Rhubarb is in most yards in Northern Minnesota. And lovely, lovely rhubarb is the first grown fruit or veg that shows up in the spring. When I’m waiting for my tomatoes, beets, kale, peas, everything, I get to enjoy some one-on-one time with the rhubarb in the kitchen. Boy oh boy do I love it! And this rhubarb streusel bread just might be my favorite rhubarb recipe.

Rhubarb Streusel Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb, chopped between 1/4-1/2 inch

Topping:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Tablespoon cold butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 in x 4 in loaf pans and lightly coat with flour.

With an electric mixer, mix together brown sugar, oil and egg. Beat in buttermilk and vanilla. Add salt and baking soda, mix. Then mix in flour. Fold in chopper rhubarb with a rubber spatula. Divide batter between the two loaf pans.

To prepare the topping: Combine sugar, ground cinnamon and butter in a bowl. Use fingers to work ingredients together until mixture is uniform and crumbly. Sprinkle over rhubarb bread batter.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted to center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then use a knife to release bread from sides of pans and turn out to finish cooling on the rack. Cut with a serrated knife.

Just a quick couple of notes about this recipe: I never buy actual buttermilk. Do you? I just measure out a hair less milk than the recipe calls for and add a quick glop of vinegar to it. It curdles the milk, and works as a perfect substitute.

If you like nuts in your bread, feel free to add some walnuts or pecans and tell me how you like it!

And if you prefer a denser bread, just use one teaspoon soda instead of one and one half, just know that it won’t rise as much. It’ll still be tasty, though!

And finally, this recipe is very forgiving with the amount of rhubarb that you use. If you only have 1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb, that’s ok! And if you want to add three whole cups, go ahead! You can probably tell that I’m the sort of cook who uses most recipes as an outline or inspiration for my cooking and baking. I encourage you to follow your heart, too. Have fun in your kitchen and tell me how you like your rhubarb streusel bread!