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!
pie oh my
So I made some pie. Two in fact. Two pies. In one day. For no occasion. There is possibly something wrong with me.
I’m also going to give away an apron. It’s really cute. You could win it.
Back to the pies though. One is a caramel peanut butter pie inspired entirely by this caramel pudding. The other, is a raspberry rhubarb pie kind of sort of from the lovely Babycakes cookbook.
I started the caramel peanut butter pie with a cookie crust. This is probably the easiest crust you’ll ever make. All you have to do is mix 2 cups of cookie crumbs (that’s about 18 sandwich cookies) with 5 Tbsp of melted Earth Balance. Press this mixture into a greased 9″ pie pan. Put the whole thing in the fridge. Ok, done with that part.
Next is the peanut butter. Also, easy as hell. Using an electric mixer, beat together 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until all combined. Then press this into the prepared cookie crust. It should cover just the bottom.
So that bit is a breeze. Tell yourself making the caramel pudding will be as well. It will be! Just be patient. When you literally have to watch sugar boil for ten minutes, just imagine the wonderful pie you will have at the end and don’t even think about stirring. Or you can scrub your oven top. That’s what I did.
Anyway, yes, just be patient, it will all come together even if it takes awhile. Even if it seems like it’s going wrong. Just be careful not to stab* or burn yourself with the caramelized sugar. But seriously, you’ll be fine.
As I mentioned, the caramel pudding recipe can be found here written out for you by the lovely Joy the Baker. To make it vegan, I just subbed the 4 cups of whole milk with 3 cups of mimicreme mixed with 1 cup soy milk. Then, after letting the pudding cool slightly, pour into the pie crust that has been hanging out in the fridge. Let cool completely in the fridge for a few hours (just enough time to make another pie) and you’ll have one decadent and amazing caramel peanut butter pie.
See? Looks tasty and oh it is. You may want to put some whipped topping on here, but that’s really your call. Really, this pie is damn good.
But don’t forget, there is another pie too. I decided to finally try my hand at an almost gluten free and sugar free recipe from Babycakes. Ok so it’s not exactly the most complicated of low gluten experiments, but it’s a start…next time I’ll go full gluten free, just wait.
So the crust is a spelt crust, remember I said it wasn’t entirely gluten free. Now let’s not kid around here, this is some damn good crust. I may have eaten a few pieces before putting it into the oven. I could possibly use this crust always. Possibly.
This is the part where I tell you that I didn’t exactly follow the rest of the recipe for the pie. Mainly because where in the hell do you get dried rhubarb? Is this a common ingredient? Who knows. I used frozen. I should have defrosted it. I didn’t. I also used raspberries instead of strawberries. Whatever.
Also, when I got to part where you have to roll out the crust, I discovered my rolling pin had gone missing. (Hey mom, did I leave my rolling pin at your house?) That made it a bit difficult to do everything. So my crust was not rolled out as thin as it should have been and other things. It still tasted good.
Despite me making some pretty major pie recipe sins this still tasted lovely. I ended up cooking it for about 10 minutes more though, and it was a bit, um, soupy. Like I said, should have thawed the rhubarb. Seriously though, I think I’m about to be a big fan of this agave sweetened business.
So there you have it ladies and gentleman, pies for dinner this lovely sunday night.
Oh yeah, and the apron. Do you remember back during the holidays I made some aprons for Christmas presents? Well I am a jerk and never gave one to it’s intended recipient. It’s nearly the end of April and it’s just been sitting in my closet. I think it needs a home. I will just give my friend a cooler present next year. Now it can be yours! Think this apron is cute? Just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite kind of pie and I’ll randomly pick a winner by May 1st. Then you can make pie in a cute apron.
*yes I have done this. it hurts.
Update: And the winner is…Monica. Congratulations!
Cran-Raspberry Muffins
Ok, I think this can be the last muffin post for a little while. Maybe. Perhaps I’ll sneak in just one more though. These cran-raspberry muffins were so moist and fruity; the perfect combination of sweet cakey muffin and tart fruit chunks. They came with us to a lovely cemetary screening of The Muppet Movie and were unfortunately a little smooshed on the way (but still tasted just as lovely). These muffins have a dominant raspberry flavor but the cranberries add a bit of tartness and give the muffin a little more complex flavor. Mostly, they’re just sweet, chunky and delicious.
Cran-Raspberry Muffins
¼ cup dried cranberries
½ cup sugar
2/3 cup cran-raspberry juice
2 cups flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ scant tsp salt
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cup frozen raspberries
In a medium bowl, mix sugar, dried cranberries and cran-raspberry juice together. Set aside to let the cranberries soften for about 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400° and grease muffin tin.
In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
Add the oil and vanilla extract to the cranberry mixture and whisk together. Gently pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir until a few lumps remain. Add in the the raspberries into the batter fold in so they are fairly evenly dispersed. If you use frozen raspberries, there is no need to thaw them, just make sure there aren’t chunks of ice in the mix as they’ll creat gooey spots in your muffins.
Spoon into muffin tin and fill cups to the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are slightly springy when touched. Let sit in muffin pans for about 5 minutes and remove to cool on a baking rack. Devour warm or cooled.
