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Seasonal recipe: Strawberry rhubarb bars
These bars using fresh, seasonal ingredients are a great substitute for processed cereal bars and your kids (and you) will love them.
Wed, May 20 2009 at 1:47 PM
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Photo: whitneyinchicago/Flickr
Last week at the farmers market there were strawberries. The first local strawberries of the season. Strawberries are one of the foods that I eat almost exclusively locally and in season because they taste so much better that way. I look forward to strawberry season all year long.
I also picked up some rhubarb. If you don't know what rhubarb is, it's an early spring vegetable that looks like red celery. It's quite tart, but when sweetened with sugar it becomes fabulously sweet/tart. It's usually paired with some sort of berry for pies or crisps. I would say about 75 percent of the time, you'll find it paired with strawberries.
I went looking for a recipe to use my farmers market finds in, and I came upon a strawberry/rhubarb dessert bar recipe on the Land O' Lakes website. After reading the recipe it occurred to me that this would be a great substitute for cereal bars and much healthier than traditional boxed processed cereal bars.
Look at this list of ingredients for a Strawberry Nutrigrain Cereal Bar from Kelloggs (via Amazon.com). I've highlighted the ingredients that raise a red flag for me (although I'm sure there are other ingredients in here that others would have a problem with).
Filling (Strawberry Preserves [High Fructose Corn Syrup, Strawberries], Corn Syrup, Fructose, Glycerin, Water, Maltodextrin, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Citric Acid, Sodium Alginate, Natural and Artificial Strawberry Flavor, Caramel Color, Calcium Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Malic Acid, Sodium Citrate, Modified Cellulose, Red No. 40), Enriched Wheat Flour, Whole Oats, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Honey, Calcium Carbonate, Dextrose, Nonfat Dry Milk, Wheat Bran, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Leavening (Potassium Bicarbonate), Natural and Artificial Vanilla Flavor, Soy Lecithin, Wheat Gluten, Corn Starch, Niacinamide, Carrageenan, Guar Gum, Zinc Oxide, Reduced Iron, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Palmitate, Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1) and Folic Acid.
Now here are the ingredients for the strawberry rhubarb dessert bars. Most of the ingredients in this recipe can be substituted with organic ingredients if you wish.
Strawberry rhubarb dessert bars
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen unsweetened rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces (I had about 1 ¼ cups worth so I made up the difference with extra strawberries)
- 1 ½ cups sliced fresh strawberries
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Crust
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups quick-cooking oats
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- ¾ cup butter softened (since this is from Land 0’ Lakes site they would prefer you use their butter, but any butter will do)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
Time estimates
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Makes about 12 bars
Note: The recipe site also has a drizzle for the top made of powdered sugar and milk, but I omitted it.
Directions
-
Combine strawberries, rhubarb and lemon in a saucepan and cook on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
-
Add sugar and cornstarch to fruit mixture, bring to boil, and allow to boil a minute or two until sauce thickens.
-
While the strawberry mixture is cooking, combine the crust ingredients and mix with electric mixer until the mixture resembles course crumbs — it will be very dry.
-
Reserve 1 ½ cups of crust mixture and pat down the rest of the crust mixture into a 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with non-stick or greased.
-
Spread fruit mixture over bottom crust.
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Sprinkle the rest of crust mixture evenly over the top.
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Bake in a 350° F oven for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
-
Cool completely (if you can wait that long — we couldn't).
These are delicious, and a much better option for my boys' morning snack at school than a pre-packaged cereal bar. They are very crumbly so I had to wrap them in plastic wrap so they wouldn't fall apart in their backpacks. I wasn't happy about that, and if someone has a suggestion as to how I can package them without waste, please put it in the comments.
Photo courtesy Land O'Lakes
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Great recipe as is. My kids loved them and they were easy to make! I'm not a baker either! Thanks.
Just made these, used gluten-free flour and added 1 tsp of xanthum gum, and they are delicious!
I think I came up with a healthier version of this using palm sugar, maple syrup, whole wheat flour and chopped almonds. Here is the recipe:
http://www.wellfedman.com/2010/05/palm-sugar.html
I have rhubarb in my backyard; I freeze it in 1 cup measures so I can bake it in midwinter.
As for packaging, many rhubarb recipes are crumbly. It's tart, so it needs a little sugar or sweetener. I recommend a small snack package and a fork. Many of my students bring reusable rubbermaid style containers for snack time; it works well!
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I have been using the Wrap-N-Mat's for awhile now and rarely use plasic bags, etc. anymore. They are great and perfect thing for a yummy strawberry rubarb bar. You can find them at reusablebags.com.
I read about the strawberry rhubarb bars and could not wait to make them! I pressed the flour & butter mixture into the pan with a lot of pressure and baked them a bit longer than 30 minutes to get them a bit more chewy. The crusts hold together nicely and they should survive with out being overly crumbly.
Another keeper of a MNN recipe. Thanks.
Try finding some smaller square plastic containers. You can cut them to the size of the container and then you don't have to use plastic at all.
I am going to try these tonight! I have a huge load of raspberries and strawberries that need to be processed into something, and this looks fabulous. I would recommend using unbleached parchment bags that you could fold over and wrap a rubber band around to store them in for lunches, or perhaps trying wax paper.