Rhubarb and Custard Muffins with a crumble top are sweet, filled with flavour and super soft. A fantastic summer treat.
I love baking muffins.
Well, I love eating muffins and homemade muffins are so much better than store-bought ones. Baking them is great and eating them is better.
I also love rhubarb, and what’s better than combining two really yummy things? Adding two more, of course. Soft, moist muffins with rhubarb, custard and a crumble top.
Amazingly delicious!
I’m going to be honest. I wasn’t actually sure these Rhubarb, Custard and Crumble Muffins would work.
Would it be a bit much? Would the custard stay in the middle? Would the crumble top mean that they were too heavy to rise? Would they need to be baked too hot and so dry out?
I was fully expecting a day of experimenting with different quantities and lots and lots of failures.
Turns out it’s a really Easy Rhubarb Recipe. Perfect Rhubarb Muffins with Crumble Top first time.
I did, obviously, make another batch to make sure. They are sooooo yummy we must have eaten about 6 in one day.
Ingredients for Rhubarb and Custard Muffins
I make my Recipe for Rhubarb Muffins with Buttermilk, like all my other muffin recipes. In fact, I use the same basic recipe for all of my muffins just with different flavours, fillings and tops. The main wet and dry ingredients and quantities are always the same or very similar.
The ingredients for these Custard Stuffed Rhubarb Muffins are:
- 375g Self Raising Flour
- 2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 2tbsp Custard Powder (this is optional but I think adds a deeper flavour)
- 150g Caster Sugar
- 50g Soft Light Brown Sugar (you can just use 200g caster, but I think adding a little brown is smoother)
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 240ml Buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk you can just add 2tbsp of either lemon juice or vinegar and leave it on the side to come to room temp, the milk will sour. I actually do this 99% of the time)
- 120ml Vegetable Oil
- 245g Rhubarb (I use tinned, which is 245g drained. You can swap for 250g fresh if you prefer)
- 200g Ready Made Custard
And for the Crumble Muffin Top:
- 50g Plain Flour
- 25g Oats
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 50g Butter (I use room temperature butter, but you could use margarine)
How to Make Rhubarb and Custard Muffins
I used to think making muffins was a bit complicated but it’s soooo simple!
The key is to mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately…but sugar is wet! And then not to overmix when you whisk the two together.
When it comes to rhubarb, I toss it gently in some of the flour so that it doesn’t all sink to the bottom. And I add the rhubarb to the batter last, very gently.
To bake muffins, I start at a high temp, around 200 in my fan-assisted oven for 10 minutes. This means the muffins rise quickly and you get that big bakery-style dome. Then I turn the temp down to about 160 degrees for the final 10 minutes for a more even bake.
The exact opposite that I’d recommend for cupcakes.
Baking with Tinned Rhubarb
I bake my Rhubarb and Crumble Muffins with tinned rhubarb.
Recipes with Tinned Rhubarb are great because you can enjoy them all year round without having to worry about whether or not rhubarb is in season.
We’ve always got tins of rhubarb in just in case.
When making my Recipe for Tinned Rhubarb Muffins I drain and rinse the rhubarb, and then lightly toss it in flour so that it doesn’t sink. You get nice chunks of rhubarb through the muffins, but tinned rhubarb is really soft, so it works through the mixture and flavours the whole muffin.
Making Muffins with Fresh Rhubarb
If you prefer you can make Rhubarb and Custard Muffins with a Crumble Top with fresh rhubarb.
Just peel the rhubarb and chop it into 1cm chunks.
I’d then recommend tossing in a little brown sugar and baking for 15 minutes. Just to soften it and get rid of a little of the tart flavour.
Then, follow my recipe for Rhubarb Muffins with Custard as it is.
More Tinned Rhubarb Recipes
If you like this Rhubarb Muffins Recipe you might also want to try:
Filling Rhubarb Muffins with Custard
I think nearly all of the muffin recipes that I make have something in the middle.
I love getting a burst of something when you bite into a big thick muffin. Super yummy.
It doesn’t quite work the same with custard as it does with Nutella or lemon curd. I suppose you could try freezing the custard so that it holds shape, but it’s super runny and I’m not sure how that would work?
Or you could make your own custard and make it super thick instead of using ready-made.
But I don’t mind too much that it spreads about as they bake. Rhubarb and Custard Muffins are gorgeous. The custard spreads and bakes into the muffin, and you only get little bursts, but they are so soft and sweet that it doesn’t really matter I don’t think.
I stick to the same theory though, adding a big tbsp of muffin batter to the case, then a big tsp of custard, and top with another tbsp of batter.
The custard moves and some will bubble out as they bake. They aren’t the neatest muffins in the world, but who cares?!
Making a Crumble Top for Rhubarb Muffins
The Crumble top for your muffins is optional. But fantastic!
I make a simple crumble by rubbing butter into flour, oats and sugar, but the big lumps of butter have gone.
You can scatter fairly liberally over the tops of your muffins before you bake them. If anything, I think I could probably get away with adding more!
Rhubarb and Custard Muffins
Ingredients
For the Crumble Top:
- 50 g Plain Flour
- 25 g Oats
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 50 g Unsalted Butter (at room temp)
For the Muffins:
- 245 g Tinned Rhubarb (Drained and Rinsed)
- 375 g Self-Raising Flour
- 2 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda
- 2 tablespoons Custard Powder
- 150 g Caster Sugar
- 50 g Soft Light Brown Sugar
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 240 ml Buttermilk
- 120 g Vegetable Oil
- 200 g Ready Made Custard
Instructions
- Prepare a muffin tin with paper cases, or grease and preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (fan-assisted).
- First, in a small mixing bowl, rub the butter, plain flour, sugar and oats together into breadcrumbs, making sure there are no big butter lumps, for the crumble and leave to one side.
- Toss the self-raising flour, custard powder and bicarb together in a large bowl.
- Use 2tbsp of this mixture to toss the rhubarb gently.
- In a different bowl whisk the sugars, eggs, buttermilk and oil until smooth.
- Pour this wet mixture into the flour mix and carefully whisk together (I do this by hand to avoid overmixing) just until it’s combined.
- Tip in the rhubarb and gently stir through, again, only lightly, not over mixing.
- Add a large tbsp of muffin batter to the bottom of each case.
- Spoon on a big tsp of ready-made custard.
- Add another tbsp of muffin batter (it’s ok if it comes right up near the top).
- Carefully, and liberally, sprinkle over some crumble mix.
- Bake in the centre of your preheated oven for 10 minutes before reducing the temperature to 160 degrees for a further 10-15 minutes.
- Use a skewer to check they are cooked but don’t worry if you can see custard on it, as long as there’s no muffin batter.
Video
Notes
- Custard powder is optional, just skip it if you haven’t got any.
- If using fresh rhubarb, I recommend chopping, sprinkling with sugar and baking for 10-15 minutes to soften and remove some of the tartness.
- If you don’t have buttermilk, measure normal milk out in a jug, add 2 tablespoons of either lemon juice or vinegar and leave to sit on the side for 15 minutes.
- You can substitute the brown sugar for more caster.
Any nutritional information is given as a general guide only and may not be accurate. The information is provided using an online calculator and is specific to my ingredients. Please make your own calculations if you want precise information.
