Rhubarb Dream Bars
These Rhubarb Dream Bars are truly a dream! With a shortbread cookie crust, a rhubarb custard pie-like filling and a delightful meringue top that melts in your mouth, these bars will be a new favourite! A delicious way to use your fresh rhubarb!
Rhubarb in everything!
I can never get enough rhubarb…rhubarb season is my favourite. Every spring when rhubarb is abundant, I cook and bake with it much as I can, thankfully my family loves rhubarb too! Rhubarb is great in crisp, pie, jam, cake, muffins, pudding cake, and dream bars! Have you every had a rhubarb dream bar? You must. You really really must.
One of our MOST favourite rhubarb desserts!
These Rhubarb Dream Bars are definitely at the top of my family’s most favourite rhubarb recipes. I don’t know if it’s the buttery shortbread cookie crust, or the custard like filling with tangy rhubarb, or the melt-in-your-mouth meringue top crust. (You can also think of them as rhubarb custard bars with meringue.) SERIOUSLY. They really really are as delicious as they sound.
These are SO easy to make.
And you will be amazed at how easy these bars are to make. The ingredients are simple, the assembly is simple and you can have them ready and in the oven in about 15 minutes! You’ll be left wondering how something so delicious can be so easy!
A perfect summer dessert that everyone will love! Take it to potlucks and picnics or serve it for dessert at your next backyard barbecue. You, and your dessert, will be a hit!
Rhubarb Dream Bars Recipe Tips:
- Rhubarb: Use fresh rhubarb for this recipe…frozen rhubarb tends to be dry.
- Mixing the crust ingredients: I use a food processor to make the crust. It’s so easy to make a crust this way! But you can also use a pastry blender.
- Baking Dish: Use an 8 x 8 baking pan lined with parchment paper.
- Wait before you cut! Make sure to wait at least an hour before you cut into squares. It needs time to cool and set, and if it’s cut too soon, you will just end up with a syrupy mess.
- Don’t worry about the top crust cracking when you cut into it…it’s supposed to, as it’s a meringue. Rustic just means perfectly imperfectly delicious. And you’ll forget about it all once you bit into a bar…trust me. Use sharp knife to help keep cracking at a minimum.
- Leftovers: Store any leftovers on your counter, covered in parchment paper. If you put them into a container, they will get very soft! The best thing is to try to enjoy them as quickly as you can, which I promise will be an easy thing to do.
- Can I freeze this? No, I don’t recommend freezing these bars.
- Serving: These bars are delicious served just the way they are. But they’re also delicious with vanilla ice cream.
Rhubarb Dream Bars
These Rhubarb Dream Bars are truly a dream! With a shortbread cookie crust, a rhubarb custard pie-like filling and a delightful meringue top that melts in your mouth, these bars will be a new favourite!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
Rhubarb Filling/Topping:
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 cups chopped fresh rhubarb (about 3 – 4 stalks)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- To make the shortbread crust I use a food processor. Pulse the flour, sugar and butter together until the mixture is like sand, this should only take about 30 seconds.
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper, then press the crust mixture into the pan. Don’t press it too hard.
- Bake the crust for 15 minutes.
- While the crust is baking you can make the rhubarb filling.
- Chop your fresh rhubarb into 1/2 inch chunks. Set aside.
- Using a mixer, whip the eggs until they are smooth.
- Add the sugar and continue mixing until the mixture starts to become fluffy.
- Add the flour and salt, mix until the mixture is smooth and fluffy, almost like a meringue, but not as foamy.
- Fold in the chopped rhubarb.
- As soon as the crust is done baking, remove it from the oven. Then pour the rhubarb mixture on the top of the baked crust. Smooth it out.
- Return to the oven and continue baking for 40 – 45 minutes, or until the top of the dream bars are golden brown.
- Once the bars are done baking, remove them from the oven and let them rest in the pan for at least 1 hour before cutting into it.
- After the bars have had time to cool, cut into 16 pieces. Enjoy!
Keywords: dream bars, rhubarb, rhubarb dream bars
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com
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I hope you enjoy these rhubarb bars as much as we do! Have a delicious day!
Made these yesterday with my daughter. Super easy and so delicious!! Will definitely make them again .
★★★★★
I love that Lindsay!! SO happy you enjoyed them!
Made these today; quite good, and very easy. I might add more rhubarb next time. They were very tasty, but I like that tart rhubarb flavor, and these were sweet enough to handle more rhubarb. Yummy as is, though! The meringue was a surprisingly tasty topping.
★★★★★