Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins! Fluffy vegan + gluten-free oat flour muffins spiced with ginger and filled with juicy chunks of strawberry and rhubarb. A summery sweet baked treat!
When you hear rhubarb you probably think pie, but when you taste these Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins you will not be thinking about pie at all. You will only be thinking about how wise it was of you to channel your summer fruits into muffins instead. They will convince you with their sweet gingery flavor and soft golden insides. Very persuasive little muffins they are.
Can pie be warmed up, sliced in half, and slathered with almond butter? Can pie be munched in the car one handed while hungry-driving? Can pie deliver wonderfully juicy fruit chunks amidst tender oat flour fluff?
No…but muffins can. This is why we made muffins. This is why we love muffins.
What I don’t get is why Instagram is telling me rhubarb season is NOW, and yet not a single grocery store I went to had fresh rhubarb. Thank goodness for the frozen stuff or we’d be chatting about Just Strawberry Muffins right now. I’m not saying I mind that fact that the frozen stuff comes already sliced for me, but it does feel less seasonally authentic somehow.
If you can find fresh, use fresh. If you can’t find fresh, check for frozen. If you don’t like slicing, frozen was made for you. Same goes for the strawberries, although I used fresh there.
I jumped straight to the fruity fun part, the mix-ins, but let’s back up and talk about the muffin part. These grain-free muffins are my personal favorite, but oat muffins seem to be your favorite so I made this recipe with oat flour. And even more requested, I made them with ONLY oat flour – no flour combining or starch additions. Yep, I’m finally embracing the flax egg.
They are oil-free and quite low-fat too. I tested a batch with almond butter, but the nutty flavor was too overpowering, so these are made with applesauce for moisture. I do recommend using full fat coconut milk for the non-dairy milk to give them an extra boost of richness, but it’s up to you.
Oat flour baked goods taste much less sweet in my opinion than almond flour ones, so I used more coconut sugar than usual. It helps to balance the tart taste of the rhubarb and ginger spice too. But you can scale it back if you are okay with a less sweet muffin.
This is not rhubarb at it’s fancy finest, this is rhubarb’s casual weekend look. Easy, cozy, familiar.
The one thing pie does have over muffins is the obligatory scoop of melty ice cream on top. But no one ever said a muffin sundae couldn’t be a thing.
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Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins! Fluffy oat flour muffins spiced with ginger and filled with juicy chunks of strawberry and rhubarb. A summery sweet baked treat!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120g) unsweetened applesauce
- 2/3 cup (110g) coconut sugar
- 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax + 4 tbsp water)
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
- 1/2 cup (120g) full fat coconut milk*
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups (275g) gluten-free oat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) chopped rhubarb
- 1/2 cup (60g) chopped strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Prepare the flax eggs and set aside for 5-10 minutes to gel.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, coconut sugar, flax eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, and milk.
- Add the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Stir to combine.
- Fold in the chopped rhubarb and strawberries, reserving some for on top.
- Spoon the batter into a muffin pan lined with paper liners or coated with coconut oil. Fill each muffin about 3/4 of the way.
- Top each with a few extra chunks of rhubarb and a strawberry slice.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F or until the center feels firm to the touch and bounces back when lightly pressed.
- Remove form the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
- Enjoy! Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
*You can use other kinds of milk, but the muffins won’t be as moist/rich since this recipe is otherwise very low in fat.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 202
- Sugar: 12g
- Fat: 5g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 33g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 5g
Keywords: summer, baking, vegan, gluten-free, snack, rhubarb
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Hi!
This recepies sounds amazing!
I have some spare almond flour on hand do you think I could substitute some of the oat flower ?
Thanks Lea 🙂
You could try half and half, although almond flour is MUCH more moist than oat so you may need to decrease the amount of applesauce to make up for that so they don’t turn out mushy. I also linked to my favorite almond flour muffin recipe in the post if you prefer 🙂
I have been making strawberries and rhubarb for 2 weeks straight, it’s so good and season is so short! I use half oat and half buckwheat flour, and add cardamom into the batter,
Oh that sounds amazing, I love the cardamom addition! I know, I am trying to make the most of all the summer berries these days too, but this fruity combo is just so good. I love the tart + sweet. I am so happy you’ve been enjoying them too, Catherine🤗
Strawberry rhubarb muffins?! That’s an amazing combo! I haven’t eaten rhubarb in ages, so I really want to make your muffins asap. Love that you used coconut milk and oat flour as these are my two favorite ingredients when it comes to baking. 😀
Can you find fresh rhubarb around you? I had a tricky time finding it here, but luckily the frozen stuff works too. I love the tart flavor of it in sweet baked things😋 Thanks for checking them out Ela!
These are just so pretty and scream summer Natalie!! I love that you used both rhubarb and strawberry here, so a classic combo and even better to put them into muffins! I usually see them in pie or something (like you mentioned), so this is a lovely idea and the fact that there are pops of red throughout makes them that much more special 🙂 And heck yes to the oat flour too. I obviously love almond flour in baking too but I sure do love oat flour when paired with citrus too…hides the oat flavor and masks the dryness of oat flour well. I also love that sprinkling of powdered sugar (??) on top, looks extra pretty and ready to be eaten with, haha. I’m guessing these wouldn’t last long at all at a gathering. The fact that they are so healthy, the practically can pass for breakfast too, which I ain’t mad about…especially when it comes to being able to eat more muffins! I think I love to make muffins as much as cookies and cake! Great recipe Natalie!
Pies and tarts just feel too fancy for me (even though I realize they are actually so easy every time I make them😆). I tried a batch with just the rhubarb, but nope I needed those berries too. It’s a classic for a reason. Interesting about the oat flour citrus connection, I hadn’t noticed that specifically but now that you mention it I totally agree. Oh and sneaky sneaky, but that’s actually coconut flour dusted on top. Looks just like powdered sugar and you don’t taste it! Finally something coconut flour is good at😂
I haven’t made anything strawberry rhubarb yet this summer…this looks like the perfect recipe to try though!
Has it been unusually hard to find for you too? Well you better hurry up (she says in the fist month of summer because it already feels much to short😂) Happy baking!
I made your muffins and used mostly spelt flour and didn’t have coconut sugar so used unrefined cane sugar. They were a BIG hit and I’ve been asked to make more right now for my non-plant based daughter and her family.
I am so happy they were a success Dianne! Impressing the non-vegans (and kids!) is always the ultimate test😊 Spelt flour is awesome, good to know they worked with that too. Thanks for the feedback and happy (more) muffin baking!
I ACTUALLY, FINALLY made something from your blog! These muffins! Did you see my blogspeare72 post of four muffin photos on Instagram two days ago? Didja? Didja? Huh? Huh? (And my 45-year-old self has somehow gone from a mature woman to a preschooler. Why? All excited about baked goods, of course!) My 14-year-old daughter and I made them together in fact. (She and I together in the kitchen can be quite the, ahem, challenge. She’s more of a toss-it-in, move-it-along kind of baker whereas I’m a reread and follow the recipe step-by-step, measure the ingredients carefully, slow-and-steady kind of baker. But I digress!) My husband loves the combo of strawberry and rhubarb (typically in pie format, from one of our local bakeries, since I’ve made one pie in my life, pecan, about twenty years ago or so and the crust was far from ooh and ahh worthy) so when this muffin recipe found its way to my inbox I had my “Aha!” moment of “THIS is what I must make! This will be the first one!” I even used my Vitamix blender to make flour from organic rolled oats, the first time I’ve ever used my blender to make any kind of flour. I’m usually not a fan of gluten-free, wheat-free baked goods. I’ve tried a number of sweet muffins and breads of the kind made at my local co-op, for instance, and always feel disappointed by the texture and taste. Well, I must say that I quite like how my muffins turned out. (Especially when slathered in whipped buttery spread and reheated in a 225-degree F. oven for 20 minutes or so. Mmm mmm!) My daughter likes them as well, though not as much as me. (She tends to steer clear of gluten-free and vegan baked goods if the traditional versions are available, claiming the revised versions are never as good as the originals.) My husband has had two muffins but he found the ginger to be overpowering, which was a shame because I was inspired to make them because of his love of strub. My 11-year-old son took a bite of one and didn’t want anymore. (Okay, so I’m sad the rest of my clan doesn’t like them so much on the one hand but on the other hand, more muffins for me! You know, trying to focus on the bright side and all.) Excuse my ignorance off the top of my head, but are most (if not all) of your recipes gluten-free? If so, is that because you follow a gluten-free diet and/or because a large chunk of your subscribers do? I’m already wondering what to make next from your blog. I’m thinking something chocolatey because everyone in my family loves chocolate. I can’t lose with chocolate, right? (Fingers crossed!) My husband and I both love nuts too but my kiddos do not, which is a shame, although they might tolerate them for the sake of eating the chocolate! 😉 I’d appreciate any suggestions. By the way, I have a big ol’ bag of whole wheat pastry flour sitting on the bottom shelf of my fridge. (I’d rather use that than all purpose because of the health benefits.) Do you know if, generally speaking, that can be substituted for gluten-free flours in baking to good effect? Or is it hard to say? I saw that Dianne above used mostly spelt flour instead of oat for the muffins and it worked out really well. Okay, I think this “novel” of a response is even longer than my last one. I’m giving Brandi some serious comment competition! 😉
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I say put ice cream on everything 😂 I could really go for a muffin sundae now! OK, full disclosure…I’ve never had rhubarb 😬 I see it in Whole Foods frequently and want to buy it mostly because I love the color, but I’m intimidated! But these muffins?!? They’re so pretty! And combined with strawberries? They have to be good ❤️ If I happen to see rhubarb next shopping trip, I’ll have to pick some up to make these for my family!!
You and the rhubarb skepticism was totally me last year, I had never tried it before then but it grows on me a little more every time so I say go for it. Although if you are standing in the produce section trying to decide between summer rhubarb or summer bluebs…BLUEBS EVERY TIME🙌 But since usually both is possible, go for it. It’s tart but works really well with sweet berries in there too😋
What can I replace the rhubarb with if I don’t have any?
More berries perhaps! Anything you like really 🙂
Please respond to the comment I posted on June 28th. There are some questions in there for you. Thanks in advance.
Hi Victoria! I am so so sorry–I get behind on comments, especially the long ones, and it’s been sitting in my inbox to respond too for a while now. I wanted to take the time to give your very thorough comment a very thorough response, and I just hadn’t gotten to it. But I am SO HAPPY you liked the muffins🤗 And as for your questions: yes all my recipes are gluten free as am I except for a little bit of sourdough here and there. Whole wheat flour can often times work instead of oat flour, but I can’t say it will in EVERY recipes as all flours work very different so there’s always a chance it will throw off the texture or make it too dry/gummy (especially with low fat baking). Ah chemistry. I don’t bake with wheat flour often, but I know there are tons of great vegan bloggers/recipes out there designed for it that would be good to try! And as for chocolatey suggestions, this one is one of my favorites: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/gluten-free-vegan-chocolate-cake/ Or for something more summery, my readers are really loving this one too: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/no-bake-vegan-chocolate-cream-pie/ Hope that helps! And happy baking😊
Thanks Natalie! 🙂 I appreciate your feedback on flours. I’ll show the cake and cream pie recipes to my husband, daughter and son and see what they think. (They both look delicious to me!) This afternoon my daughter and I made a new-to-us recipe from the “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar” cookbook: Pumpkin Pie Brownies! (Pumpkin? GOOD. Brownies? GOOD. Pumpkin Pie Brownies? Sounds SOOO GOOD!) I’ve had two cans of pumpkin sitting in my pantry since last fall. Pumpkin in July does seem a bit strange but, honestly, pumpkin baked goods are just too darn delish to restrict to one season! I’ll be topping my first piece with coconut whipped cream, mini chocolate chips and nutmeg after dinner tonight. I can’t wait! 🙂
I made these a while back just as the recipe says and they were delicious! I stuck some in the freezer and pulled them out this weekend. I can’t stop eating them!
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I am so happy you liked these Cindy, thanks for the feedback! And so smart to freeze them, now I’m wishing I had done that and could go defrost one real quick ha😋
Hi Natalie!
What would be the result if I use honey instead of coconut sugar? Or half half?
Thanks!
Hmm the half and half should be fine, but I think honey might add too much moisture compared to a granulated sweetener so could mess up the texture. Sorry!
Just made these! I used raspberries instead of strawberries and mine only needed 30 minutes in the oven. I really like this recipe, great job 👌❤
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Ooh what a yummy swap, I am so happy you liked them!!
Hi! I’m from Brazil and I don’t even know what is rhubarb but I’d love to make this recipe, so, could I simply use more strawberry?
Yes that will work too! Or even combining it with blueberries would be delicious 🙂
Ok, thanks so much! I’ll try it soon!