Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Blondies make use of all those fresh strawberries and rhubarb! The easy cookie bars are sweet, buttery and tangy. Perfect for summer picnics.
We love strawberry crisp and can’t get enough of our buttery rhubarb crumb cake, but how often do you often bake with strawberry and rhubarb together? We don’t do it enough.
And that’s changing with these strawberry rhubarb blondies.
How do I use rhubarb?
Do you have an abundance of rhubarb from your garden? It can be tricky to know what to do with it all.
Rhubarb pairs beautifully with strawberries. Jams, cobblers and breads are popular when working with strawberries and rhubarb.
In the past when we’ve had strawberry and rhubarb, we’ve made strawberry rhubarb pie (or this giant poptart-like slab pie). But we wanted to switch things up a bit. We’re famous for our cookies, so why not some cookie bars…AKA strawberry rhubarb blondies?
What does strawberry rhubarb taste like?
Raw rhubarb has quite a tart flavor. People often compare it to the flavor of green apples. But when you pair rhubarb with strawberries (and sugar found in desserts), you get a wonderfully sweet & tangy treat.
Why are blondies called blondies?
Blondies are very similar to brownies in shape and texture. However blondies are not “brown” because they don’t have chocolate in them. Blondies get their flavor from brown sugar and butter, which gives them a buttery rich molasses flavor.
Blondies are considered “blond”, giving them their name! They are very similar to other cookie bars, so that is another name that you’ll often hear them called.
How to Make Strawberry Rhubarb Blondies
Here are a few tips when making blondies:
- Use melted butter. This not only helps with texture, but also makes mixing the batter very easy. No power mixer necessary.
- Use brown sugar. Packed brown sugar to be exact. And if you really want to add deep molasses flavor, use dark brown sugar instead of light brown.
- We used unsalted butter for this recipe. If you use salted butter, reduce the salt you add to 3/4 teaspoon at most.
- All of our recipes call for large eggs. If a recipe doesn’t specify what size eggs to use, you can assume it is large. **Pro Tip: If eggs are at room temperature, they mix in much better than cold eggs.**
- Dice the strawberries and the rhubarb finely so that they bake in well. You can remove the strings from the rhubarb if you’d like but you don’t have to.
- Press the batter into a 9×13 baking pan. Make sure you spray the baking pan with cooking spray. If you’d like the bars to come out perfectly clean and easily cut them into nice squares, line the pan with parchment paper before adding the dough.
- Bake the blondies for about 27-30 minutes. You want the edges to be ever so slightly browned, but if you want the bars to be soft, don’t over bake them.
Can I use frozen strawberries in place of fresh strawberries?
Yes! If you choose this, I recommend buying frozen whole strawberries. Thaw the strawberries and strain off any extra liquid. Then dice the strawberries as if they were fresh.
Can you freeze blondies?
In general you can freeze blondies. Because these blondies have fresh fruit on top, they will be trickier to freeze. When you defrost them, the fruit can become mushy. For that reason, we do not recommend freezing blondies with fresh fruit.
How do you store desserts with fruit?
When you have prepared a dessert with fresh fruit, it is best to store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This will help the bars to stay fresher longer.
Other Blondie Bars Recipes
- Butterscotch Blondies
- Blueberry Cheesecake Blondies
- Coconut Cranberry Blondies
- Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Blondies
Strawberry Rhubarb Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup fresh strawberries (diced)
- 1 cup fresh rhubarb (thinly sliced)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray or line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter and sugars.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt to the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Batter will be thick.
- Mix in ¾ cup of diced strawberries and ¾ cup sliced rhubarb.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
- Sprinkle top with remaining strawberries and rhubarb.
- Bake blondies for 27-30 minutes or until a knife is inserted and comes out clean.
- Cool completely before slicing into 15 squares.
Notes
Nutrition
Alma Vorrei says
I’m going to attempt to make these blondies for my hubby on Saturday! They look amazing!