I’ve just got to say that this is one of those recipes that, if ever lost, would result in me losing about half of my friends. It’s the one that gets requested over and over again and I would be shown no mercy if it disappeared. It’s mildly adapted from an Oregonian Food Day recipe from eons ago, and that’s all I know about it. My copy is yellowed, faded, and covered in batter – and we all know that’s the sign of a keeper. It’s a one bowl wonder that you can make at the drop of a hat. I make it a couple of different ways: with fresh strawberries shingled on the top, or if I’m feeling particularly lazy, I just slice a few and chomp on them on the side…
Start with rhubarb, of course. Cut into small pieces but no need to make them microscopic. Round up your dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix them together and in goes your rhubarb. Some recipes have you toss the rhubarb in flour separately before adding to the dry ingredients to keep the pieces from sinking to the bottom of the pan, but this seems very lame to me when you have a perfectly good bowl full of the stuff just sitting there. I say let’s be a little more efficient than that please. It’s sunny, I’m hungry, so let’s get this show on the road.
The next item on our agenda is mixing up all of the ‘wet’ ingredients together in a small bowl. This would include the Greek Yogurt OR Buttermilk, an egg, some oil and vanilla. Note: If you use Greek Yogurt, your batter will be very thick and will require some muscle to get everything stirred together. This is normal so don’t fret over it. I think Yogurt gives the bread a firmer texture, and Buttermilk a little lighter one. It’s really just a matter of personal taste so do whatever suits you. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you decide to go the strawberry route on top of the bread, you should probably use Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk. My last attempt trying this with buttermilk made the batter too wimpy to hold up the berries — and they sunk.
Divide the dough evenly into two greased loaf pans and sprinkle with brown sugar. If you want to get fancy, slice a couple of strawberries and arrange on top. The dough isn’t hardly half way up to the top of the pan – that is OK. Once the acid in the Yogurt gets acquainted with the Baking Soda, everybody gets all excited and you will get some good lift as a result. at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Let him sit for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan, and then have your way with him. No need to be stingy with those slices either.
Hope you love it as much as I do! Happy weekend!! xoxoxo
Rhubarb Bread
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cup unbleached flour
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar plus about a tablespoon more for sprinkling on top
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups fresh rhubarb diced
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup plain Greek Yogurt low fat OR 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup canola oil
- 2-3 sliced strawberries for garnish optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt
- Toss in the diced rhubarb
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together the Greek Yogurt (or Buttermilk), vanilla, egg, and oil
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. If you are using Greek Yogurt, the mixture will be very thick – don’t fret.
- Divide dough into two greased loaf pans. Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the center.
- If you’d like to decorate, arrange thinly cut strawberry slices on top.
Here’s our happy little crop – minus a few stalks….
