These strawberry rhubarb crumble bars combine the delights of a crumble with the very special flavour of strawberry rhubarb pie, into one far-too-easy-to-eat bar.
Strawberries add a wonderful sweetness to the tart rhubarb, which means you can cut down on the sugar needed to enjoy it. Whether that elevates this more-ish snack to ‘healthy’ status is open for debate.
The crumble bars go well with an afternoon cup of tea, and make great treats for a picnic. If by some wild chance there are some left over at the end of the day, keep them in the fridge overnight to help them retain their shape.
I love how you can make then bake these in the same pan. The quantities given below makes about 9 small bars, so we doubled the recipe and baked them in a 22 x 33cm pan. We proceeded to make lots of friends as we gave away the extras when we realised how dangerous it was having a pile of these in the house.
If you like this fruit combination, check out the strawberry and rhubarb pie. It’s quite something.
Strawberry rhubarb crumble bars
- 80g rolled oats
- 95g plus up to 15g more extra all-purpose flour
- 95g light brown sugar
- Heaped 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 85g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional, but helps firm up the filling)
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon (15 grams) granulated sugar, divided
- 125g rhubarb, diced small (from about 1 1/2 medium stalks)
- 155g strawberries, diced small
- Icing sugar for decoration – optional
How to make them
- Heat oven to 190 degrees C. Line the bottom and two sides of 20x20cm square baking pan with greaseproof paper.
- Place oats, 95g flour, sugar and salt in bottom of the baking pan and mix together. Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients, and stir until clumps form. If the clumps feel loose or too damp, add the remaining 15g of flour.
- Set a third of the crumble mixture aside. Press the remaining mixture evenly in the bottom of the pan.
- Spread half the fruit over the base. Sprinkle it evenly with cornstarch, then lemon juice, and – if you have a sweet tooth – half tablespoon of granulated sugar. Spread remaining fruit over this, and top with second half tablespoon sugar.
- Scatter reserved crumble mixture over the fruit.
- Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until fruit is bubbly and the crumble topping is golden.
- Cool in the pan and then cut it into squares. Sprinkle with the icing sugar, if desired (this will soak into the bars overnight so do it the day you plan to eat them).
Thanks to smitten kitchen for the recipe. She’s a wonderful food writer and photographer, and is thoughtful enough to include metric measurements, which is great for all of us in kitchens outside of the US.
