Everything you love about strawberry-rhubarb pie, but easier to make and to share! These bars make a great end to a meal outdoors.

Photography Credit: Irvin Lin

The appearance of rhubarb at the market is the first sign of spring for me! I look forward to seeing bright red stalks of this celery look-alike every year—it’s one of my favorite ingredients.

Perhaps I love the fleeting nature of the produce, available for a few short months (or less, depending on the season or where you live). Or maybe it’s the vibrant red color of the stalks, which I just adore.

Either way, I can’t wait to get my hands on it, and when it finally shows up, I buy it by the bagful.

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STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB: A CLASSIC COMBO

Strawberry and rhubarb are such a classic combination. The bright red color gets amplified when cooked together, and the deep, tart flavor of the rhubarb plays so well with the candy-like sweetness of ripe strawberries.

Even though everyone immediately thinks pies when rhubarb is available, these crumble bars are an easy to make, hand-held variation. The dough used for the crust also doubles as the crumble topping.

Dicing the rhubarb and strawberry means that the fruit easily turns into a jammy center filling. Larger fruit chunks will take longer to cook, which can result in over-baking the crust.

MAKE THE FILLING MORE (OR LESS) SWEET TO TASTE

The filling is made with minimal sugar, which leaves the rhubarb more on the tart side and allows the naturally sweet strawberry flavor to come shining through. But if you like your strawberry rhubarb desserts to be sweeter, feel free to up the sugar by a tablespoon or so.

USE A PARCHMENT “SLING” FOR EASY BAKING

A simple spray of cooking oil allows the parchment paper to “stick” to the bottom of the pan as you prep the bars. Once baked, the parchment paper turns into a “sling” allowing you to remove the entire pan of bars and easily cutting them. No need to dig into the bars and ruin them (or your pan)!

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