Is it me, or have rhubarb desserts gotten pinker and more vivid in the last few years?
A decade or so ago, they weren’t always the most attractive confections, at least not the ones I baked. The majority of stalks I found were green, not red. And even those blushed with pink turned sort of beige-puce when you cooked them. They were exuberantly tangy, yes, but, outside of glossy food magazines, not always gorgeous.
The thing is, I didn’t care. I have always loved rhubarb for its bracing flavor first, potential for beauty a distant second.
But since decidedly red, hothouse rhubarb has come onto the market in the last few years, it’s easier than ever to make a more rosy statement. This season, I’ve turned the stalks into a lemon barlike dessert that substitutes tart rhubarb for citrus, garnished with a burst of flamboyant slivers on top.
As it is in my favorite lemon bar recipes, the base is a buttery shortbread that would be excellent on its own, and is easily whirled together in a food processor. This is baked first so it’s nice and crunchy before the filling is spooned on top.
For the filling, I start with a compote, basically just rhubarb simmered with sugar until it breaks down into tasty mush. If you happened to have a windfall of rhubarb and wanted to double the compote to top yogurt in the future, that would be extremely practical. Sometimes I like to spike my yogurt-topping compote with a little rosewater or vanilla extract. Stir it in after you’ve taken the half you’ll need for the bars.
After cooling a bit, the compote is mixed with eggs to make it custardy and flour to help it keep its shape when the bars are cut, plus a little lemon to accentuate the brightness.
Then there’s the stripy pink garnish. To be perfectly honest, if you’re not planning to photograph your bars, you can skip it. Otherwise, choose the slimmest, pinkest rhubarb stalk in the bunch, and use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons, some of which may curl. Scatter these on top of the custard before baking. The downside of the rhubarb strips is that you’ll need a very sharp knife to cut through them neatly. But it’s a small bit of effort for a treat that tastes even better than it looks.