Strawberry rhubarb cookie bars

 Like strawberry rhubarb crisp but in bar/cookie form.

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1 1/2 cups sliced rhubarb
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch salt

Crust and Crumble

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used bob's red mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour)
  
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (original said 1 C, but 1/2 C seemed like plenty)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter (original recipe was for country crock)
• 1/4 walnuts, added to crumble
  

Instructions

Filling

1. Add strawberries and rhubarb to a medium mixing bowl. If using frozen, make sure they are well thawed and drained. Toss with brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt and toss to coat. The sugar draws out the liquid, so it worked well to make this ahead of time, leave in fridge for a few hours, then drain the excess liquid, but might not be necessary depending on how juicy the berries are.
   

Crust and Crumble

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Cut enough parchment so ends overhang on 2 sides so you can lift the bars out after they've cooled for easy cutting. It's easier to cut the bars more nicely if you do this, if you do it without parchment paper, they may just fall apart more as you're trying to cut them.
   
2. Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter or fork, mix butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Reserve 1 cup dough and mix with 1/4 c walnuts for crumble topping. Press remaining dough firmly into prepared pan. Spread strawberry rhubarb mixture evenly over crust. Crumble reserved dough over fruit.
4. Bake 50-55 minutes or until fruit is bubbling and top is golden. Cool on wire rack before lifting out and slicing into 16 bars. Could also try 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes, it didn't seem very bubbly or brown after 50 minutes at 350 so I ended up leaving it in for another 5-10 minutes.