Eastern redbud trees (Cercis canadensis) burst into beautiful magenta blooms each spring across the East Coast, Midwest, and Middle Atlantic– and yes, you can eat the flowers of this imminently recognizable tree. The redbud is a striking magenta tree that flowers around the same time as two of my other favorite spring blooms– cherry blossom and magnolia, both of which are also edible tree flowers common to various landscape schemes around the Eastern United States.
And if you are a beginner forager or just curious about what to make with these edible spring flowers, the below redbud olive oil muffin recipe is a great place to start. It’s delicious, whimsical, super easy to make, and people love the novelty. Let’s get into it:
This is a Redbud tree.
Redbud, moreover, is a great tree to get to know because it’s widely used in landscaping across the Eastern seaboard, and it doesn’t have any common poisonous look-alikes. You can find this in the wild, Urban areas (just be sure to check for spraying or contamination in that case) and also in Suburbia.
You can use redbud to make two of my favorite spring recipes: this redbud olive oil muffin recipe (below) and also redbud pink lemonade, which is gets its natural pink color from the anthocyanins, a naturally occurring antioxidant flavonoid that gives the pink redbud flowers their bright color. And like most colorful, edible things in nature, they are good for you! Rich in antioxidants and gut-supporting prebiotic fiber.
Here’s what redbud flowers look like once you de-stem them. Sort of like a magenta sweet pea flower, with a similar taste if you eat them raw.
Yes, You Can Eat The Flowers From This Tree.
Below is my favorite redbud muffin recipe, which is so nice for spring birthday parties, Easter events, and spring brunch gatherings because they are so dainty and twee.
People love the novelty of these edible pink flowers showing up in their baked goods, and I love that they confer a subtle wild food element that adds extra nutrition to any recipe. No one needs to pay for costly superfoods if you know how to identify edible flowers in the wild. They are nature’s natural multivitamins great for skin, digestion, and overall wellbeing.
Redbud Flowers Are Great for Baking!
Mostly, I love the springtime ritual of making these muffins. They’re lovely, and delicious. The redbud blossoms themselves don’t really taste like much– when you bake with them, they mostly just add a lovely design element and some subtle antioxidants. But the flowers look so cute! So it’s perfect for spring and now a fun part of our family calendar of spring traditions. When it’s redbud season, it’s time to make redbud muffins! I hope you can make it part of your spring routine, as well. There’s something really grounding and wonderful about looking forward to making highly-seasonal recipes like this one year over year.
Thus, you might want to Bookmark this recipe for easy reference every spring!
Enjoy!
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Redbud Olive Oil Muffin Recipe
This recipe makes 1 dozen cute, flower-topped redbud muffins.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 TBSP baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup milk
- juice of 1 lemon
- lemon zest to taste (I like to add a whole lemon’s worth of zest)
- 1/2 cup redbud flowers, de-stemmed, + plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (~205 degrees Celsius) and grease or fill muffin tin with liners.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- In medium bowl, whisk together the egg, olive oil, milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- slowly incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
- Finally, fold in the redbud flowers, leaving some extra for decorating the muffins once they are in the cups. Fill muffin cups 2/3 of the way, and sprinkle the top with fresh redbud flowers.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Muffins will be blonde-yellow and slightly golden brown. After 5 minutes, turn them out on a wire rack to let them cool. Enjoy!
Notes
- For added tang and brightness, add 1/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, or other berry of choice.
- These muffins keep well at room temperature for 2-3 days, or about 10 days in the fridge. Optionally, you can freeze them for up to 6 months.
- To freeze these muffins, flash freeze them for 1 hour on a cookie tray (or just loose in your freezer, like me) before packaging them into a parchment-lined freezer bag. This will prevent them from sticking to each other when they thaw. You could also wrap each individual muffins in plastic wrap and then put them into a freezer bag for easy portioning later.
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Related: Love the taste of spring? Try this easy recipe for Redbud Pink Lemonade next. Or, switch trees and bake this incredible Magnolia Spice Cake (everyone loves it!)
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