Sourdough Strawberry Bars

Name: Sourdough Strawberry Bars
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 220 g Butter ((softened at room temperature)); 200 g White Sugar; 1 Egg ((large, around 70g)); 120 g Sourdough Starter ((or sourdough starter discard)); 280 g All Purpose Flour; 3 g Baking Powder; 3 g Salt; Lemon Zest ((zest of one whole lemon)); 200 g Strawberries ((diced or sliced)); 50 g Strawberries ((diced, approx 2 large strawberries)); 20 g Lemon Juice ((juice of one whole lemon)); 200 g Powdered Sugar

These sourdough strawberry bars are as beautiful as they are delicious! Studded with juicy, red strawberries and pops of lemon zest for added brightness, these sourdough strawberry bars are going to be on your bake list all summer long!

3 sourdough strawberry bars stacked on top of each other on a stack of white plates.

If you've got lots of ripe strawberries to use up, then you might also want to add these sourdough strawberry muffins and this sourdough strawberry cake to your list too!

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Perfect for Summer - this is a great summer recipe when strawberries are ripe (and cheap). These sourdough strawberry bars use fresh strawberries in both the batter and the glaze!

The Texture - one of the best things about these bars are the texture! They're kind of like a cross between a sourdough chocolate brownie and a sourdough sugar cookie bar. Seriously though, the texture is amazing and well worth making them for! It makes them really easy to eat as they aren't crumbly like a cake might be.

The Glaze - you can serve these bars with or without the glaze, it's really up to you. The glaze definitely adds a pop of color and lots of flavor, but if you're making them for lunchboxes or you just don't want the extra sugar it's totally optional.

A close up photo of sourdough strawberry bars showing 2 stacked on top of each other. You can see the bright red strawberries and yellow lemon zest peaking through the golden crumb.

Ingredients

Butter - soft butter is what you'll need, I've used salted as always!
Sugar - granulated sugar or white sugar is fine here.
Egg - my eggs are pretty big because they are from my chickens - around 70g. If yours are small, I recommend using 2.
Sourdough Starter - you can use active sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard in this recipe, it's totally up to you and what you have on hand. The sourdough element adds flavor and moisture to these bars, so whether it's active or not is not going to affect it's purpose here. You can read more about the difference between sourdough discard and sourdough starter here.
All Purpose Flour - no bread flour needed for this one.
Baking Powder - just like when you make sourdough brownies, you don't want to use too much baking powder or you'll mess with the lovely texture of these sourdough strawberry bars.
Salt - a little salt cuts through all the sweetness.
Lemon - you'll need the zest and juice of a whole lemon. The zest is for the bars themselves and the juice is used to make the glaze to go on top
Fresh Strawberries - I recommend using fresh strawberries here, although frozen will work if strawberries are out of season. Just be sure to use them while they are still frozen as if you allow them to thaw, they will bleed through the batter.
Powdered Sugar - or icing sugar depending on where you live. This is used to create the vibrant strawberry glaze for the top of the bars.

How to Make Sourdough Strawberry Bars

Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 9" x 9" baking pan with parchment paper. Set this aside.

You can use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer for this first step, or a whisk, it's up to you.Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add the egg and continue to beat until well combined.

Now add the sourdough starter and continue to beat until it's all mixed together. Set this aside for just a minute while you work on the dry ingredients.

2 process photos showing the butter, sugar, eggs and sourdough starter being creamed together and the dry ingredients mixed together with the lemon zest and strawberries being added.

In a separate bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until well combined. Add the strawberries and lemon zest and fold them through the flour until they are well coated.

2 process photos. The first one shows the fresh strawberries being coated in flour and the second shows the wet and dry ingredients being mixed together.

Now, add the flour and strawberry mixture to the butter, sugar and egg mixture, folding together until there's no more dry flour (just don't over mix at this point).

Sourdough strawberry bar batter added to a 9" x 9" baking pan. There is parchment paper overhanging the edges and a white spatula sitting on top.

Add the strawberry bar batter to the pan you prepared earlier and bake for around 30 to 35 minutes. You want the middle to still be slightly moist when you take it out of the oven.

Making the Strawberry Glaze

While the bars are baking, grab a bowl and add the diced strawberries sprinkled with just a little bit of the powdered sugar. Mash them up with a fork until they look like the photo on the right.

2 process photos showing the fresh strawberries being mashed together with some powdered sugar and then mixed with lemon juice to create the glaze.

Then, add the rest of the powdered sugar and lemon juice to the strawberries and whisk together to form the strawberry glaze.

Once the sourdough strawberry bars are cool, pour the glaze over and allow to set before slicing into 9 squares. I like to set the glaze in the fridge before slicing, but it's up to you whether you do this.

Process photos showing the sourdough strawberry bars baked fresh out of the oven and then covered in the strawberry glaze.

Baking Facts

Strawberries contain an acid called anthocyanin which is not heat stable. Baking fresh strawberries in a recipe along with some type of acid helps to keep strawberries red while baking. This is why you might find your strawberries looking a bit purple or grey in recipes where there's no acid to keep their color from fading out!

How To Freeze + Store

These sourdough strawberry bars are a little bit like sourdough brownies in that the flavors seem to meld and get better the next day. You can store these in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. They will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge (I actually really love the texture of eating them cold out of the fridge).

They do freeze ok, but I don't recommend freezing them with the glaze. Freeze them unglazed only. They actually make great snacks, even unglazed, so freezing individual bars in ziploc bags works really well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you use other types of fruit in these bars?

Yes, you can substitute the fresh strawberries with other seasonal fruit like blueberries, raspberries or even fresh pitted cherries.

Do you have to use the glaze for this recipe?

No, in fact these sourdough strawberry bars are actually delicious just dusted with some powdered sugar and cut into squares! I love this option if you're going to be packing them in lunch boxes as they are much less sticky! Alternatively, if you prefer frosting, the strawberry frosting from these sourdough sugar cookie bars is delicious on top of these bars too!

Will freeze dried strawberries work for this recipe?

Yes you could use freeze dried strawberries, or dehydrated strawberries for this recipe. I recommend crumbling up the freeze dried strawberries to make them go a little further as they are quite an expensive option.