An oatmeal cookie base topped with strawberries and rhubarb and topped with more oatmeal cookie topping — your favorite summer dessert is now a packable treat or back to school snack!
I have another guest post for you guys today! Ashley from the The Recipe Rebel is sharing these gorgeous Strawberry Rhubard Crisp Bars. Ashley’s blog caught my eyes time and time again. I would be strolling through Pinterest, pinning these amazing dinner and dessert ideas and it was already leading me back to Ashely. Recently, her summer recipes are knocking my socks off. Thanks for sharing Ashley!
What about you? Are you a crisp lover or a pie lover?
I am a crisp fanatic. I am not reeeally a pie lover, unless it’s filled with chocolate or peanut butter or it’s on an Oreo crust or it’s in ice cream form? Or unless it’s only dessert option because when it comes to pie or no dessert you better believe I’m eating pie and loving it. As long as there’s ice cream.
So when Julianne asked if I would bring something over to share, these bars weren’t even a thought. I’d hate to think about what might have happened if she’d never asked — you might not have been feasting your eyes upon them right now.
And that would be sad. Because they’re amazing.
When I came up with the idea for these bars, I was determined that there would only be one crumb mixture and that would serve as the cookie crust and the crumb topping. I am not into extra work.
Obviously, I had to use the oatmeal cookie topping from this Berry Cherry Crisp (also amazing). I doubled it and it worked so well! The perfect sturdy base for the fruit and just enough left over to sprinkle over the top and let that gorgeous fruit shine through.
Are you guys rhubarb lovers?
I mean, you’re here, so….
But really — there are people out there who don’t like rhubarb. I used to be one of them. As a kid, anything even a little bit tart was not dessert. Lemon, lime, rhubarb — I detested them all. Slowly, though, I came around. And now? Totally obsessed.
Especially strawberry rhubarb. And with fresh picked strawberries? Perfection!
These are the perfect bar to take you from summer right into back to school — they are incredible cold, straight from the fridge, or warm them up and serve with some vanilla ice cream!
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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups large oats
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (or sub all-purpose)
- 3/4 cup cold butter, cut into ½” pieces
- 4 cups fresh, diced strawberries
- 3 cups frozen, chopped rhubarb (or sub fresh – see recipe notes*)
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9×13” pan with tin foil or parchment paper, lightly greased. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, oats and flour until mixed. Add the butter and mix with an electric mixer, a pastry cutter or your hands until combined (dough will have the consistency of cookie dough – it won’t be crumbly).
- Set aside 1 packed cup of the oatmeal cookie mixture. Press the rest into the bottom of the prepared pan, covering the bottom entirely. Bake bottom crust for 10-20 minutes, until dry and golden.
- In the same bowl you used to mix your oats, combine your strawberries, rhubarb, corn starch and sugar. Spread on top of crust and crumble the remaining oat mixture on top – it will not cover the top completely. Press down the oat mixture slightly.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, until filling is thickened and bubbling and crumble is golden.
- Cool to room temperature. I highly recommend chilling before cutting – they will set completely and cut more cleanly. Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
I only had frozen rhubarb available. You can easily substitute fresh but it won’t release as much liquid as it bakes, so you maybe need to reduce the cornstarch.
**Recipe updated June 2017**
I’ve made this numerous times, it is fantastic! Just a great combination of delicious items! Very easy. 😀✔️
Thank you Jeff! That’s wonderful to hear!
Easy!!! And amazingly delicious mmmmm
Thanks for sharing your feedback Deborah!
Made today. Used parchment paper and greased it, had no trouble getting bars removed from pan by doing this step. Bars tasted fine alone, but were really good when served with vanilla ice cream! This recipe is a healthier alternative than several other rhubarb torte dessert recipes I usually make that require heavy amounts of eggs and sugar. Reminds me a chewy granola bar with fruit.
Wonderful, thank you for sharing!
if you want a bland and boring crumble…check it out….
the crust doesn’t come together like cookie dough with cold butter. You need much more and soft butter to make a cookie dough like consistency. You’ll get crumbles with cold butter… Second – there is no flavor in the crumble. It needs cinnamon and a dash of salt or something. I thought the cup of brown sugar would do it but not so much…
Save your time and energy and find a better recipe for your self. yes it “looks so good” but it is bland and ordinary and doesn’t hold together…
I’m sorry this didn’t work for you
Our absolute new fav recipe. Made it three times already in the last two weeks!
I made these amazing tasting bars! Although I did not have any fresh strawberries I did cut up a bunch and freeze them so I just used them, it didn’t make the final product a bit less than satisfactory but maybe with a bit more corn starch for the frozen berries it’ll do just fine! I also made the recipe and used blueberries and boy howdy those bars turned out perfect!!! I used foil and cooked both for recommended time, I absolutely love these and will be making them regularly 🙂
That is awesome Shelby! Thanks for sharing!
Looks wonderful and I’m going to make this recipe tonight for my dad and stepmom. They just today gave me a big bag of rhubarb.
Sounds wonderful Bunny! Enjoy!
Made these today with my end of summer rhubarb. They were delicious! Used parchment, baked for full recommended time, the crust was crisp and chewy — perfect!
Hi Julie, that is so wonderful! I am glad you enjoyed them!
Like others who actually made the recipe, it doesn’t turn out very well at all. Tastes okay but did not bake in the time suggested and even after much longer, the bars were soggy. No idea why they called for tin foil but you should probably make an edit since 3 people in a row have had problems. I’m seeing if I can salvage mine, since they cannot be served as bars because they are mushy and fall apart.
Hi Max, thank you for you comments. Approximately 2 weeks ago (after the 2nd comment), I reached out the person who created this recipe and asked if she could retest and make adjustments given the comments about the bars being too soft. Just this week she sent me revisions, and today I have updated the recipe accordingly. I am so sorry that you experienced trouble with these and I hope you’ll try is again with the adjustment that have been made.