Lemon-Rhubarb Bars
This week’s featured recipe tastes just like lemon bars but with the added flavor (and pretty color) that comes from our favorite spring vegetable. These lemon-rhubarb bars are easy and delicious.
Just like lemon bars, but with the added flavor (and pretty color) that comes from our favorite spring vegetable/fruit.
Photo Credit : Amy TraversoDo you love rhubarb as much as I do? I love its color (in the red varieties, at least), its early spring arrival, and most of all its extraordinary tartness. For those who appreciate a good pucker, I’d argue that Sour Patch Kids have nothing on a piece of rhubarb pie.
Rhubarb is also surprisingly versatile, adding its bright acidity to any number of sweet and savory recipes. In puréed form, it can do much the same job as lemon juice, which is exactly what inspired these lovely rhubarb-lemon bars. They have what makes regular lemon bars so irresistible — the contrast between the tart topping and the buttery shortbread base — but the rhubarb adds color and tart berry notes. And while you do need just a bit of patience, since they require a few hours in the refrigerator to set, they couldn’t be easier to make.
One last note: The pink color of the rhubarb pureé can sometimes fade with baking. If vivid pink bars are what you crave, you can add a few drops of pure pomegranate juice or beet juice to the topping to bump up the color.
Yield:
About 20 barsFor the shortbread crust
Ingredients
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° and set a rack to the middle position. Grease the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, then line with a piece of parchment paper that’s long enough to drape over the sides of the pan.
In a large bowl, use a handheld or stand mixer on low speed to combine the butter, flour, sugar, and salt until they come together as a dough. Press this evenly into the bottom of the baking pan, then bake until it’s just beginning to turn golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
For the topping
Ingredients
3/4 pound (6–10 stalks, depending on size) red rhubarb, chopped
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup plus 2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
In a 3- or 4-quart pot, combine the chopped rhubarb with the water and 1/3 cup sugar. Set over medium-high heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb is completely broken down, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Use an immersion or standing blender to completely purée the rhubarb, then add the remaining 2/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Stir and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and yolks. Once the rhubarb purée is cool enough to touch, add it to the eggs and whisk to combine, then stir in the flour until smooth.
Pour the topping over the shortbread crust and bake until it’s set and barely beginning to turn golden at the edges, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then chill, uncovered, for at least 3 hours.
Run a knife along the edge of the pan to loosen the slab, then lift it out in one piece and cut into equal squares. Just before serving, dust with powdered sugar.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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