Rhubarb Curd Shortbread Recipe on Food52 (2024)

This recipe is great! After reading reviews about trouble achieving a pink curd, I bought a little extra rhubarb and made sure to only use the pinkest ends. My color matched The picture exactly! I put my rhubarb mixture in a smoothie blender (rather than using an immersion blender) and had no problem passing the finished curd through a mesh strainer at the end. It set up nicely when chilled. I do agree with other reviewers that the short bread could be thinner (easy adjustment next time!), but the spices in it are wonderful and compliment the rhubarb.

This is a great recipe but the curd never properly set up for me. It's soft and luscious but not firm enough to slice into bars. So disappointing but delicious nevertheless. I'd add more eggs and butter to the recipe next time to firm up the curd.

An outstanding recipe. I should have doubled the curd because it was just exquisite. In the initial steps we replaced the water with some homemade rhubarb vanilla syrup. I thought the shortbread was delicious, if a bit on the thick side.

This was my first time making curd and for a first attempt wasn't terrible. The flavor was fantastic on the curd, but the shortbread wasn't as sweet as I had hoped. I think it may have balanced the tart nature of the curd a bit better, but overall I really enjoyed the recipe and will definitely try it again next season!

Really loved the bars! Just a few notes. I stuck to the recipe pretty much to the letter. They were pretty rhubarb-y and had a nice mix of sweet and tart. I found the shortbread to be not too sweet and the spices were very mild. The color was more like a salmon pink (orange-y pink for me, but the bars looked appetizing). At the prep stage I tried to take some of the strings out of the rhubarb (much like celery), then I blended the heck out of the rhubarb puree before adding it to the eggs. I had everything at room temperature (eggs especially) because curd is tricky for me. Also passing the curd through the strainer was a pain in the neck (taking me about a half hour), but really worth it to get that smooth pudding finish. I used about 7 stalks of rhubarb, but best to go with weight. The recipe is pretty labor intensive, but makes for a really delicious and unique treat.

Start with four cups of rhubarb if you are using Rhubarb from your garden. We don't own a kitchen scale or an immersion blender (we don't even own a standing mixer...we knead bread by hand in this house), so there was some guesswork from the start because rhubarb stalks can be thick, skinny, and vary by size. I attempted to run the cooked down rhubarb through a fine mesh strainer. All I was left with was juice so I recombined everything and it turned out just fine. I'm not sure why, but I don't blame the author, I blame the chef. Anyway, I have a standing policy of making a recipe three times before I determine whether it is "good" or "bad." Adjustments are needed to this recipe (IMHO) but I do think this is a keeper. I'm going to change how I make the curd and use the Tartine method next time. The shortbread is outstanding. I added a touch more clove for a deeper flavor.

Jane May 27, 2015

This looked so interesting. The finished result looked great, but not one of my rhubarb eating family liked it. They voted to bin it. I'm going to try the curd in a shortbread style slice - curd in the middle and crumble on top.

Divine. Thanks for the recipe.

I thought this was just okay; probably won't make it again. In my area, I'm only able to get the greenish rhubarb from the farmers' market so the curd came out a sickly green-yellow color, not very appetizing at all. The shortbread was nice with the added spices but crumbled quite a bit, maybe I baked it too long. I got halfway through straining the curd and gave up and used my immersion blender for the second straining. Just not enough bang for the amount of work. Sorry! I really wanted to like it.

This looks spectacular and i couldnt wait to try it. I have made curd many times without problems, but this was pretty close to an unmittigated fail. Perhaps the problem was that I used rhubarb straight form the garden, but when I cooked it with the sugar and water specified, it was very liquidy. So I cooked it a bit more, then passed the puree hrough the strainer. I had about a cup of beautiful dark pink juice. It was not clear to me from the recipe how much juice to add to the sugar mixture. I added most of it. Was I supposed to use the remaining pulp? I used four large egg yolks from a friends hens, and the curd was bright yellow, not a hint of pink. They are tasty, but they do not even whisper "rhubarb". I will pass ithem off as citrus curd bars, I guess. Any thoughts?

I have a question about this recipe. Why do you say to preheat the oven more than an hour before you can bake the crust? Isn't that a waste of electricity? My oven preheats in about 5 minutes.

I'm going to try these now that my rhubarb plants are up. I think I'll add a little freshly grated ginger and ground cinnamon for more flavor.
One commenter mentioned that she didn't have a double boiler. If you don't have one, it's easy to duplicate this cooking method by placing a glass bowl, that's larger than your saucepan, on top, and cook the mixture over about an inch of simmering water in the saucepan.
I have an immersion blender and will use this to puree the rhubarb mixture before straining it.

I'm allergic to eggs. Can you suggest a substitute? I see that the recipe calls for straining, but I think the texture would be interesting. Perhaps adding a little cinnamon, ginger or other spice might really make this recipe zing! Sometimes a recipe needs a little spice to give it that over the top flavor. I love rhubarb. I recall tasting a famous ollalaberry pie but it tasted flat, needed a spice. Thanks.

I've been making this rhubarb curd shortbread recipe yearly since it posted here. It is always very well received, beautiful, and delicious. The curd can be used for other recipes or eaten straight as is! I actually find it easy to make and you just need a strainer that does not have a fine mesh and it will make the job easier.

I think this recipe has a lot of potential but is missing something as it stands currently. It does really WOW you, even if the custard is amazingly delicious. I wanted more after reading the Author's Notes.

This is fabulous I look forward each spring for rhubarb just to make this curd, I too am a curd fanatic and usually eat spoonfuls of whenever I make tarts

I really wanted to like this recipe, and it certainly tasted fine. I just don't think it tasted good enough to be worth all the effort. I don't have a double boiler (who does? Like 20 percent of cooks?), so that obviously made my job harder, but the worst part was straining the curd. I think I scraped it against the fine mesh for 20 minutes before I finally got it all through. Good, but not that good.

Just made this yesterday for a dinner party. Ended up cooking the custard quite a bit longer b/c to me it didn't seem very custardy -- just thickened a bit. Delicious though. I ran out of time to make the shortbread (classic me move) but my plan B was delicious. I did individual ramekins: place a thin ginger biscuit on bottom, top with layer of curd, then make a meringue, dollop that over and bake. Meringue with this tart curd is perfect. And it's fun to serve people their own little toasty poofy desserts.

How much rhubarb purée
Is measured out after step 1? I am looking to replace it with se homemade rosehip syrup and just need to know the volume/quantity of rhubarb sauce at the end if step 1...Thanks!

Any one have a glutton free recipe
For this?