Strawberry Rhubarb Cookie Bars

Early summer, the magical time when strawberries and rhubarb are ready to be picked at the same time. It’s a short window here on the homestead. Rhubarb pops up as soon as the ground thaws but strawberries are much later in breaking dormancy. Rhubarb starts to go to seed when the strawberries are starting to show a faint blush of red. Garden tip: Cut the seed stem off to keep the rhubarb going a while longer. Older rhubarb can get stringy and tough. Cutting the seed stems off helps slow this down. Strawberry Rhubarb Cookie Bars are a great way to stretch the earliest strawberries.

Store Strawberry Rhubarb Cookie Bars in the fridge. I don’t know how long they’ll keep in the fridge since none of the test batches lasted long enough to find out.

I think this is a nice breakfast treat when you get together with friends for morning coffee. It’s been a big hit with friends who sampled for me, and I’m sure it would be welcome at a get together.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Cookie Bars - On The Fire

Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Ingredients

Cookie Dough Crust

  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

  • 1 cup rhubarb sliced 1/8" thick
  • 1 cup strawberries chopped, not sliced
  • 1 1/2 cups cream cheese softened (12 ounces)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg Nutmeg and rhubarb are a great match

Instructions

Cookie Dough Crust

  • Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment or spray it well with Pam.
  • Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Scrape the bowl to be sure all of these ingredients are well-mixed.
  • Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Then add this to the wet ingredients above. Mix on low just until the ingredients are blended. Don't over mix.
  • Put the dough into the 9 x 13 pan and press it in evenly to form a crust.

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

  • Beat together the cream cheese and sugar until the sugar dissolves. This will take three to five minutes.
  • Stir in the rhubarb, and then stir in the strawberries.
  • Spread the mixture over the cookie dough crust.
  • Bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Cool completely before slicing. If you use parchment paper to line the pan you can take this out in one piece and use a pizza cutter to quickly slice this into bars.

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