When I was a teenager, you couldn’t pay me to eat rhubarb and now I count the days until it’s in season. Rhubarb and strawberries are the perfect combination of tart and sweet, and work well together in all kinds of desserts: pies, crisps, crumbles, and bars. These crumble bars provide a fresh ending to a summer dinner or, better yet, for a midnight mid-day snack!
Wine Pairing: Preseco
Adapted from The Globe and Mail Food and Wine
Ingredients
Crumble:
- 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled from the fridge
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup graham cracker crumbs
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons large flake oats
- ½ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 egg plus 1 egg white
Filling:
- 2 cups rhubarb but into 1 cm pieces
- 4 cups strawberries, slices
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp cornstarch
Directions
- Grease a 9 x 13 pan with butter or Pam and Preheat oven to 350F.
- Use a cheese grater to grate the chilled butter onto a plate and then place the grated butter in the freezer while you mix the rest of the ingredients. Do not do this with room temperature or frozen butter.
- Stir together flour, graham cracker crumbs, ½ cup oats (do not add the 2 tablespoons yet), brown sugar, white sugar, lemon zest, and salt. Add the egg and egg white and combine dry ingredients with a fork.
- Using the grated butter from freezer, add it to the crumble mixture. Using your hands, massage the butter into the flour.
- Remove two cups of the crumble mixture for the topping - and stir the 2 tablespoons of oats into this mixture.
- Press the remaining crumble mixture into the greased pan creating an even layer.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, vanilla and corn starch and spread on the layer of pressed crumble. Top with the reserved two cups of crumble mixture.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is bubbling.
- Allow to cool for 1 hour before cutting.
- Enjoy!!
