This easy Strawberry Rhubarb Bars recipe features a base of rich, tender vanilla cake that’s topped with a sweet-tart layer of jammy strawberries and rhubarb, plus a buttery crumb topping. A beautiful spring and summer dessert!
Living in the Midwest my whole life, bars recipes are common – and I’m a huge fan. I’d never want to live without chewy chocolate chip cookie bars or monster cookie bars! And these Strawberry Rhubarb Bars are especially fabulous for spring and summer. This easy bars recipe features a moist and buttery, vanilla-flavored base that’s dressed up with a ruby-red layer of sweet strawberries and tart rhubarb. And then an irresistible crumb topping seals the deal!
Strawberry Rhubarb Bars Key Takeaways:
- Easy recipe for rhubarb bars with strawberries
- Perfectly seasonal, a beautiful spring & summer dessert
- Delicious base layer with rich buttery, vanilla flavor and moist, tender crumb
- Strawberry & rhubarb combine for a sweet-tart layer that’s absolutely gorgeous
- Crumble topping is full of rich butter flavor and bakes up delightfully crunchy
More yummy rhubarb and strawberry recipes for you!
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make these strawberry rhubarb crumb bars. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the end of this post for the exact ingredient amounts.
- Rhubarb & strawberries – A little tart, a little sweet, this is one of my favorite flavor combinations!
- Butter – Unsalted butter is included in both the cake base and the crumb topping, for rich flavor and texture.
- Brown sugar – This gives a warmed sweet flavor to both the cake base and the crumb topping.
- Flour – All-purpose flour is included in both the base and the crunchy topping.
- Baking powder – This gives rise to the bottom cake layer.
- Salt – A little bit is included in both the base and the topping, to contrast with the sweet flavors.
- Eggs – These add rich flavor and help to bind the base ingredients together with moistness.
- Vanilla – Pure vanilla extract gives super lovely flavor to the cake base.
How to Make Strawberry Rhubarb Bars
This is an easy recipe that comes together with three layers of yummy flavors and textures!
- Prep. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a 9” square baking pan.
- Make the crumb topping. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, and salt. Then cut in flour until large crumbs form (should look like the photo in the upper left). Refrigerate until ready to use. (I like this crumb topping method that utilizes melted butter, just like my rhubarb muffins recipe does!)
- Make the strawberry rhubarb filling. Combine rhubarb, strawberries, brown sugar, and ¼ cup of the flour.
- Create the base batter. Beat butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla, followed by the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Layer in the base and fruits. Spread the cake base batter into the prepared pan. Then layer the fruit mixture over the top.
- Add crumb topping. Sprinkle the chilled crumble topping over the fruits.
- Bake. Place in oven and bake 50-55 minutes, or until topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a bit of moist crumbs attached. Remove pan from oven.
- Cool. Let bars cool completely in pan. Cut into individual portions/bars and dust with powdered sugar if desired.
A Few Tips from Brenda
- For super clean cuts, if you’re serving this for a special gathering for example, I recommend following the instructions in the recipe card for preparing the pan with a parchment paper sling. If none of that matters to you, simply give the pan a light spray of non-stick baking spray!
- Do melt the butter for the crumble topping. But do so gently, right away when you start this recipe, so it has some time to cool to warm room temperature.
- Refrigerate the crumb topping so the pieces of crumble chill a bit. This will help the pieces keep their form and become delightfully crispy in the oven.
- Aim for same-size pieces of rhubarb and strawberry, for the best fruit layer.
- Lightly tent the pan with a piece of foil while in the oven if the crumb topping is browning more quickly than you like.
More delicious, easy bars recipes:
- Rhubarb Cream Cheese Bars
- Peach Bars
- Blueberry Crumble Bars
- Lemon Bars (with gorgeous lemon curd filling)
- Lemon Heaven Bars (more like a chewy brownie)
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Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars
Yield: 16 servings
This easy Strawberry Rhubarb Bars recipe features a base of rich, tender vanilla cake that's topped with a sweet-tart layer of jammy strawberries and rhubarb, plus a buttery crumb topping. A beautiful spring and summer dessert!
Print
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- ½ cup unsalted butter, gently melted and then cooled a bit (plus a bit more room-temperature butter to grease the pan)
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
- 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
Bars
- ½ pound chopped (½" pieces) fresh rhubarb
- ½ pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced ¼" thick
- 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups powdered sugar, plus a bit more for dusting over the finished bars
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9'' square baking pan with butter, then line with a parchment paper sling, leaving an overhang on 2 sides. Butter and flour the parchment paper and pan, tapping out the excess flour. Set aside.
Crumb Topping
- Whisk together butter, brown sugar, and salt. Add flour and cut with a rigid pastry cutter or fork until large crumbs form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Bars
- In a medium bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries, brown sugar, and ¼ cup of the flour.
- In another medium bowl, whisk the remaining 1¼ cups of flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. With mixer on low, beat in vanilla, then the flour mixture.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Top with rhubarb and strawberry mixture, then top with streusel crumb topping. If you like to have some of the pretty red of the rhubarb and strawberries show on top (I do!), poke a few pieces up through the streusel.
- Bake 50-55 minutes, or until topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a bit of moist crumbs attached. If crumb topping is browning more than you like and the cake is not yet fully baked, lay a piece of foil loosely over the pan while it continues to bake.
- Remove pan from oven. Let bars cool completely in pan. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and, using the parchment paper overhang, lift cake from pan. Cut into bars; dust with powdered sugar if desired. Serve as is, or with dollops of fresh whipped cream.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 212kcal
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.
Did you make this recipe?Please leave a comment below. And share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #afarmgirlsdabbles or tag @farmgirlsdabble!
This post was originally published April 2012, then updated in 2017 and 2024.
Wow, these look so pretty! I absolutely love the crumb topping!
Thank you, Jen!
Oh god these look absolutley amazing!!!!!! My Nan always used to make rubharb crumble so it reminds me of those days. This will be one for the weekend!
Let me know what you think, Harriet!
I went to the supermarket today and there was no rubharb! Do you think these would work with apples or pears instead?
Good thing you didn’t throw out the recipe! Your crumb bars look great. I have never baked with rhubarb but am determined to do so soon. Anything with a streusel topping is very appealing to me and I’d love to enjoy a square with coffee!
Excellent with coffee!! :)
Have you ever tried scanning the loose recipes and saving to a “cookbook” on your computer. It’s not real pretty, but better than a pile of clippings on your desk. I usually save them with the first word as the section of cookbook you want it to go under: such as: PORK, COOKIE, etc then adding the name of the recipe. It helps keep them sorted.
I like that idea. I might have to hire my daughters for some PT summer help, though!! :)
These look fantastic. I never thought to put rhubarb in my crumb bars before. I love crumb bars, so I’ll be trying these out soon!
Thank you, hope you like them, too!
This is gorgeous girl!!! I love to see your blog exploding… I am seeing your stuff everywhere! It is AWESOME that you are getting the recognition you deserve… your talent is unequaled! :)
Hello my dear friend, thank you so much!
These bars look fantastic and beautiful, too. I am totally adding them to my “must try list”. :)
Brenda, these are absolutely beautiful. I’ve never been a big rhubarb fan, but with strawberries I know I could do it, and I haven’t gone near rhubarb in years. It’s time to begin anew! I can’t get over how gorgeous these are and I know they taste just as good! Evernoted!! (My mom will love me if I surprise her with these next weekend!)
Rhubarb and strawberries are a delicious – and very pretty – combo. You can do it…you can do it…you can do it!
I love adding rhubarb to bars like this! Yum!
If those bars taste half as good as they look……oh man I can’t wait to make this recipe. It is 7:29 am and seeing this post woke me up more than my coffee! Thanks!
Thank YOU!! :)
Strawberries and rhubarb are such a great combination and I can’t stop thinking about that crumb topping!
oh these look great, I just love the colors and that YUMMY crumb topping!
I’ve never had rhubarb before, but these bars look absolutely amazing. The cake part looks so buttery and moist. The strawberries and rhubarb contast so perfectly against that yellow cake layer. It looks like spring :)
If you like tart, rhubarb is it! Sweet strawberries are the perfect partner.
What gorgeous looking crumb bars. I also have a huge list of recipes that I hope try out some day which are all lined up in an excel sheet, but it’s slowly being transferred to Pinterest – makes life so much easier!
Thank you, Chung-Ah! I like your idea of using Pinterest!
I love crumb bars, Brenda, anything that has streusel topping just calls my name. These look fabulous!
where did u find the rhubarb??? lovely post!
Hi Amanda! I broke down and bought some…have never bought rhubarb before! Over the past week, though, my plant has really stretched out, with a few stalks over 6″ long already. If I think we’ll bump into each other this spring, I could surely bring you some. I bet you preserve it?!
Oh my gosh, if you had extra I would love some! I love to preserve it – I have a rhubarb salsa and a rhubarb strawberry mint jam that i make that i would definitely swap with you!
I love, love, love rhubarb! Oftentimes I think strawberries just take away from the rhubarb (again, I love rhubarb) but these bars look positively scrumptious.
These bars can be made sans strawberries, too. Just double the rhubarb!
I’m SUCH a sucker for rhubarb! I can’t wait to get my hands on some this season! These look absolutely delicious. :)
Hi Laurie! It took me many years to appreciate rhubarb. I always thought Mom (I know she’ll be reading this comment…) was crazy when I was kid, for her love of it. Now I find myself checking on the rhubarb plant, waiting for it to be ready to use! Do you have a plant? If not, if our paths cross this spring, I’d love to give you some!
I love everything about this cake – – the sponge like base, the burst of colour and then the sweet tender crumbs… Im having sweet fantasies just thinking about it ;) delicious!!
Thank you! :)
I just made a similar bar. We have four rhubarb plants so I am always trying new rhubarb recipes!
Wow, that’s ALOT of rhubarb! :)