This vintage recipe makes a beautiful moist Rhubarb Loaf with real ingredients like butter, sugar, flour and eggs. And a splash of orange is what makes this sweet loaf extra special.
What’s the difference between green and red rhubarb?
Like many other vegetables, there are multiple varieties of rhubarb. Yes, rhubarb is a vegetable! Some are more green and some are more red. But don’t be fooled into thinking the red is sweeter or the green ones aren’t ripe yet. They are just different types. Once the stalks are between 7 and 15 inches, or 18 to 38 cm, you can harvest them. If you pull carefully from the bottom the stalk will pull right out. Just harvest as much as you need and the plant will continue to grow.
Jump to Recipe
My friend Deb gave me this recipe. In the original directions, it said to mix the butter with orange juice. Huh? Butter and orange juice don’t mix. If you don’t believe me, try it. So I’ve revised the recipe to the traditional method of creaming the butter with sugar, then adding the orange juice and eggs before adding the dry ingredients. It works out just fine. And, you won’t have orange juice splashed all over your kitchen like I did, when beating and beating didn’t accomplish anything.
The recipe also includes grated orange rind. Make sure you don’t grate any deeper than the orange skin. The inside of the skin, where it turns white is very bitter. Once you’ve grated the rind, squeeze as much juice as you can out of the orange. It might not be enough for 1/2 cup but just add regular orange juice to make up the difference. And don’t be afraid to get some pulp in there!
The rind is added to the dry ingredients for a reason. The flour will sort of coat the pieces of grated rind so they separate and get mixed evenly in the batter instead of sticking together in a clump. The bits of rind add a nice flavour pop so I highly recommend using a real orange in this recipe.
If you’ve got a stand mixer, this loaf takes no time to mix up. The batter is quite stiff so you have to spoon it into the loaf pan and spread it evenly to the edges. Parchment paper is a great way to line the pan and then you can easily lift it out once it’s cooled slightly. If you don’t have any you can spread a light coating of butter on the inside of the pan, then dust with flour, shaking the pan to ensure it coats evenly, then dump any remaining loose flour.
Sweet breads like Rhubarb Loaf take quite a while to bake. The original recipe baking time is 1 hour but you likely need a little longer, probably at least 10 more minutes. Use a clean toothpick to insert deep into the middle of the loaf, if it comes out with batter on it, bake it another 5 minutes then test again.
It’s tempting to slice the loaf soon after coming out of the oven but it tends to fall apart easily if you don’t wait long enough. In fact, most sweet loafs slice better if they’ve had several hours to cool. Serve with butter if you like.
If you make Rhubarb Loaf, consider leaving a comment or rating below. Here’s the recipe:
Rhubarb Loaf
Ingredients
- 2 cups rhubarb, finely diced
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp grated orange rind
- ⅓ cup butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Finely dice tender stalks of rhubarb. Add 1/4 cup sugar and stir to combine. Let sit while preparing other ingredients.
- Combine flour, salt, baking powder and orange rind. Stir to ensure orange rind is separated and covered well with dry ingredients.
- Allow butter to come to room temperature. Cream butter and sugar together in stand mixer until well blended. Add egg, then orange juice and vanilla. Mixture will have a grainy texture.
- Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.
- Add rhubarb mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.
- Spoon into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.
- Bake in centre of oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check with toothpick to ensure no batter remains. If necessary, bake another 5 or 10 minutes.
- Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Then lift out and cool on a rack at least 1 hour before slicing.
- Serve with butter if desired.
Not a rhubarb fan at all but this loaf is delicious!
What? You don’t like rhubarb? Are you sure you haven’t been eating skunk cabbage? hahaha
This loaf was awesome very moist and delicious
Thanks! Next time I’ll use more of the red stalks for a prettier colour.
It was delish! Great pics too!
Nothing like a freshly baked treat cooling on the patio!
I’m making this right now, so I’m probably going to have to answer my own question, but how big a loaf pan do I use? I’ll probably use my 9 x 5 since 3 cups is a lot of flour.
I just happened to be on the site so I can answer your question! Yupper, the 9 x 5 is what I use.
Thanks—it’s delicious! I had to bake it for 1 hr 10 minutes total so it’s very dark and crusty on the outside but still yummy. I added some cinnamon and nutmeg and used 1 cup of whole wheat flour in the mix so it’s very rustic. Was thinking about sharing some with a neighbor, but now I don’t think I can!
When you’re using whole wheat flour it can make your loaf heavier. It tends to soak up more of the liquid so I suggest reducing the amount of flour – so if you add 1 cup whole wheat, reduce the rest of the amount of ap flour by about 1/4 cup. That should help avoid your loaf coming out like a brick. haha. If you find the exterior is crusty after baking, it will be much softer the next day if you store it wrapped in plastic.
I really enjoyed this bread with the subtle orange taste. I decided to add a crumb topping and added the leftover orange zest which everyone liked. I loved the texture which I’d say was more cake like. I found this site by jumping several pages ahead in my google search. I was tired of my previous Rhubarb Bread (still good but ready for something different) that I had been using. This recipe is a keeper!
I’m so glad you liked it! What a great idea to add a crumb topping!