Garden Fresh

I've been away for a while playing with my sister and brother-in-law on their recent visit...while I was having fun, the rhubarb in the garden ripened. Not being a gardener, it's a rarity for me to be able to walk out into the garden, pick something and use it in a recipe right away. What a great feeling though.

I've never cooked with rhubarb before, so after an internet browse, I chose these muffins (I'm on a muffin roll!)

Rhubarb and Orange Crumble Muffins

250g plain flour
100g castor sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
150ml milk
120g butter, melted

Rhubarb compote
2 stalks forced rhubarb, chopped into 1/2 cm pieces
100g sugar
Juice of 1 orange
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and simmer until soft.

Crumble topping
25g brown sugar
25g plain flour
25g ground almonds
20g butter
Zest of 1 orange

Rub all the ingredients together to resemble fine breadcrumbs.

To make muffins...
Set oven to 180c.
Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl. Whisk the egg, milk and butter together and add to the dry ingredients with half of the rhubarb compote. Line a mini muffin tray with cases – this will make approximately 30 mini-muffins or 12 regular ones. Top with a little of the crumble. Bake for 25 minutes, cool on a tray and serve with the remaining rhubarb compote.

These muffins are sweet, but the rhubarb had a tang - or maybe it's the orange zest! Either way, they're delicious...go out and get your hands on some rhubarb and make these!