Nectarine and Rhubarb Muffins
Rhubarb loves to be waterlogged, so it’s somewhat ironic we had to move to sun-baked Griffith before we grew a successful one. Our attempts in waterlogged New Zealand all failed. Dad shoved a water spike in the middle of our bush or bundle or whatever it is you call a rhubarb. Anyway, that seems to be the way to grow a rhubarb!
Muffin Ingredients
6 big stalks of rhubarb.
Two cups of water.
Half a cup of honey.
Two tablespoons of vanilla essence
Two thirds of a cup of maple syrup
One egg
Half a cup of oil
A pinch of salt
One cup of self-raising flour
Three fresh nectarines cut into bite sized pieces
Topping Ingredients
One cup of crushed toasted almonds
Half a cup of rhubarb and honey
A pinch of salt
One tablespoon of maple syrup
One tablespoon of oil
Half a cup of corn flour
Instructions to make the muffin
Cook the rhubarb and honey down to a thick sludge. You can do this easily by bringing the rhubarb to the boil with the lid on and then reduce the heat with the lid off.
This should render about two cups of rhubarb.
Set aside half a cup of the sweetened, cooked rhubarb for the topping
Mix the remaining cup and a half of rhubarb and honey with the vanilla essence, maple syrup, egg, oil and salt. Mix.
Add the flour and mix in as lightly as possible to get it combined with the wet ingredients. Don’t overmix at this stage, or the muffins will be tough.
Gently fold in the nectarine pieces.
Line the muffin tray with parchment paper. (This makes six medium sized muffins and I use a large muffin tray).
Add the mixture into the tray, ensuring that the nectarine pieces are distributed evenly.
Pop into the oven at 240c (464f) for about fifteen minutes to force the muffins up.
Assemble the crunchy topping
Mix the crushed toasted almonds, cooked rhubarb, salt, maple syrup, oil and corn flour into a paste. (Add the cornflour last or it will be very hard to mix in.)
Remove the muffins from the oven and drop the oven down to 220c (428f). Add the crunchy topping to the muffins and return them to the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
Finishing touch.
I like to sift a little bit of agave powdered sugar over these once they have cooled. Despite being a cane sugar substitute, it’s still very, very refined and probably not the best thing for me to be eating. I seem to have a strong reaction to many highly processed foods. But I don’t think a light dusting can do that much harm, and it looks awfully pretty. Tips
Tips
Some people dislike the taste of honey as a sugar substitute.
I’m inclined to agree. But rhubarb has such a robust taste, I’ve never found the flavour of honey could compete.
In this recipe it makes an excellent sweetener and it’s cheaper down here than maple syrup. However, maple syrup will work just as well if you want to avoid honey.
