These sweet/tart muffins are courtesy of a few currently converging influences:
- A recipe from my favourite nutritionist, Meghan Telpner, for a cake I had at one of her cooking classes this year. Ohhhh, it was divine — strawberries and sweet potato! Who knew?
- The appearance of one of my favourite things on the planet: rhubarb! (I just learned that rhubarb, although a vegetable, is classified as a fruit in the US, which lowers its taxes!)
- Buckwheat flour — I am loving the nutty taste this flour gives to my baking, (as you’ll remember from my gluten-free chocolate orange walnut biscotti, quinoa & flax bread, and pita) and you know what? Buckwheat and rhubarb are related! This sounds like a match made in heaven, along with…
- Ginger! We picked up some crystallized ginger on an Indian-spices-shopping-trip last week, and have been snacking on it ever since. The flavour called to me to pair it with rhubarb. Mmm. It was a good call.
Gluten-Free Rhubarb Ginger Muffins
Adapted from Meghan Telpner’s Strawberry Rhubarb Breakfast Cake, makes 18 muffins
Dry Ingredients
- 1 c. brown rice flour
- 1 c. buckwheat flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Wet Ingredients
- 2/3 c. maple syrup
- 1 Tbsp. ground flax seeds mixed with 3 Tbsp. water, and left to sit for 10 minutes to thicken (or 1 egg if you’re not going vegan)
- 1/3 c. applesauce
- 1/3 c. almond milk (or soy, hemp)
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 c. coconut oil
Mix-Ins
- 2 c. rhubarb, sliced
- 1/4 c. crystallized ginger, chopped
- 1/3 c. walnuts
Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease two muffin tins with coconut oil, and dust with brown-rice flour (alternately, spray with cooking spray).
In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix well. Double check that you don’t have big lumps of coconut oil sitting around in the bowl and stir to incorporate.
Fold in mix-ins, and stir until all ingredients are evenly incorporated.
Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are browned and a skewer or toothpick poked into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
Let cool before removing from muffin tins, and enjoy with a cup of tea (particularly good with lemongrass coconut)!
Kitchen Operas 
I can vouch for these after a taste test! They are fantastic!
Georgous & lovely looking gluten free muffins!! I have rhubarb fresh from my father’s garden!!
I am not a coeliakie patient but I feel better when I eat a lot gluten free!
A must try recipe!
MMMMMMMM,…many greets from a foodie fan from Brussels, Belgium!!!
Thanks, Sophie!
I don’t need to eat gluten-free either, but quite enjoy the alternative flours.
Enjoy them!
Hi! What do you think about substituting almond flour for the rice flour in this recipe?
I think it would be totally delicious, but possibly crumbly! Give it a go, and let me know how it turns out?