Rhubarb Muffins Recipe with Oats and Cinnamon Brown Sugar Crumble
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These irresistible rhubarb muffins are the perfect way to use up that gorgeous pink rhubarb sitting in your garden or fridge! Each bite is a delicious mix of tangy rhubarb and hearty oats tucked inside a tender, fluffy muffin that’s not too sweet. But here’s the real magic — that golden cinnamon brown sugar crumble on top adds the most amazing crunch and warmth that’ll have your whole kitchen smelling like a cozy bakery.
Whether you’re grabbing one with your morning coffee or packing them in lunch boxes, these muffins hit that perfect sweet spot between wholesome and indulgent. Trust me, once you try this rhubarb muffins recipe, you’ll be making them every single rhubarb season!
Rhubarb is one of the first things to pop up once the weather gets warmer, and this is one of the very first recipes I make whenever I get my hands on some. I originally found this recipe through a fun blogger recipe swap years ago, and it has been a reader favorite ever since. It’s easy to see why — the tangy rhubarb plays beautifully against the warm cinnamon and brown sugar, and the batter comes together in just one bowl.
Even though the batter is quite thick, these muffins bake up soft and tender every time. They’re perfect with a cup of coffee for breakfast or as a special treat with dinner. The recipe makes up to 24 muffins, so there’s plenty to share — or freeze for later!
How to Make This Rhubarb Muffins Recipe (Step by Step)
There are two parts to this recipe. I always make the streusel topping first and set it aside (or pop it in the fridge) while I mix the muffin batter. Here’s how it all comes together:
How to Make the Cinnamon Brown Sugar Crumble
- Combine flour, old-fashioned oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar together in a small bowl.
- Dice cold butter. Using two forks or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks crumbly. Set aside (I pop mine in the refrigerator).
- Don’t overwork it or it will blend together instead of crumble.
- Don’t use your fingers — the heat from your hands will soften the butter and ruin that crunchy crumble.
Muffin Batter
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, oats, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together until blended.
- In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients: milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, oil, and egg. Whisk together.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients using a spatula. Mix only until just combined — a few streaks are okay!
- Fold in the rhubarb.
Assemble and Bake
- Fill muffin cups 1/2 to 3/4 full. Sprinkle reserved rhubarb pieces and crumble over the top. For extra crunch, sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake at 350°F for 20–25 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with just a few dry crumbs.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Tips for Perfect Rhubarb Muffins Every Time
- Chop the rhubarb into small pieces so it distributes evenly throughout the batter and bakes through.
- Milk and vinegar listed in the recipe can be replaced with buttermilk — use the same amount.
- Don’t over-mix the crumble or the batter. Mix only until just combined. Over-mixing leads to tough, dense muffins.
- Using frozen rhubarb? Thaw it first and lightly press out the extra moisture before adding it. Frozen rhubarb holds a lot of water, which can make your muffins wet.
- Rotate the muffin pan halfway through baking so they bake evenly. Remove from the oven when a toothpick or cake tester comes out with light crumbs, not wet batter.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing them. This helps them set up and keeps the crumble intact.
- If you only have one pan, let it cool completely before refilling it.
Easy Substitutions for This Rhubarb Muffins Recipe
One of the best things about this recipe is how flexible it is. Here are some easy swaps:
- Buttermilk: Replace the milk + vinegar with an equal amount of buttermilk.
- Strawberry-Rhubarb: Swap out 1/2 cup of rhubarb for fresh or frozen strawberries. It’s a classic combo!
- Egg-free: Use 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of the egg. One reader made them vegan this way and loved the results.
- Less sweet: Cut the brown sugar in the batter by 1/4 to 1/2 cup — the texture won’t be affected. You can also add a pinch of nutmeg or extra cinnamon to punch up the flavor without adding sweetness.
- Add nuts: Fold in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans for a little extra crunch inside the muffin.
- Any milk works: 1%, 2%, or whole milk all work great in this recipe.
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How to Store (and Freeze!) Your Rhubarb Muffins
Muffins are best stored in a cake carrier or covered container once they’re completely cool. They don’t do well in a plastic bag — the crumble will turn soggy. These muffins freeze beautifully! Store them in an airtight container or zip bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or warm them in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use frozen rhubarb in this rhubarb muffins recipe?
Yes! Just thaw it first and gently press out the extra moisture with a paper towel before adding it to the batter. Too much liquid can make the muffins wet and heavy.
Why did my muffins turn out wet or doughy?
A few things can cause this: frozen rhubarb that wasn’t drained, an oven that runs cool, or overfilling the cups. Try rotating the pan halfway through baking, and always use a toothpick to check — it should come out with just a few dry crumbs, not wet batter.
Can I substitute buttermilk for the milk and vinegar?
Absolutely! Use an equal amount of buttermilk in place of the whole milk + vinegar. It works perfectly.
Can I use 1% or 2% milk instead of whole milk?
Yes, any milk fat level works fine in this recipe.
Can I make these muffins vegan?
Yes! Use vegan butter for the oil, swap the egg for 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce, and use your favorite non-dairy milk. One of our readers made them this way and said they turned out great.
Can I reduce the sugar?
Yes. If you’d like them less sweet, start by cutting the brown sugar in the batter by 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Adding a bit of nutmeg or extra cinnamon helps boost the flavor without extra sweetness.
Can these muffins be frozen?
They freeze great! Let them cool completely, then store in an airtight container or zip bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or warm them in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
Why is my crumble topping not crumbly?
Your butter likely got too warm. Keep the butter cold and use two forks or a pastry cutter — don’t use your fingers. The heat from your hands will melt the butter and turn your crumble into a paste. If your kitchen is warm, pop the crumble in the fridge for a few minutes before using.
How many muffins does this recipe make?
It makes about 19–24 muffins depending on how full you fill the cups. Filled halfway = 24 muffins; filled 3/4 full = about 19 larger muffins.
My muffins are flat on top — what happened?
These muffins aren’t meant to be super domed — they bake up flatter than a typical muffin because they use baking soda. If you’d like a little more rise, try adding 1 teaspoon of baking powder in addition to the baking soda.
Other Rhubarb Recipes You’ll Love
- Strawberry Rhubarb Bread with Streusel Topping — basically rhubarb cake in loaf form!
- Old-Fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb Pie — a classic you’ll make every season
- 4-Ingredient Simple Rhubarb Sauce — great on pancakes, ice cream, or yogurt
- Easy Rhubarb Dessert Recipe with Jello
- Apple Rhubarb Skillet Pie
I hope you enjoy this rhubarb muffins recipe as much as we do! Drop me a comment below and don’t forget to give it a star rating. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Your comments and ratings help other readers decide if this recipe is right for them too.
Rhubarb Oat Muffins with Cinnamon Butter Crumble
Equipment
Ingredients
Cinnamon Butter Crumble
- ¼ cup unsalted butter chilled and cut into 1/4″ pieces
- ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup old-fashioned oats
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp turbinado sugar optional (sugar in the raw)
Rhubarb Muffins
Dry Ingredients
- 2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1¼ cups brown sugar I used dark brown sugar but either is fine
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil or canola
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 2 cups rhubarb chopped – reserve 1/4 cup for topping
Instructions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line two standard muffin pans with cupcake liners or spray with a non-stick cooking spray.
Cinnamon Butter Crumble
- Combine crumble ingredients in a small bowl. Use two forks to cut butter into other ingredients. I use a pastry cutter to cut the ingredients together until it resembles coarse crumbs. If the butter gets too warm it will not crumble. Refrigerate the butter if it gets too soft before crumbling if necessary.
Rhubarb Muffins
- In a large mixing bowl add flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, oats, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together to combine.
- in a medium bowl combine milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, oil, and egg. Whisk together.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until just combined. Fold in 1-3/4 cups chopped rhubarb.
- Fill muffin cups 1/2 to 3/4 full. Top with remaining rhubarb and crumble. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes rotating pans halfway through baking. Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins 10 minutes in the pan and then remove them to a baking rack to finish cooling or serve warm.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator. May be frozen for a longer period of time.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
This recipe was calculated using the exact brands and measurements I used to make this recipe. If you are following a strict diet please note changing anything will cause the nutritional info to change. My calculations are intended as a guide only.
More Muffin Recipes We Love
- Carrot Cake Muffins
- Basic Muffin Recipe (7 Variations)
- Best Muffin Recipes Roundup
- Apple Muffins with Crumble Topping
- Lemon Pistachio Muffins
- Double Chocolate Muffins
- Cherry Almond Muffins
- Crystallized Ginger Muffins
Did you enjoy this recipe? Don’t forget to pin it for later and follow me on Pinterest for more delicious recipes like this one!
The blog hop that I participated in was organized by Michaela who runs An Affair From the Heart. Other great bloggers that participated are as follows:
- A Dish of Daily Life – Korean BBQ Chicken Skewers
- An Affair from the Heart – Everything Bagel Dip
- Bacon Fatte – No Bake Strawberry Shortcake Dessert
- Bowl Me Over – Best Enchilada Sauce
- Hostess at Heart – Rhubarb Oat Muffins
- Life Currents – French Onion Tart
- Lisa’s Dinnertime Dish – Tuscan Pork Sheet Pan Dinner
- Mildly Meandering – Roasted Red Pepper Dip
- Take Two Tapas – Mexican Beer Cheese Skillet
- West Via Midwest – Reuben Totchos
- Who Needs a Cape? – Raspberry Daiquiri Pie
Originally published: May 3, 2018. Updated: March 18, 2026– Enhanced with more detailed instructions, tips, and serving suggestions. No changes were made to the recipe.
I’m afraid I found these quite bland. The texture is good but lacking a punch.
Hi Sheila, rhubarb can really differ in flavor. You could always add an additional punch with spices such as more cinnamon or nutmeg.
These are delicious and have great texture. I believe your metric calculations are not accurate. I was preparing a half batch using the recipe in metrics, puzzled at how half of 125 grams of flour could yield 12 muffins. On a closer look, I confirmed several inaccuracies. Using 125 grams per cup of flour would have the recipe calling for 281 grams of flour. The metric version calls for 125. Similarly, I believe the brown sugar is miscalculated, using 200 grams per cup, the grams called for should be more like 250 to achieve 1 1/4 cup of sweetness. Another baker, Ri recently mentioned her muffins were wet even after extending baking time. Possibly Ri was using the metric version. We enjoyed these so much, I rewrote the recipe for my files after recalculating. I expect to be baking them again.
Aunt J, thank you so much for your comment! I’ve had an issue with my recipe card program converting and have had to go back and manually fix it as I find them. I believe that this one is fixed and happier yet that you got it to work for you!
Can you use 1% or 2% milk instead of whole milk?
Yes, you can.
I just made these and even after an extra 15mins in the oven they still came out wet and doughy… Going through the comments I noticed I’m not the only one this has happened to, so I wonder what could’ve gone wrong?
I haven’t had that issue but it can happen when the oven temperature is off or because there’s extra moisture collecting below the muffin paper due to the moisture in the batter. To combat that, you can put a few grains of rice below the paper right on the pan. Lastly, don’t remove the muffin from the pan too soon after baking. I hope this is helpful Ri. Thanks for your comment.
Ri & Julie,
Check online for adjustments that can be made for elevation. A recipe cooked on the coast may not come out the same when made on a mountain top!
Hi Adri! I’m the first to admit that I’m not experienced with adjustments for baking elevation! Thank you.
Outstanding! We are vegan and I don’t eat eggs or dairy. Substituted vegan butter for the oil and applesauce for the egg. Also cut down on the sugar. Very happy with this recipe. Made 21 total. Will be freezing to eat later. Thanks for this great recipe!
Thank you, Amy! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it and appreciate your tips for making it vegan for our readers!
I made these for my adult sunday school class. They were enjoyed by everyone!So happy that I was able to have extra for my family too!Thanks for a great rhubarb recipe!
Thank you, April! I’m very happy that you enjoyed them. I love sharing my baked treats and they’re always appreciated.
Keep meaning to write you a comment on these muffins; they are on repeat in our house! Thank you!
Thank you, Kathi! We love these muffins too.
I made these and they were wonderful! The texture is good, and the topping really made the entire muffin delicious! My only problem was allowing them to cool off enough to eat them!
My husband had bought way too much rhubarb that I need it for another recipe, and these muffins helped me to find another use for the rhubarb.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Tracy and appreciate you letting me know! Thank you.
Very delicious recipe. Made 24 muffins but I doubled the recipe on the crunchy topping.
Thank you, Ann! I’m glad you enjoyed it. We love this recipe too!
This recipe is fantastic. I doubled it and added 2 tsp nutmeg and one tsp baking powder which fluffed them up the perfect amount. The batter is extremely thick but it made the perfect muffins. Soo good!
Thank you, Abby! It is thick and I loved your bump in nutmeg with a bit of baking powder.
@Julie Menghini, do you think these could be frozen?
Absolutely! I freeze them all the time.
Just made these with the following substitutions: 1/2 c oil became 1/4 c oil + 1/4 c plain Greek yogurt 11% MF; 1 c milk became 1/2 c plain Greek yogurt 11%MF + fill to 1c with milk (happen to have 1%); for crumble I used salted butter (thats what i had thawed) then cut the salt in the dry ingredients to just under 1/2 tsp. They turned out great but leaning to the moist side. I also use large flake oats ALWAYS when baking as I find they give a more wholesome texture. Additionally, tsp cinnamon = 1 heaping tsp cinnamon whenever I bake haha. I usually leave rhubarb chunks large as I do like the tangy bite but don’t mind these being more mild on the rhubarb flavour (my rhubarb was frozen). Probably would be good with a few other ‘winter’ spices (cloves, nutmeg, allspice etc) but I found the cinnamon flavour came through nicely as was perfect as is. I found the recipe is under yield for 24 muffins. Only filled 21 cups for me (tip add water to baking cups that remain empty in your tray to keep things more moist). Now to try and avoid eating them all before tomorrow’s baby club!
Hi Janine! Thank you for your tips! I’m sure there are a lot of readers that will find value in them. I hope your baby club enjoys them!
I’m sorry to say we didn’t really enjoy these muffins. They are far too sweet for our liking. I’m not a good enough baker to know how much sugar I can omit without affecting the end product (e.g., too dry, too crumbly). As another reviewer said, some extra spice like nutmeg would jazz up the flavour.
The whole purpose of a rhubarb muffin is to enjoy the tartness of the rhubarb. This recipe missed the mark.
I’m sorry it wasn’t for you. You can eliminate as much sugar as you want. If you found it too sweet, start with half and go from there. Thank you for letting me know.
Not sure what these muffins are suppose to taste like but they are bland and doughy. After 25 min in the oven they were quite raw and doughy. Had to cook them 12-15 min longer but they were still very bland.
That’s really odd. I’ve not had anyone with this complaint. You may want to check your oven temperature’s accuracy?
I haven’t tried them yet, but it looks great. I just found it interesting that under the Cinnamon Brown Sugar Streusel Topping, you say, “Don’t use your fingers. The heat in your hands will soften the butter and break down your crumble.”, and in the recipe say, ” I used my fingers and “pinch” the ingredients together until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Thanks for pointing that out for me Marsha! It does work better if you don’t use your fingers because the butter is what creates that crunchy crumble and if it’s to soft or melted it doesn’t work as well. I’ll jump over and make that correction and sincerely thank you for pointing that out to me! ~Julie
These are amazing! My 3yo devoured them without a moments hesitation. I substituted 1/2c of the rhubarb for strawberries, but I bet they taste just as good as-is.
What a great tip, Lauren! I love it when the kiddos enjoy something I’ve made. Thank you!
These muffins are delicious! But mine were very flat on top, not nicely domed. I Googled why and I found that most muffins are baked using baking powder…not soda. I will try B. powder next time and will also put in some chopped walnuts. Otherwise I really liked the flavor and texture, not too sweet and not too tart. Hubby loves them.
Thanks, Terry for you comment! We love this recipe too. You’re correct that these muffins aren’t domed. I hope you’ll stop back and let me know how your baking powder version go.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Rhubarb and was so happy to find this muffin recipe!! They were amazing!!
Thank you, Michaela! I’m a huge rhubarb fan too!