It seems I’m always the last to know about celebratory food days. I’m pretty sure I’ve missed every national cookie day (Dec. 4th), national peanut butter day (Jan 24th) and every other food “day” in the history of this blog. Who comes up with this stuff anyway?
Lo and behold, April is grilled cheese month. An entire month! I’ll be darned if I miss out on celebrating grilled cheeses – especially the sweet variety with chocolate ganache dipping sauce.
This month-long cheese party aligns perfectly with April’s Panera Bread post. You’ve got to have good bread for grilled cheese nirvana, and their Country Miche is perfect for grilling.
On a side note, I’ve really loved working with Panera Bread these last few months. Last Sunday, when I went to pick up a loaf of bread for this post, I started talking to one of the employees at the register about the charity work Panera Bread does in our community -specifically, the “Day-End Dough-Nation”. Have you heard of this? Every day at closing Panera Bread’s bakery items are packaged up and sent to local food banks. Here in Knoxville the donations go to Second Harvest Food Bank of East TN, which in this day and time is such an important resource in our community.
If your community would like to reach out to Panera Bread for “Dough-Nation” you can read all about it on this page , or submit a donation request here. To keep up with the latest news, follow them on Twitter or Facebook.
Raspberry Cream Cheese Paninis
with Chocolate Ganache Dipping Sauce
Yield 4 pieces (4 half-sandwiches) [click to print]
Sandwich
4 slices Panera Bread Country Miche
4 oz. cream cheese softened
4 tbsp raspberry jam
Butter for spreading on bread
Place a cast iron skillet or grill pan over medium heat.
Spread 2 oz. cream cheese on one slice of bread, and two tbsp. raspberry jam on another slice. Repeat with other two slices of bread. Sandwich together jam and cream cheese covered pieces and butter each side of the bread. Place sandwich in hot grill pan and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until cream cheese and jam are melty and bread is golden brown.
Chocolate ganache sauce:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
Place heavy cream and chocolate chips in a microwave proof bowl. Heat at 30 second increments, until cream is hot and chocolate can be whisked smooth. Whisk in butter until well incorporated. Serve immediately with Raspberry Cream Cheese Paninis.
Excellent twist on standard grilled cheese! These look so decadent. Yum!
This looks INCREDIBLE! Totally brings me back to when I was a little girl and my grandma used to make me cream cheese and grape jelly sandwiches. I'm definitely liking this "grownup" version! 🙂
Gorgeous and I love this idea. I think my husband could make this for us one morning. Thanks for sharing another fabulous recipe 🙂
I can do this! 🙂 Time to make a trip to Panera for some grilling bread! Can't wait to try it.
that great to know that panera does that, this recipe looks super good! I will have to try it out with my daughter.
Oh Wow! This might be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You had me at chocolate ganache dipping sauce!!
complimenti!mette l'acquolina solo a guardare!!!
These look so awesome! Great recipe.
Devilishly scrummy! Those look awesome.
Cheers,
Rosa
Oh my gosh, these look so good! This is so funny to me, because the other week I had some marble-rye bread with cheese sprad and strawberry jam and my boyfriend looked at me like I was crazy. I still haven't been able to convince him how good it is!!
wow, these are GORGEOUS. yum.
He is totally missing out Jess!
When I was a kid, cream cheese and jelly sandwiches were one of my favorite things. One time, my mom packed a sandwich with strawberry jam and strawberry cream cheese in my lunch and all the girls at my table were all "you have a pink sandwich!!"
And then I ate it and it was good.
But yours looks way butter. Duh. Love it!!
I love your blog, and have especially been loving the Panera posts! Our church is a recipient of our local Panera's Dough-Nation – so every Sunday when we come to church we all share the bread donated. It's *such* a blessing especially in these economic hard times! LOVE PANERA! Thanks for your great recipes! 🙂
Can you make me these tonight please? 😉
This is almost exactly the same as our mid-week, must-have-dessert cravings. Except I replace the bread with soft tortilla shells and make "dessert-adillas". (a play on "quesadilla") Knowing how good those little contraptions are, I can only guess how wonderful and perfect for quenching the low-effort sweet craving these are.
Oh Heather that first photo with the partially dipped panini almost made me lick my screen! Lovely photos and recipe.
I did not know that April was grilled cheese month! An excuse to eat more cheese, this is. 😉
Wow, dessert panini and so lovely, something I haven't tried yet. You have such a wonderful blog featuring so many of my favorite things;-)
What a simple yet brilliant idea! I love the combination of cream cheese with raspberry! I also love that photo of the raspberry with the cute little mint leaf.
We are really fond of their Tomato Basil bread but the Country Miche does come in second. I buy a couple of loaves at the beginning of the week. Wonderful shots of these sandwiches. I have had a berry/cream cheese sandwich combo.
omg! that look so lovely and yummy! (: (:
Whoa! looks amazing!
I love the way you think! 🙂
Beautiful! Oh I do love panini's! I normally make savory ones, like the proscuitto, mozzarella, basil ones I made the other night. I've made Nutella Panini's, but your panini gives a whole new meaning to the word. Your a culinary saint!
I love your blog. I had subscribed via email, long time back but never got any updates via email. WOnder what went wrong.
But glad to be back and its all good stuff
OMG! These paninis are calling my name! I can't wait to make some over the weekend! 😀
Amy
http://utry.it
I buy a loaf of the Country Miche every week for our lunches. When it runs out (because it eventually does by Thursday), the kids whine about the cheap stuff. I love a grilled sandwich on the Country Miche with turkey, sliced apples, avocado, cheddar cheese and pepper jelly. Yum.
Grilled cheese month!?!? I like it!
This looks really tasty:)
This panini looks decadent! Can a panini even look decadent? Well, this one does!
This looks really delicious! I love grilled cheese sandwiches but rarely have the sweet kind!
Oh MY, that looks incredible!
april is grilled cheese month?? i love april even more now 😀
Great blog! My mouth is watering from the pictures. Do you know if panera has brought back the chocolate duet cookie yet? I miss you!
If it's any consolation, I'm completely out of the loop regarding food days. 😀
Those paninis look so tempting! I love raspberries in just about anything. And that loaf of bread looks so tender! Delish!
These look just plain delicious. I have made a panini with chocolate and brie and the sweet with cheese is such a great combo. Can't wait to try some rasberries.
ummm yum yum!!! These look so heavenly devine!!! I thought these were from Panera Bread….you made these…wow!!! Heavenly delish!!!
Yaneri
Oh my! This is a trillion times more morish than a peanut butter jelly sandwhich!
I love grilled cheese as well. Kudos on the chocolate dipping sauce…makes grilled cheese that much more fun! So I am a newer poster, I assume not too much on this site is of the healthy kind? LOL! Just the way I like it. I am a true Southern girl and butter is my middle name. 😀 I give Paula a run for her money. Thanks for the recipes and great pics!
Those look delicious. The local bakery occasionally makes a chocolate-cherry sourdough, and I love using it to make grilled cream cheese sandwiches.
That is some sandwich. It looks and sounds delicious. I am new to your blog and have spent some time browsing through your earlier posts. I'm so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you share with your readers. I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
Holy cats… this looks so YUM!
Roxy adores anything cream cheese. I'll have to show her 😉
Love Ya!
What's not to love about this!!! Somehow I doubt mine would look this amazing! Fantastic!!!
This looks amazing! Very glad I found your blog, I like your recipes 🙂 I've always seen a shop do a chocolate and banana panini and my friends thought that putting sweet things into it were really weird, but I think it's awesome! I'm sure there will be a random 'banana and chocolate day' soon :p
Wow, this looks purely fantastic! I used to love cream cheese and jam as a kid 🙂 I bet this could also be altered to use different cheese and jams or honey. Fantastic!
Heather- This looks fantastic and I love your amazing photos! I bet that the cream cheese and raspberry together are heavenly.
That would make a wonderful snack. Ok I would probably eat this for breakfast.
Cream cheese & raspberries are one of my all time favorite combos. Love this Heather. The ganache makes it extra fab!!
I'm featuring your paninis today in my "These Chicks Cooked" spotlight! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Katie
Thanks to Kate @ This Chick Cooks, I've found your blog! This sandwich looks divine, and I want so badly to have one right now! 🙂