Brown Butter Rhubarb Cookie Bars

Start with the preparation of the rhubarb filling. Combine the sugar, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla bean seeds and pod in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring the combination to a boil over high heat and continue cooking until the mixture begins to caramelize around the edges just slightly. At this point, add the rhubarb and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture begins to resemble a jam. Turn the heat to low and cook for another 20 minutes or until the jam has thickened. Remove from heat, discard the vanilla bean pod and transfer to a bowl to cool completely.

While the jam is cooling, prepare your crust. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until the butter just begins to brown and a nutty aroma fills the air, about 5-6 minutes (be careful, the butter can go from brown to burnt in a matter of seconds). Remove the pan from the heat immediately and transfer to a bowl. Transfer the bowl to the freezer and freeze for about 30 minutes or until the butter has just begun to harden.

Whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and the flour in a large mixing bowl. Once butter is frozen, remove it from the freezer and cut into little cubes. Mix the butter into the flour mixture with clean hands. Crumble together and knead the dough until the crumbs come together to form a crumbly dough.

Now press the crust evenly into a 9×13-inch baking dish, making sure to cover the entire bottom. Press down and seal around the edges until the dough is tightly packed into the dish. Transfer the crust to the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 F and situate the oven rack to the middle. Once cool, bake the crust for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

While the crust is cooling, prepare your brown butter filling. In a large bowl, whisk together the orange zest, flour, eggs and sugar. In another heavy-bottomed skillet, combine the vanilla pulp and pod and the butter. You will again be browning butter. Melt the butter over medium-high heat and stir frequently until the butter begins to brown slightly and a nutty aroma fills the air. Remove from heat immediately. Remove the vanilla bean pod and very slowly begin to whisk the brown butter into the egg mixture until everything is smooth and incorporated.

Spread about half of the brown butter filling over top of the baked crust. Use a rubber spatula to cover the entire dish. Now, dollop the rhubarb filling on top of the brown butter filling, using about ¾ of the filling. Cover the rhubarb filling with the rest of the brown butter filling, and top it off with dollops of the rest of the rhubarb filling.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the bars are a deep golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely before you cut into them. Store in an airtight container for about a week.