this Recipe

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: banana, breakfast muffin, muffin

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 muffins

Calories:

Author: Ella's Better Bakes

Follow at @ellasbetterbakes or tag #ellasbetterbakes!

Alter quantities (metric only) 12 muffins

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Here's what you'll need...

• 12 hole muffin tray
• muffin cases (preferred or you can grease the tin cavities)
• Large bowl
• Fine mesh sieve
• Wooden spoon
• Spatula
• Cooling rack

Ingredients you'll need...

• 80 g unsalted butter (US = ⅓ Cup)
• 150 g chopped rhubarb washed and trimmed and cut into 1 square cm sized pieces (US = 1½ Cups)
• 150 g light brown sugar (US = ¾ Cup packed plus 1 tbsp)
• 260 g all purpose flour aka plain flour (US = 2 Cups)
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda aka bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon fine salt
• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 120 g natural yogurt room temperature (US = ½ Cup)
• 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 g ripe bananas peeled weight - 2 medium sized bananas
• 1½ tablespoon demerara sugar optional

Here's what we do...

• Heat your oven to 170°C Fan/190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
• Place your muffin cases into your muffin tin.
• Melt your butter and leave to cool.
• Add your brown sugar to your chopped rhubarb. Stir and set aside for 10 minutes, stirring regularly so that the sugar absorbs the rhubarb juices.
• Sift your flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together into your bowl.
• Beat together your eggs, yogurt, melted cooled butter and vanilla extract. I use a small hand held whisk for this as per the equipment list in this post.
• Mash your bananas and then beat them into the egg mixture
• Make a well in the middle of your dry flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture. Fold in until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
• Add your sugar and rhubarb and fold in until combined.
• Scrape down the sides and base of the bowl with your spatula to ensure everything is equally mixed in.
• Fill your muffin cases to about 1cm from the top of the case.
• Sprinkle over your demerara sugar.
• Bang the tray down on your worksurface twice to disperse any large air bubbles.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden.
• Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

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