Strawberry Rhubarb Bars (yinmomyangmom)

I’m a little ashamed to admit this, but I only recently tried rhubarb for the first time.

I know! And I call myself a food nerd! For shame. I hope they don’t revoke my license!

For some reason it was just never really on my radar. Maybe because fresh rhubarb is so fleeting. I only ever see it in the produce section for a few weeks out of every year.

Well, once I finally did try it, I was instantly hooked. My first taste was in the form of a thick, juicy slab of strawberry rhubarb pie, with a crumbly, sweet streusel topping, and after that, there was no looking back. Strawberry rhubarb pie is now my absolute, hands-down favorite.

I had originally planned to share my own strawberry rhubarb pie, but when I spotted this recipe it sounded so good, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tinker around.

Oooooh, I’m so not sorry! This one’s a winner, fo sho.

I started by cutting cold butter into flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest, to form the crust. Most of that mixture gets pressed into the bottom of an 8×8″ square baking dish, and par-baked until just beginning to brown.

While that was going, I gave the rhubarb a rough chop. Isn’t it so pretty? I just love the jewelly red stalks against that chartreuse interior. So striking!

I also diced up a few sweet, ripe strawberries.

And mixed up the custard: the original recipe calls for plain greek yogurt or sour cream, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I just used a container of Strawberry Chobani, and cut back on the sugar by 1/4 cup.

Once the bottom crust was slightly cooled, I topped it with the rhubarb, and the strawberries, and then poured the custard on top.

I sprinkled the remaining crust mixture all over the top, to make a little streuselly layer, and baked the whole glorious concoction to golden perfection!

Don’t they look heavenly? They really are…

The crust is so crumbly and buttery, it’s sandwiched around this creamy, custardy goodness, and the sweet and tart fruit is just like a mouthful of sunshine!

Print Strawberry Rhubarb Bars
Author: adapted from The Pastry Queen, via Pink Parsley, via Annie’s Eats
Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 1 hour 20 mins Total time: 1 hour 40 mins
Serves: 16 bars
Ingredients

For the Crust & Topping:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
zest of half a lemon
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, cold
For the Filling:
2 cups roughly chopped fresh rhubarb
2 cups roughly chopped fresh strawberries
2 eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
6 ounces greek-style yogurt (strawberry)
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
juice of half a lemon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×8″ baking dish with parchment, and lightly grease.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and zest in a bowl and cut in the butter until crumbly. Press ¾ of the mixture into the prepared dish, and bake for 20 minutes.
Whisk the eggs, sugar, yogurt, salt, vanilla, and lemon juice together.
Top the cooled crust with rhubarb and strawberries, and pour the egg mixture over.
Sprinkle the top with the remaining crust mixture, and bake for one hour.
Cool completely, remove from baking dish, and cut into bars.

3.2.1230

If you’ve never had rhubarb before, I can tell you it has kind of a tart and floral flavor. But what I really love most about it is the way it seems to intensify the strawberry flavor. Somehow, when paired with rhubarb, strawberries taste even more strawberry-y. Strawberry-ish? Strawberry-like? The strawberries taste awesome. Strawberries good. Derp….

The bars come together quickly and easily, and they cut so nice and cleanly! They are a lovely Springtime dessert, and would be perfect to bring to a barbecue or potluck.

Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

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