By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 1½ hours, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(942)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Imagine lemon bars, but made with a tangy rhubarb curd instead of citrus, and you’ll get a sense of this sweet-tart confection. The rhubarb curls on top make it pretty, but they don’t add much in terms of flavor, so feel free to skip Step 5. With their crisp crust and soft topping, the bars are at their absolute best when served within a day of baking. But you can store leftovers in the fridge for up to five days. They’ll get a little soggy, but the flavor will still be excellent.
Featured in: Introducing Rhubarb Bars, Lemon Bars’ Pinker Cousins
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Ingredients
Yield:1 (9-inch) square pan
- 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
- ⅓cup/65 grams granulated sugar
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¾cup/170 grams cold unsalted butter (1½ sticks), cut into 1-inch pieces
- 10ounces rhubarb, sliced (2½ cups), plus 1 slender red stalk for the top
- 1¼cups/250 grams granulated sugar
- 4large eggs
- 2tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons)
- 3tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon finely grated orange or lemon zest
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- Confectioners’ sugar, for serving
For the Shortbread
For the Filling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 325 degrees and line a 9-by-9-inch pan with parchment paper, leaving two edges long so they overhang the pan by at least 1 inch. (This is for lifting the bars out later.)
Step
2
In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar and salt. Add butter and process until a crumbly dough forms. Press dough into the lined pan in an even layer. Don’t clean out the food processor, you’re going to need it.
Step
3
Bake crust until golden at the edges, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack and raise oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Step
4
While the crust is baking, make the filling. In a medium saucepan, combine the rhubarb slices and 1 cup sugar. Cook, stirring frequently, over medium-low heat until rhubarb releases its juices. Raise heat and bring to a simmer. Keep simmering, stirring once in a while, until the rhubarb breaks down completely, about 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the rhubarb and juices to the food processor, and let it sit with the cover off until it cools down a bit, about 15 minutes.
Step
5
Meanwhile, using a vegetable peeler, lay the very pink rhubarb stalk on its narrower side. From the edge of the stalk, peel a long strip from the stalk. Continue to peel strips from the stalk, flipping it around the other side to keep it even. (This makes it easier to peel, but don’t worry too much about getting uniform strips.) Line up peeled strips and cut into 1½-inch lengths. Some may curl up, and that’s fine. You’ll have about 1 cup strips.
Step
6
To the food processor, add the eggs, remaining ¼ cup sugar, lemon juice, flour, zest and salt, and pulse until mixture is puréed. Pour into baked shortbread base, and carefully scatter the rhubarb strips on top. It should look a little like confetti. Bake until the filling is set and puffy, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely in the pan.
Step
7
Once cool, use a butter knife to cut at the edges of the crust to release them from the pan, then use the parchment “handles” to lift up and transfer the pastry to a cutting board. Cut into 1¾-inch squares. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Ratings
4
out of 5
942
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Cooking Notes
Nancy cooper
Based on my experience making my favorite rhubarb pie, cut the sugar in the rhubarb sauce in half - use 1/2 to 2/3 cup to protect the wonderful “tang.”
Lisa
I love the idea of these but I changed them up just slightly--I like the texture of rhubarb so I did not purée it, and I left out the last ¼ cup of sugar because I like rhubarb tart. Absolutely delicious way to utilize rhubarb!
MJ
"Transfer the rhubarb and juices to the food processor, and let it sit with the cover off until it cools down a bit, about 15 minutes."Some food processors say NOT to put hot liquids in the bowl, but let them cool before pouring in. It can cause the polycarbonate to crackle.
MG
If you can’t find rhubarb (or can’t afford it, it can be pricey), I’ve been replacing rhubarb in my recipes with foraged Japanese knotweed. It’s a pretty good substitute and it makes me feel better to be harvesting and eating such a scourge.
Chris
As someone who has lived in the Rhubarb Triangle for many years this recipe is an insult to rhubarb and a quick way to diabetes. After stewing the rhubarb why would you put it in a food processor and 250g of sugar is unbelievable. All rhubarb needs is a little sugar and some fresh ginger juice a perfect combination
Randy
These were excellent. Both the rhubarb and lemon come through. I reduced the total sugar by 1/4 cup and they were still plenty sweet, but not cloying. They take longer to firm up than you might think. I'd give it at least 3 hours. If you decide to do the "confetti" strips of rhubarb, you'll need to snip them as you cut the bars; the knife will just drag them along and make a mess. It's easier to use short strips and visualize the individual bars as you apply them, or skip it altogether.
KathyG
OMG - this is delicious. A perfect recipe to come across at the height of rhubarb season. I put a little orange zest into the shortbread crust as well as the custard. I only have an 8" square pan, and didn't want the custard to be extra deep so just used 3 eggs, and I reserved a bit of the crust to put on top before baking, as a bit of a crumble.
stargazer
This was a good formula! Since my rhubarb is made up of green and red stalks, I added about 1/2 C strawberries to the formula and obtained a very nice rose-pink color.
Wendy
Delicious!! I’d recommend cutting the shaved rhubarb to an inch or else it’s difficult to cut when cutting the bars.
Lady Goodman
I'm so glad you said that. It seemed awfully sweet, reading through.The beauty of rhubarb is the tang, and the fact that you can sweeten without is being "sweet."Appreciate the tip/validation.
Betsy
Terrific. I cut the sugar in the compote to 1/2 cup—perfect for my taste. Tip: if you peel the rhubarb to make the decorative spirals (very pretty) before you make the compote, you can chop the peeled stems and add them to the compote. No waste of precious rhubarb, and no impact on custard color.
Candace
I made this last night with rhubarb out of my garden, I also added lemon zest to the rhubarb and it was great, orange zest would be good as well, I used dried. My 8x8 pan took 35 minutes, and then after it was cool I put in in the fridge overnight and it sliced up great the next day. Now that I've had a bar or two, I would cut the sugar as well. But, boy is this ever really good. And, yes you can easily cut it into 16 or 25 bars for a large event.
Hoosier Mama
I'm picking up 2 pounds of rhubarb at the farmers market tomorrow, and can't wait to use some of it for this recipe.
camiller
I’ve always used OJ concentrate to sweeten rhubarb. Keeps the citrus acid element and orange aroma while sweetening. Adjust recipe for volume and liquid. Love the kumquat suggestion, and would serve with fresh cilantro or basil or as herb flavored (coconut ?) cream and cardamom or coriander to custard
Peggy
In upstate New York's Finger Lakes region, this is a spectacular rhubarb year, and this was a wonderful way to use up some of that bounty. It's delicious just as written. I'd suggest letting it cool in the fridge before serving to firm up the rhubarb custard topping. (I'm freezing ziplocs of rhubarb so we can enjoy this treat year 'round.)
mara
Followed the recipe exactly. Everyone loved them.
colleen
This was a huge hit with the family! I did do a little less sugar, which I saw some people suggest, and I loved the sweetness and tartness of the final result.
claire
Fantastic! I did reduce the sugar because of the comments here. Used 150g total and it was just right. Tart but not too sour.
Catherine
I wanted to like these bars, as I grew up eating, and loving, Betty Crocker’s rhubarb custard pie. The shortbread crust is delicious but there’s too much custard and not enough rhubarb for my taste. I even reduced the sugar but I found the rhubarb flavor weak. Next time I’ll up the amount of rhubarb and see if that improves the bars.
Yelizaveta
Super nice, but rhubarb 'spirals' on top made it very difficult to cut. Next time, I think I'll cut the slivers into bite sized pieces so that each bar has its own rhubarb piece.
Teak Simonton
Pressing the crumbly dough into a parchment paper lined baking dish was impossible, so I just pushed it up the sides and baked it without parchment nor greasing the pan. Worked fine, and bars come out easily when cool. Also, followed other's advice and reduced sugar by 1/2 cup overall, as recipe called for 1.25. They turned out great with plenty of sweetness. Excellent!
JTC
Good but not mind-blowing. I used 1 cup sugar total, upped the lemon to 3 tbsp and still wished I had used less sugar. They were tartish but not enough of a strong rhubarb flavor. I also loved the look of the rhubarb curls on top but they were a PIA to cut cleanly
Veronica
To our celiac, gluten-intolerant, and lactose-intolerant friends: Samantha Seneviratne has a wonderful Rhubarb Macaroon Tart. Its macaroon crust is gluten-free (but its filling is dairy-heavy). Prep the macaroon crust, baking just until matte. Cool slightly, add the filling from this recipe, and bake as described here. And if you can’t tolerate a pan greased with butter - coconut oil is a spectacular addition, but cooking oil or any neutral oil with do just fine. Cheers!
Jennie
Oh, I should have believed the comments. These bland, pleasant bars have almost no rhubarb flavor. I also cut down the sugar, and they were not too sweet--just too sweet for rhubarb bars. I used 4 large stalks--didn't weigh, but I am sure more than 10 oz. Needed about 8 stalks (but then the other proportions would have been off, perhaps?). Also, I used some red food coloring to dye these a delicate rhubarb-pink. What a disappointment.
Yelizaveta
I don't think four large stalks is enough to be 2.5 cups of chopped rhubarb... i used about seven to get the necessary quantity. They are definitely too sweet though! I'm planning on remaking but not adding the additional sugar to the food processor when making the custard.
Joan Walker
Although delicious, this recipe does not have enough rhubarb for me. For my tastes I would say increase the rhubarb and decrease the sugar.
Skip Manosh
I also cut the sugar to 2/3 cup in the mixture. I added a thin top crust to this recipe with a white and brown sugar mix and a 1/2 cup of oatmeal using just 2-3 tablespoons of cold butter chopped into the mix. It added crunch to the bars and kept the rhubarb mixture light and creamy. I did miss the texture of the rhubarb so next time I will keep some pieces to add to the mixture. I also added a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and some freshly grated nutmeg to bring out the flavors.
Caryn Hart
I am wondering if there is an error in the recipe. It calls for 2 tablespoons lemon juice from 1 to 2 lemons. That doesn’t make sense, since unlike limes, the amount of juice in a lemon is much more than 2 tablespoons. So should the amount be 2 tablespoons or more than that?
Jill the Pill
I make this recipe every few weeks when rhubarb is in season -- which is all summer cuz I live in Alaska and rhubarb is one of our 'fruit' like staples that grows all summer. Like some other commentors, I don't puree the rhubarb. I do sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top. I throw in whatever other fruit is available - esp strawberries. Everyone loves this recipe. It's a keeper.
Katherine
I didn’t bother with all the rhubarb “ribbon” curling because these are pretty enough just as they are and have the virtue of being very simple. And delicious.
ToniB
I used Kraft Parmesan in place of the shortbread crust. It came out great!
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