Rhubarb Bars

When it’s the season for it, there’s nothing we love more than baking with rhubarb! Here’s our latest in a string of nostalgic treats: this easy Rhubarb Bars recipe! It’s like rhubarb crisp, in handheld form. The hot pink jammy filling is intensely sweet tart, slathered over a brown sugar crust and topped with buttery crumbles. It’s a riff on my Grandma’s recipe, modified a bit to put our own spin on it. Welcome to summer!

Ingredients in this rhubarb bars recipe

These rhubarb bars are a spin on my Grandma’s recipe that I grew up with, tweaked a bit to put our own spin on it. Her recipe had strawberry Jello, which we swapped for a quick rhubarb jam on the stovetop. Like many crumble bars, the dough is used for both the pastry crust and the crumble topping. It’s simple to whip up and come out beautifully golden brown.

RhubarbGranulated sugarCornstarchLemon zestVanilla extractAll-purpose flourBrown sugarRolled oatsCinnamon and saltUnsalted butter

Tips for rhubarb bars

If you’ve made rhubarb crisp, these rhubarb bars are the same idea! You’ll simply use some of the crumble topping to make a pastry crust. Here are a few things to note for making bars:

Grease the pan, then line the pan with parchment paper. This makes them easy to remove from the pan. Cut the parchment so that it extends on two sides to easily remove it from the pan (cut it to fit right in the bottom on the other side). Greasing the entire pan helps the parchment stick to the bottom.Cook the rhubarb on the stovetop with cornstarch. This helps to thicken the rhubarb into a jam-like consistency. Allow to cool 30 minutes, then refrigerate 1 hour. This lets the texture set, firming it up so it’s the ideal texture for eating. Once you’ve refrigerated for 1 hour, you can easily cut them into 16 squares.

Variation: strawberry rhubarb bars

Want to turn these bars into strawberry rhubarb bars? Substitute 1 cup of the rhubarb with 1 ½ cups strawberries, thinly sliced. Follow the same instructions in the recipe below! The flavor comes out even sweeter for this bright red jam.

Eat them plain, or with ice cream

These rhubarb bars are the perfect dessert for cookouts, parties, and more! You can even turn them into a plated dessert by serving with a fork and topping with vanilla ice cream. However keep in mind that the crust is thick, so they are best suited for sinking your teeth into as bars.

Storage info

How to store these rhubarb bars once you’ve bake them up? If you stack them, make sure to store them with parchment paper between each layer so they don’t stick to each other. Then, place them in an airtight container and you can store them for:

3 days at room temperature2 weeks refrigerated3 months frozen

More rhubarb recipes

And that’s it! These rhubarb bars are great for using up a small amount of rhubarb during the season. And we’ve got so many more! Here are a few more ideas for rhubarb recipes:

Bake up Classic Rhubarb Pie or Strawberry Rhubarb PieMix up a batch of Rhubarb Bread or Rhubarb Muffins with StreuselTry good old Classic Rhubarb Crisp or Strawberry Rhubarb CrispSimmer some Easy Rhubarb Sauce