Jun. 28, 2021
Cooking In Season
Salad Meals to Beat the Heat
In this recipe round up, I have gathered my best and most delicious summer salad meal recipes in one post, for days when it’s too hot to cook!
May 25, 2011
Rhubarb Custard Bars
Rhubarb custard bars are the all-time most popular recipe on my blog, and for good reason. The tart rhubarb plays perfectly against the sweet buttery crust and smooth vanilla custard. To die for!
Rhubarb season just got even more delicious. All because of this great recipe.
Rhubarb Custard Bars are awesome: such a crisp nutty crust married to a sweet, smooth, sliceable custard, and filled to bursting with tart pieces of rhubarb. Excuse me while I drool.
I’d love to claim this recpe as my own. But, while I have tweaked it a little, original recipe honours must go to Ciara Dooley of Kildara Farms. She gave me this recipe almost 10 years ago and I have been using it ever since, a happy and delicious spring ritual. I love rhubarb crisp, too, but Rhubarb Custard Bars are something different and hand-pie-ish.
My kids call these “Rhubarb Pie Things” (Usage: “Mommy, can I have another Rhubarb Pie Thing? Please? I’ve only had two!”). I just call them extra yummy.
Rhubarb Custard Bars
Rhubarb custard bars are the all-time most popular recipe on my blog, and for good reason. The tart rhubarb plays perfectly against the sweet buttery crust and smooth vanilla custard. To die for!
Ingredients
Crust
1-1/4 cup (175 gm) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (35 gm) whole wheat flour (or use all purpose flour here)
½ cup (114 g) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
½ cup (100 g) white sugar
¼ tsp (1.5 g) salt
Topping
1½ cups (300 g) sugar
3 eggs
5 Tb (44 g) all purpose flour
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract
¼ tsp (1.5 g) salt
¼ cup (60 ml) whipping cream
4 to 5 cups (approx 1½ lbs / 680 g) rhubarb, chopped small
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9″ x 13″ (approx) metal or glass pan.
- In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Mix with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Butter should be completely incorporated. You can use a food processor for this step, if you like.
- Press crumbs (not too too firmly, but firm enough) into the bottom of the prepared pan. Press a tiny bit up the sides of the pan as well. Place pan on lower-centre rack of the preheated oven. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and reduce oven heat to 350 F.
Topping
- While the crust is baking, mix the topping ingredients together.
- In a large bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla, salt, and whipping cream, whisking well to eliminate lumps. Stir in the diced rhubarb.
- Once the crust comes out of the oven, pour the topping over it (the crust should still be warm). Return to the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, until custard no longer jiggles and toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.
- Let cool. Cut into bars. The first bar is hard to cut, but after that, they should be pretty easy to cut.
- Note: Plan to eat these bars up within two days. If you don’t think you can eat them that quickly, cut the recipe in half and bake it in an 8×8-inch square pan.
These are amazing! First time I made them I confess I thought they might be too sweet, but after trying them again with less sugar, and then again with the full amount, I think they are perfect. I made a batch last week and am making another with frozen local rhubarb from last year’s crop and the recipe works well with it. Also I have tried 1/4 cup buckwheat instead of whole wheat and that works too. I think I prefer them with the cream. I think they are a brilliant way to convert folks like me who often don’t like rhubarb to LOVE rhubarb. Thank you Heidi!
Perfect! I’ve been trying for years to re-create the pie my mother made in the fifties. She worked from a Betty Crocker recipe, yet when I tried that original recipe, it never came close to hers. From the moment the aromas wafted out of the oven, I knew this was the one…caramelized juices turning the crust sweet and chewy, not too much custard, and plenty of rhubarb. From childhood, I’ve always been a rhubarb lover…so much so, that I even begged for my mother’s rhubarb pie on my birthday, instead of a cake. (The cake was for the party, but the pie was for me!) Thank you for this delicious recipe!
Can you use all regular all puplrpise flour and no whearmt? How 2I’ll the crust come out?
Hi Mary – yes, you can use all regular flour in this. The crust will taste a little less nutty, but otherwise delicious.
Delish! My only suggestion: It’s always so much easier if a recipe gives vegetable/fruit ingredients in weight rather than chopped volume. I had to estimate and didn’t buy enough rhubarb, so I threw in some apple and raspberries to make up the quantity. This one probably needed a pound of rhubarb.
Delish! My only suggestion: It’s always so much easier if a recipe gives vegetable/fruit ingredients in weight rather than chopped volume. I had to estimate and didn’t buy enough rhubarb, so I threw in some apple and raspberries to make up the quantity. This one probably needed a pound of rhubarb.
That is a great suggestion, Jessica! I will amend the recipe right now.
Made these tonight, and they are DEE-LICIOUS!!! Substituted vanilla Krema yoghurt for the whip cream (as we didn’t have any) plus a couple of tablespoons of milk, and it worked out just great. What a wonderful way to start the rhubarb season!
Thanks, Bobbi! I’m glad you liked the recipe.
These are incredible. The balance of sweet and tart. The rich crispy buttery nutty crust. The perfect cream of the custard. My new favorite rhubarb recipe! I found you by way of Outlander Kitchen and am so glad I did.
Wow, thank you, Rachel! High praise indeed. This also my favourite rhubarb recipe. I’m so glad you loved it as much as I do.
Can you freeze the finished bars? If so, how?
Hi Jackie, I wouldn’t recommend freezing them. It would ruin the texture of the custard 🙁
These bars look delicious, I am wondering if I could use Granny Smith apples instead of rhubarb when rhubarb is out of season.
Absolutely! That would be a great substitute.
I had these at a gathering last night and today I’m making them for a BBQ at my house. They are so delicious.
I’m wondering if I can use gluten free flour with flax seed flour for the nutty flavour?
yes, absolutely!