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Lemon Squares
Dena Kleiman, Susan Mahnke Peery
2029 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,029
1 hour
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Heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, brown the butter: Melt ½ cup/113 grams of the butter in a small skillet set over medium heat. (Use a skillet with a light interior so you can easily see the milk solids change color.) Cook the butter, stirring occasionally and scraping the milk solids off the bottom and sides of the pan as needed, until the milk solids turn golden brown and smell toasty, a few minutes. Transfer the butter to a medium heatproof bowl. Cut the remaining butter into 2 pieces and add it to the bowl with the hot butter. Stir occasionally until all the butter melts.
Add the flour, brown sugar, almonds and salt to the butter, and stir together until evenly combined and clumps form. You may need to use your fingers to do the last bit of mixing.
Prepare the rhubarb: In a 9-by-9-inch (or 9-inch round) baking dish, combine the rhubarb, granulated sugar, flour, vanilla paste, orange zest and a pinch of salt. Stir until combined and evenly mixed. Press the rhubarb gently into the pan, then scatter the crumble evenly over the top.
Bake until the topping is deep golden brown and the rhubarb juices are bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Cool slightly, then serve warm with ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. The topping will soften as it sits.
Delicious! Very rhubarb-y!!! Made with ingredients as stated. Only had 8x8 glass dish, worked fine. Note that I do look at recipe commenter suggestions to reduce sugar to avoid being "too sweet" but would not do that here. This struck a good balance. There was some sweetness but it still very much allowed the rhubarb tartness to come through and let rhubarb be a dominant flavoring.
The brown butter is such a tasty addition to the crumble and definitely adaptable for many fruits. I was always intimidated by brown butter, but it isn't as hard as I feared. I only had 1 lb of rhubarb from my CSA, So I added frozen blueberries. Also had an excessive amount of ginger from said CSA, So I added about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of finely chopped ginger. Ginger and rhubarb is a delicious combination!
Can one use gluten free flour? If so would the same amounts still be used?
Topping was much softer than other crisps I’ve made, even though I kept it in longer. I think because of browning the butter. I don’t think I’ll make it this way again. The browned butter topping smelled and tasted amazing before baking, but it’s flavor was lost in the finished product. The allure of a crisp for me is the crisp texture.
I made this with only a pound of rhubarb in a 9-inch round and pecans instead of almonds with great results. One of my go-to rhubarb recipes!
Yossy's recipes never disappoint! The crisp is much softer than expected, but the flavor is tremendous with the browned butter. You could easily add in your favorite berries if you're short on the full 2 pounds of rhubarb (I tossed in frozen strawberries, and it was delicious).
The crisp was delicious. I also was intimated by browning butter but kept an eye on it while stirring. At first, it sputtered but then calmed down. I replaced some sugar with Monk fruit and decreased the total amount. The next try will be almond flour in place of some AP flour. I used 2 pinches of lemon zest instead of the orange and liked it better because it didn't dominate the rhubarb.
Used zest of one whole orange, added it to the white sugar to release its oils while I made the crumb topping and prepped the rhubarb. Also, I toasted the almonds 10 min at 350 b4 adding to the topping. Yes to the suggestion of small amount of rolled oats subbed in for almonds. Delish!!!
Delicious! I didn't have enough rhubarb so added strawberries to make up the difference. Used chopped, candied orange slices since I didn't have orange zest on hand. It all came together quickly and was a big hit! I love this dessert.
I made this as is, adding oats to the topping and subbing pecans for almonds. It's pretty "meh" as crisp recipes go, personally. I'll stick to my Wilson Farms Country Cookbook for my rhubarb crisp recipe in the future. Nothing beats it!
Delicious!! I followed the directions and had the right amount of all the ingredients. I read what others had to say and agree with don’t reduce the sugar - it’s perfect. I increased the orange and added a handful of oats to the batter - it looks like batter so spread it like a cobbler. Served it with heavy cream poured around. I could taste the browned butter so don’t skip this step. Together with the vanilla and orange my taste buds are in heaven. This is a keeper. Used a 9x9 pan for 50 min.
Made this with pecans instead of almonds and also added some frozen strawberries and blueberries since I only had a pound of rhubarb. It was delicious!! My favorite crumble recipe.
Made this exactly as written. Listened to Sue and even though I usually reduce sugar I didn’t this time. It really seemed like the right amount and it was. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve made literally hundreds of crumbles and crisps. This may be the best one I’ve ever made. Thanks Yossy. Needed this tonight.
I made a vegan version of this using canola oil in lieu of the butter and - further confession - I substituted the sugar with date sugar. It came out perfectly and this is now in my arsenal (whenever I can get my hands on rhubarb). This is a tamper-proof, successful recipe.
Too sweet, even cutting sugar by ½. Topping is heavy and dense, and sank into the filling. I will not make this again.
I substituted Bob Red Mill Paleo Flour (mostly almond flour), vegan butter, and Besti Allulose. We didn't have almonds so I used pecans. I didn't have a large enough pan so used two pans. It came out fantastic! Next time I'll put extra pecans on the top to make it crunchier. This is the favorite dessert in our house now! Thank you, Yossy!
As a diabetic, I converted this to a low carb. dessert. I substituted almond flour for all purpose, I used Splenda instead of sugar, and Brown Sugar Splenda for the brown sugar. I made the crumble part before finding I had only half enough rhubarb. So, in the rhubarb part, I used half the amount of ingredients called for, and used a slightly smaller dish. Otherwise, I followed directions and baked for 55 minutes. Next time, if I have the same quantity of rhubarb, I would cook only 45 to 50 m.
Much richer flavor than my usual crisp topping. I used 1/2 almonds and 1/2 oats. creme fraiche was an excellent accompaniment.
This was a huge hit - a few subs to make it gluten free: For filling: - 1T cornstarch instead of flour For crumble: - only browned half the butter and worked the other half cold into the crumble mix - 1c gluten free AP flour - 1/4c oats 1/4c walnuts - 1T milk to hold it together if needed
Crumble didn't have enough dry ingredients for me -- maybe it's because I blended the melted butter and sugar first and then the nuts and then the flour? When I did that the texture was more of a batter so I added something like an extra tablespoon or so of sugar and maybe 1/3 cup more flour or so to get to the cookie dough/crumble type of texture. Didn't have enough rhubarb so did about 3:1 with strawberries to get to the 2 lbs. Perfect balance of sweet and tangy if you ask me!
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