Strawberry Rhubarb Dessert Bars

Filling Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Crust Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Drizzle Ingredients:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Combine rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice in 2-quart saucepan. Cover; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender (8 to 12 minutes).

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in small bowl. Stir into fruit mixture. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil (about 1 minute). Continue boiling until thickened (1 minute). Remove from heat. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all crust ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Spread filling over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Combine all drizzle ingredients in small bowl. Drizzle over cooled bars. Cut into bars.

*D: Rhubarb is a low maintenance plant that produces tart, fresh stalks (like celery) and poisonous leaves. :) We have a huge plant in our yard and you want to know how it got so big? Me too. Because we didn't do anything but water it once in a while. When the plant gets too big, we cut some stalks and freeze them.


So, this is a great rhubarb recipe for us to use all our rhubarb, both fresh and frozen. If you've ever had rhubarb you know it can be very tart. This recipe, although it doesn't call for a ton of sugar, is surprisingly sweet. I was almost a tad disappointed that it was so sweet and hardly tart. If you want more tart and less sweet, try cutting the sugar to a 1/3 of a cup.


We followed the directions to a "T"...because Tyler was baking :) The ONLY thing I would suggest is to follow the drizzle recipe and instructions. Tyler dumped a bunch of sugar in a bowl and added some milk. What we got was sugary milk that soggy-ed up our crumble top. So either follow the directions or don't do it at all. That might be another reason ours was so sweet, actually.


This is a great recipe! Enjoy!


PS. That is the picture from the recipe at http://www.landolakes.com/mealIdeas/ViewRecipe.cfm?RecipeID=11158 but our dessert bars looked exactly the same except our icing was just a layer of sugary milk on top :) Pin It