We can never get enough rhubarb in the Spring especially since it’s a rather short season. It’s plentiful if you know the right people so we make these Rhubarb Squares to enjoy as snacks or any time of the day.
Rhubarb Squares
While I can’t speak for everyone, I know many of us grew up being fed rhubarb crisp and all things rhubarb every Spring. My mom dabbled in rhubarb vinegar and rhubarb wine amongst other things like crumbles and muffins, and I was always enamored with how tart this vegetable can be sampling everything she made. Did you know I named my first cat Ruharb?
These squares are a flashback recipe from back in the day of growing way to much rhubarb and figuring out new ways to use it. Before you ended up freezing a bunch. It’s also exceptional made into a barbecue sauce.
Rhubarb the Vegetable
Rhubarb is a vegetable! It’s a perennial plant (one that returns every year) with stalks similar to celery. With celery you can eat the leaves, with rhubarb you must never eat the leaves! They are poisonous.
If buying and not growing, look for firm, unblemished stalks indicating freshness.
Rhubarb means Spring
When Rhubarb shows up in stores or in the ground, you know Spring is on it’s way. Typically late March through to July is when it’s available which coincide with strawberries making them the perfect partnership of sweet and tart in baking.
Here’s a few other recipes that might tickle your fancy!
- Rhubarb Compote
- Cinnamon Butter Cake
- Five Spice Ginger Cookies
- Cast Iron Pan Apple Pie
- Carrot Cupcakes
If you made this recipe tag Wanda Baker on Instagram and hashtag it #bakersbeans or #wandabaker
Ingredients
Base
- 3 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
Filling
- 3 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
Topping
- 2 eggs, whisked
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
Base
- In a bowl, mix together flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, butter and eggs. Pour into a 9x13 casserole or baking dish and gently pat into place
Filling
- Spread fruit all over base evenly.
Topping
- In a bowl combine eggs, sugar, melted butter, flour, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour this over the fruit. Spread mixture all over the top.
- Bake for one hour. Cool and cut into squares. Store in a sealed container.
Glenn says
I’ve been looking for new recipes to use my rhubarb. Making these squares tonight!
Jacquelyn H says
I could eat these for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We adore rhubarb season!
Elvira says
Your recipes calls for 14 tsp. of salt. Wow! I’m assuming that is a typo.
Haven’t made it yet so can’t rate the recipe but will when I do.
Bakersbeans says
Yes, huge mistake – they would taste awful with that much salt! Thank you for letting me know!
Georgia says
I hope the amount of salt is 1/4 not 14. Sounds great otherwise.
Bakersbeans says
Good catch – thank you for noticing my mistake! Wouldn’t that be dreadful – all that salt, yuck!
Vickie says
Can I use frozen strawberries, if so sweetened or unsweetened
Bakersbeans says
That is a great question and you most definitely can although they may bring extra moisture to the squares. Please note the following: I would use unsweetened strawberries, that way you control how sweet it is. Make sure they have completely defrosted before using otherwise excess moisture may make it extra moist. Once strawberries have thawed drain off any additional liquid. If the strawberries seem extra moist from being frozen, you may need to add a little additional flour to compensate. Another thought would be to chop up the strawberries into smaller pieces to help distribute any extra moisture. Please let me know how it goes if you try it and thanks for dropping by.
Sophie says
I don’t understand the like of this recipe, but I decided to follow it exactly as written.
The base was a crumbly mixture, pressed it lightly onto pan as written. No sugar in fruit layer: different, but that’s fine. Then the top layer was a thick batter! I’m wondering “how is this going to make bars?” and it will look nothing like the photos (where the topping looked like it was crumbles). Decided to “trust the process”.
I’m sad I wasted all these ingredients. After cooking, the bottom was hard, the fruit/top batter layer was meh, and when cooled, it smells strongly of egg!
All will probably get tossed.
Bakersbeans says
Hi Sophie,
Thank you for leaving your feedback. It’s unfortunate the recipe didn’t work out for you. It’s a riff on a German streusel-type cake recipe from the 80s that my mom got from a friend and made regularly. Over the years I’ve made some changes to it – like swapping butter for margarine, no sugar in the fruit layer because it’s not needed since there is sugar in the top and bottom layers, and I’ve added extra spices. Otherwise, it’s fairly close to the original. I’ve made it dozens of times and my family loves it – sorry you didn’t!