Nanny's Cinnamon Streusel Rhubarb Muffins

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Rhubarb season is definitely one of the most magical times of the year. I am a sucker for a sour sweet treat, and rhubarb is exactly that. Growing up my two favourite rhubarb recipes were my grandmother’s (I called her Nanny) - her rhubarb-strawberry jam and her rhubarb muffins. I’ve been hitting up the local farmer’s market the last few weekends and rhubarb is in full swing. I texted my mom for Nanny’s recipe a few weeks back and wanted to share it with you all so you can take advantage of this wonderful season. These muffins are on the smaller side and, in my opinion, best served in pairs - perfect with an afternoon tea!

Note on recipe origins: this was found in my late grandmother’s recipe box but it was pretty common to pass along recipes from word of mouth or copied out from magazines back in the day. I’m not sure where she got this recipe from and take no credit for the recipe development. My intention is to share some of my favourite memories of her cooking with you.

Nanny's Cinnamon Streusel Rhubarb Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

45 mins including bake time

Ingredients:

Topping:

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup pepitas or any chopped nut (pecan, walnut or almond would work!)

½ tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

¼ tsp kosher salt

Batter:

½ cup sour cream (ideally full fat, 14% m.f)

¼ cup vegetable oil (or other neutral oil like grapeseed or avocado)

1 large egg

1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour

⅔ cup brown sugar

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp kosher salt

1 cup diced rhubarb


Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 400F.

  2. Prep a muffin tin with muffin tin liners or grease with cooking spray or neutral oil.

  3. In a small mixing bowl mix your topping ingredients and set aside. You may need to use your (clean!) fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients - it should resemble wet sand.

  4. In a large mixing bowl, mix your wet ingredients (sour cream, oil, and egg) into a homogenous mixture.

  5. Combine your dry ingredients in a separate medium bowl and add in your diced rhubarb. Add to your wet ingredients and fold in until no dry spots exist.

  6. Evenly divide the batter in the muffin tin. Note: these are smaller muffins so the batter will likely only come up ⅔ of the tin. 

  7. Sprinkle the topping mixture on top of the muffins - evenly dividing between them.

  8. Bake for 20-25 mins - cake tester should come out clean. Cool before serving.

Bean and Corn Dip

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This recipe is far from original - if you google “Texas Caviar” or “Cowboy Caviar” you’ll find tons of recipes for a similar dip. I first had this when my roommate back in 2014 made it for her sister’s birthday (hi Renee!). I am such a sucker for “fresh” appetizers at parties - veggie trays, anything with cucumber, salad rolls, etc. I think it’s because I’m always slightly dehydrated? Appetizers with lots of fresh flavour I gravitate towards. I remember the night I first tried this I kept going back for more. It’s tangy, fresh, and slightly addictive. I’ve been making versions of this recipe ever since and it’s always such a hit. It also keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge, and IMO gets better with time as the flavours sit together. I love it for lunches with tortilla chips, on top of a taco salad, or in wraps. It is also so great for summer parties because the frozen corn kind of cools it from within. I hope you enjoy this tasty bean dip for your next get-together!


Tips

Small Dice Your Veggies for Optimal Dipping Experience

This dip is great scooped up with tortilla chips so you want to make sure your veggie pieces are small enough so you get lots of variety in each bite.

Frozen Corn

I personally just like to add the corn frozen straight into the dip, and then let it thaw once mixed. I find it doesn’t take time to thaw and it keeps everything else a little cool while it sits at room temperature. If you are making this right before serving, you could cook the frozen corn according to the package and then let it cool to room temp before mixing with everything else. 

Dicing Tomatoes

I like to remove the seeds so the dip isn’t too ‘soupy’. To do this I cut the tomato into quarters and use a spoon to scoop out the watery seed parts. I then dice the flesh of the tomato.

Bean Substitutions

I have accidentally made this dip with chickpeas, kidney beans, and white beans (I have trouble reading bean can labels). All turned out great! I think any canned bean works here.

Storing

This keeps well in the fridge for 4-5 days in an airtight container. I sometimes make this the day before serving so it marinates overnight.

All the veggies chopped pre-mixing!

Bean and Corn Dip

Good for a crowd, 20 min prep

Ingredients:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can lentils, drained and rinsed

1 cup frozen corn

2-3 medium tomatoes, fine diced (I like to remove the seeds so it’s not too soupy but you don’t have to fuss about this)

1 pepper (red, orange, yellow, green - whichever colour you prefer), fine diced

3-4 green onions, green parts thinly sliced

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

2 limes, juiced

¼ cup olive oil

¼ tsp kosher salt

Pinch of each ground cumin, garlic powder, chilli powder (adjust to taste)

A few shakes of tabasco or other hot sauce

Optional: a squeeze of honey or maple syrup

Optional: handful of fresh cilantro, diced

Method:

  1. In a large bowl combine your drained and rinsed beans and lentils, frozen corn and chopped veggies (tomato, pepper, green onion).

  2. In a small bowl or mason jar, combine your apple cider vinegar, lime juice, olive oil, salt, spices and hot sauce. Whisk well to emulsify (or if using a mason jar, seal tightly and shake). 

  3. Pour over your bean mixture and mix well to combine. If using cilantro, add it in. 

  4. Taste - does it taste good, like you need to take another bite? If not, you may need a pinch more salt. Does it need more spice? Add more tabasco. Need a little more sweetness? You could add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup, or add in more frozen corn!

  5. Serve with tortilla chips!

Tortilla Roll-Ups

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This recipe is influenced by all the delicious pinwheels/tortilla roll-ups I’ve eaten throughout my life. I feel like every holiday gathering growing up had some form of tortilla roll-up - whether it was a sweet version with cranberries or spicy like these. This is far from an original recipe, just simply my version of the very popular appetizer. I love these with the spice of the pickled jalapeno, freshness of the red pepper and savouriness of the green onion. You can play around with the ratios to get the perfect bite for you depending on how spicy you like your food. These are super easy to make and always go quickly at parties and gatherings. 

A few tips:

Cream Cheese

You can use either the spreadable cream cheese in the tub or the block of cream cheese, both work fine! If using the block, I would let it sit at room temperature for 30 mins to an hour to soften slightly, which will make it easier to mix. 

Making Them Ahead of Time

A few options for prepping these ahead of time:

  • You can make the mixture up to 3 days ahead of time and refrigerate that, assembling them the day you are going to serve.

  • You can make the mixture and roll up the tortillas, refrigerating well wrapped 1 day ahead of time, then slicing to serve. I wouldn’t roll them up too much more than 1 day ahead of time because you don’t want any moisture getting into the flour tortilla and becoming soggy.

Tortilla Roll-Ups

Yields 4-6 tortillas x 6-8 bites per, ~36-48 bites!

Ingredients:

1 package of cream cheese - you can do either the hard block or the softer spreadable version

3 green onions, green parts finely diced

½ red pepper (or orange or yellow), finely diced

2-4 tbsp pickled jalapenos, drained and diced

1 cup old cheddar cheese, grated

1 package large flour tortillas (10”)

Pinch of salt and pepper

Method:

  1. In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese, green onions, red pepper, pickled jalapeno and cheddar cheese in a bowl and mix together to combine. If easier, you can use an electric hand mixer to mix everything together. Sometimes I use a little bit of the jalapeno liquid to loosen up the mixture - you want it to be spreadable! 

  2. Take a taste and adjust - I personally like them medium spicy but you can always add more jalapeno. Season with salt and pepper if needed.

  3. After it’s all mixed together, scoop a scant 1/4 cup and spread thinly onto a tortilla, trying to get as close to the edges as possible. Roll tightly. I sometimes have to add a little of the mixture to the top edge to have it close well.

  4. You can store them rolled in the fridge covered in plastic wrap and then slice them into 1.5 cm rounds when ready to serve. The ends make for a great *chef snack*.

Tourtiere Bites

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I absolutely adore tourtiere and I plan on *finally* publishing my recipe for the real deal this year. I’ve been working on that recipe for 5+ years and it’s so dear to me. I want it to be perfect for everyone so you can enjoy the same warmth and love of each bite that I do, but I think I’ve been kind of stuck trying to make it perfect so it’s time to put it out there! In the meantime, I adapted my recipe for a smaller format, especially since many people’s holidays will be smaller this year. These little bites have all the flavour of the larger pie but come together much more quickly, and don’t require pie dough!

My favourite part of these tourtiere bites is taking the method from baklava where you pour honey syrup while they are still piping hot; pouring the maple syrup over the bites right when they come out of the oven gives a sweet little crust making them extra addictive. 

I hope you enjoy these little bites this holiday season!

Tourtiere Bites

This yields 16 bites, you could easily double if you have a larger crowd.

1-1.5 hour (30 min prep, 30-40 min cooking)

Tools needed: mini-muffin tray

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil

1 small white onion, finely diced  (~½ cup)

1 clove of garlic, minced

½ lb ground pork

⅛ tsp ground nutmeg

⅛ tsp ground cinnamon

1/16 tsp ground clove (I just eyeballed a half of a ⅛ measuring spoon)

Salt and pepper

1 small potato grated (~ 1 cup)

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (½ a package)

2 tbsp maple syrup


Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 375F.

  2. Heat a pan to medium-high heat, add the oil and the diced onion and minced garlic. Sautee until softened, about 5-7 minutes.

  3. Add in the ground pork and spices, allowing the pork to brown and cook through (you don’t need to disturb it too much). About 5 minutes.

  4. Once the pork is cooked, add in the grated potato. There should be enough pork fat in the pan but if needed you can add more olive oil. If it dries out add a tbsp of water. Continue to cook until the potato is tender, about 10 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper (it should taste good when you taste!).

  5. Roll out 1 sheet of puff pastry and cut into 16 squares. Place the squares into mini muffin tin and press into the tin leaving the corners hanging. Scoop the filling into the pastry (about 1 tbsp per) until evenly divided. Fold the corners on top of the filling to almost close each mini-pie bite.

  6. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the puff pastry is golden brown. Immediately after removing from the oven pour a little maple syrup over each bite - it will sizzle in the pan and soak into the filling/pastry without getting too sticky.

  7. Serve warm!

Mom's Orange Chocolate Cookies

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These cookies activate a very nostalgic part of my brain. My mom had two signature cookies growing up - her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (which I will publish on here one day but I have not figured out her magic touch!) which were a regular occurrence, and then these orange chocolate cookies, which were a bit more of a rare find. She isn’t sure the origin of these cookies, it’s likely a recipe passed on to her from a friend. The aroma of the orange with the slight touch of clove brings back so many great memories for me. I love these for fall and winter with their slight touch of clove. Perfect with a cup of tea on a cool day!

A few tips for these cookies:


Cream together the butter and sugar until super fluffy

You want the mixture to look almost white before adding in the egg! 

Be patient once you add in the egg

You are forcing quite a bit of liquid into fat (the butter) so it takes time for it to whip together; patience at this stage will lead to wonderfully fluffy cookies. If you have a stand mixer this is pretty straightforward as it’s hands-off but you want to whip until all the liquid is incorporated into the butter and you have a homogenous, light, extremely fluffy mixture.

Don’t over mix once you add in the flour

To ensure you don’t end up with a “tough cookie”, mix until just combined for steps 5 and 6. You could always mix by hand at this stage if you feel like your mixer might lead to over mixing (I just use the lowest setting on my stand mixer).

Drop the cookies vs shaping them

These were originally called chocolate orange drops, because instead of shaping the dough you literally just scoop with a spoon and drop onto the sheet. This gives them an imperfect shape that leads to great texture - little scraggly bits get crispy while the inside of the cookie remains soft and fluffy.

Orange Chocolate Cookies

15 minute prep time, 12 minute bake time

Yield ~2 dozen cookies


Ingredients:

½ cup butter, room temperature

¾ cup brown sugar, well packed

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour (or you can do half whole wheat!)

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

⅛ tsp ground cloves

Zest of 1 orange

¼ cup orange juice (juice of 1 orange)

1 cup chocolate chips


Method:

  1. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper (if you have 2 sheets you can prep two and bake at the same time!)

  2. Cream together butter and brown sugar with either a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or hand mixer on medium-high for 2-3 minutes until it lightens in colour.

  3. Beat in 1 egg for 3-4 minutes (or longer!) - you are looking for the egg to be fully incorporated and the mixture to be light in colour. Should look extra fluffy!

  4. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and clove - whisk together until well combined.

  5. Add flour mixture to butter/egg/sugar mixture, beating on low until just combined.

  6. Add in orange zest, orange juice and chocolate chips, mix until just combined.

  7. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet 1 inch apart - should be about 1.5 tbsp in size (they are smaller cookies). You will likely need two cookie sheets, so you can either do this in rounds or bake two at the same time, swapping their position in the oven halfway through.

  8. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes until starting to turn golden brown. Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.