Lately, you may have noticed I have been on a bit of a rhubarb kick! My sister lives in the country and has a big rhubarb patch on her property. She is very generous with her rhubarb and made the mistake of telling me to help myself…so, I have decimated the patch on a regular basis and have been cooking up a storm!
I’m kidding…I haven’t really decimated the rhubarb patch, I left her a few stocks here and there…lol! Plus, (this is how I justify it!) it’s actually good for the plant to pick the rhubarb on a regular basis as it keeps them in production mode and you can enjoy the fresh rhubarb for an extended season.
So really, you could argue that by picking all her rhubarb, maybe I am actually doing her a favour!?! (That’s what I tell myself when I walk out of her garden with my arms weighted down with rhubarb.)
If you live in a bit of a northern climate, you are probably already familiar with rhubarb. If you’re not, rhubarb is a cool season, perennial crop well suited to Canada and the Northern U.S.. Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but we tend to treat it as a fruit. Similar to a tomato actually being a fruit which we tend to treat as a vegetable. And…here’s another way I ease my conscience, once planted, rhubarb plantings stay productive for 8 to 15 years!
If you have access to this spring/early summer delicacy, bring some home and make something delicious with it. If you don’t have any rhubarb recipes on hand I recently made Rhubarb Sour Cream Muffins ~ out of this world good! Stewed Rhubarb ~ perfect on toast or spooned over ice cream for a deliciously different dessert. Plus this post for Rhubarb Squares. And, I plan to make Rhubarb Ice-Cream early next week, I can barely wait to make it and will link up the recipe when I do.
Anyway, enough of my rambling rhubarb justifications, on to the recipe!
Pick or buy some rhubarb and whip up a quick batch of stewed rhubarb. It literally takes no effort. Wash the rhubarb, cut it up, add a little sugar, a few drops of water, stir and voilà, you have stewed rhubarb. If you want to see the recipe, I posted How to Make Stewed Rhubarb, last week. It’s one of the easiest recipes you’ll ever make!
For these squares:
Combine sugar and butter beat until creamy.
Gradually add flour mixture into sugar mixture.
Press half the flour/sugar mixture into prepared pan and top with stewed fruit. If you find the dough to be a little sticky, dust your hands with flour and it will be much easier to handle.
Crumble the other half of flour/sugar mixture over the top of the stewed rhubarb in a cobblestone-like pattern.
PIN IT – Easy to Make Rhubarb Squares
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups flour
- dash of salt
- 1 cup Stewed Rhubarb (You want the rhubarb to be a thick, jam like consistency. If it is too runny it will make the bottom of the squares soggy)
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Line a 8" x 8" baking pan with two 8" wide strips of parchment paper. Allowing the parchment to hang over the sides to easily remove the squares from the pan.
- Whisk together flour and salt.
- Combine sugar and butter beat until creamy.
- Gradually beat flour mixture into sugar mixture.
- Using lightly floured hands to prevent sticking, press half of mixture into prepared pan.
- Top with stewed rhubarb
- Crumble the other half of flour/sugar mixture over the top of the rhubarb in a cobblestone-like pattern.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden.
- Cool, and cut into squares.
- Store covered in the refrigerator.
Stew the rhubarb ahead of time and store in the refrigerator. Then when you want to make the squares, the stewed rhubarb is all ready to go.
As always, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask and I will do my very best to answer.
What is your favourite rhubarb dessert?
Monica Parlee says
Thanks Pat, the squares were tasty, something a little different!
Michelle Taylor says
You are Soooooooooo!!!! Lucky!! To have access to that much Rhubarb, much less for free! I live in Central Florida,USA (about 45 minute drive to Orlando & home of Mickey Mouse and my boss for 10 years from ages 18 to 28,best times of my life! ) We do NOT have rhubarb here and when we DO get it shipped in once a year to the local grocery stores we get what equals to the one piece pictured on top of your pile in your photo, cut up to equal 3 to 4 pieces,wanna know how much? This would basically be for ONE stalk: $4.50 US dollars! I have to buy 2 to 3 packages to make one pie! We can get it frozen but I find that it makes for a mushy pie crust!
I absolutely LOVE Rhubarb and for some odd reason it was mine, my ex-husbands AND my ex-boyfriends favorite pie! One time before I started working in a bakery, on our 3rd. date my ex-boyfriend(who kept asking me to make him a rhubarb pie and I kept telling him I was a cook not a baker) showed up at my apt. door with 2 pie crusts and 2 bags of frozen rhubarb! I opened the door and he greeted me with: ” I think you need to make me a pie!” Well I was on a cooking site then and put the word out and combined about 4 different recipes and came up with an excellent tasting pie. It kind of tasted like a very good apple pie with a hint of rhubarb flavor.(it had NO apple in it though just those kind of pie spices) Well, he HATED it! More for me! LOL! I finally after another try managed to obtain HIS ex-wife’s recipe, which still was not perfect but eventually I came up with a good one. I realized it HAD to be fresh rhubarb. Nothing worse than to discover that something that is a favorite of yours, you have no access to!
If you are looking for some more Rhubarb recipes to try I have about 45 different ones on my Pinterest site. You have the link to my whole site at the bottom of this page with my e-mail addy and I will put the link to the rhubarb board here. I have about 300 boards, a lot to do with sewing,embroidery & crafts and a lot of cooking and baking. Link: https://www.pinterest.com/flamingofan333/rhubarb/ Have a nice day!
Monica Parlee says
Holy smokes, the price you pay for rhubarb is so high! I’m heading over to check out your Pinterest boards…did I mention that l LOVE Pinterest…lol!
Thanks for the link!
Gina Bell says
Yum! These look delicious!
Soozle says
Mmm! I love rhubarb! I would love to try this recipe out :)