Chocolate Ricemellow Creme Panini
Next up in our set of guest posts for the week is brought to you from Kim Garr of C’est la Vegan. She is the talented baker behind C’est la V Bakeshop, here in Los Angeles. She comes up with some really great recipes, especially some of her treats for entertaining. My mother enlisted her to do make scones and biscuits for my bridal tea. Kim is sweet woman and I’m so pleased to be able to share one of her recipes here.
I’m such a huge fan of Cute and Delicious, and I’m so excited to be doing a guest post while Alix and Shawn enjoy their honeymoon!
I actually used the idea of a honeymoon as my inspiration for this dish, hoping to come up with something that would make for a really decadent breakfast in bed. I think this Chocolate Ricemellow Creme Panini with Raspberry Dipping Sauce fits the bill nicely, though I would gladly eat this any time of day – honeymoon or not!
This is actually very simple to make, and if you don’t have access to vegan ricemellow or marshmallows, you could substitute peanut butter instead, or just do a plain chocolate panini sandwich, which would still be really delicious. The Raspberry Dipping Sauce is easy to make, and the tartness of the raspberries really helps to cut the sweetness of the sandwich.
This ooey, gooey treat is so incredible, and I’ll definitely make it again. It kinds of feels like a special occasion sandwich to me, but let’s be honest, I could easily count a movie night as a special occasion! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
Chocolate Ricemellow Creme Panini with Raspberry Dipping Sauce
serves 2
- 1 pint raspberries
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar
- 4 slices good quality bread
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup ricemellow creme (or a few vegan marshmallows, halved if large so they lay flatter)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, or chopped dark chocolate (you could also use dairy-free semi-sweet)
- 1-2 tablespoons Earth Balance non-hydrogenated margarine
Wash the raspberries and place them in a small saucepan over medium heat with the agave nectar (you can start with less agave and add more, depending on the sweetness of your berries). Once you start to hear sizzling, stir the berries and start to break them up with a fork. Turn the heat down, and simmer the mixture for a few minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
Heat your panini press or a large skillet. Spread the margarine on the outsides of the slices of bread, or melt it in the pan if you don’t have a panini press. Turn the bread over, and on the inside of each slice, spread 1-2 tablespoons of the ricemellow creme evenly over the bread. Spread the chocolate chips over the ricemellow creme, and press the two sides together with the Earth Balance on the outside. Place the sandwich in the panini press, and cook until the chocolate is melted.
Serve with the warm raspberry dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Vegan Blogger Potluck
This past Saturday Shawn and I were invited to a Los Angeles vegan blogger potluck organized by Your Vegan Mom and Hugger Food. Although I’d been to a number of the blogs present, I hadn’t met any of the bloggers in real life. It made me quite nervous to make food for a bunch of strangers, let alone a group of vegans who write about food on the internet!I decided to make mini-paninis filled with portobellos, spinach and white bean spread. I sauteed the portobellos in wine and olive oil with a sprig of fresh rosemary for about half an hour till they were soft.
The white bean spread was a bit of an experiment. I looked over some recipes but didn’t really bother to follow any of them. I also didn’t bother to write down what I actually did but here’s the basic idea.1 can white beans, drained
4 large cloves of roasted garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until fairly smooth.
To assemble the paninis:
Cut a baguette style loaf of french bread into 1/2 inch slices. Spread one half of each panini with vegenaise and the other with the white bean spread. Put the sauteed mushrooms and spinach on one half of the bread and then the other half on top. Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil and follow the directions for your panini maker. You could also toast these and I’m sure they would come out quite well.
Before I ate anything, I got to enjoy some lovely pear and ginger cocktails crafted by Your Vegan Mom. They were a touch sweet but definitely not sugary, which I believe is ideal for a fruit based cocktail. Yum!
I made a small sampling plate of some of the dippable fare. Here you can see the potato-parsnip latkes with applesauce from Hugger Food, pate with toast from Liz at Yo Soy, vegan Doritos with spinach dip from Quarrygirl and baked ravioli with marinara from Lex at Vegan-LA.
Jenn from Veganize It, Don’t Criticize It made a brisket that was really rather good as well. She of course also brought some of her notorious twinkies filled with jelly.
Kevin from the The Vegan Collection brought cinnamon rolls. I’ve been dying to make some for a couple of weeks now, but haven’t had the time so I was quite pleased to have these. There were even more delicious desserts, such as Quarrygirl’s chocolate chip cheesecake and Hugger Food’s twice spiced ginger cookies.
