BEST Grilled Cheese Panini! With nutty Gruyere cheese, tart green Granny Smith apples and sweet fig jam.
In the fall, Granny Smith season is over at my parents’ house; Their trees are so heavy with apples that my father has to support the branches with long two by fours to keep them from snapping.
We are also blessed with an abundance of figs from the fig tree, which my mom often makes a particularly wonderful fig jam (an easy recipe that takes about 15 minutes to cook, I recommend!).
It’s actually child’s play. Granny Smith apples, nutty Gruyere and figs? They belong together.
I never thought of putting them together in a grilled cheese sandwich. Oh. My. My goodness. Crazy good!
I know not everyone has a panini press. In fact, I only have one because a friend gave me one, knowing I love experimenting in the kitchen.
You can make this sandwich just as easily as you would a regular grilled cheese sandwich (which I prefer to use a cast iron skillet for). Or, if you happen to have a George Forman grill, that would work too!
Gruyere, apple and fig jam panini
Dense bread, such as bread from farmhouse bread, holds together best in a panini press.
ingredients
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2 tablespoons butter, room temperature so it spreads easily
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4 slices of rustic whole wheat bread, cut from a dense baker’s loaf
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2 tbsp fig jam
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4 ounces Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced
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1/2 Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
method
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Heat panini press:
to medium heat. (Or if you’re not using a panini press, preheat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.)
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Assemble sandwiches:
Spread butter on two slices of bread for each sandwich. Turn the slices over and spread a layer of fig jam on the other side of each slice.
On top of one slice, add a layer of sliced cheese, several slices of apple, and a layer of more cheese. Top the sandwich with the other slice of bread, buttered side up.
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Grilling in the panini press:
Place up to two paninis at a time in the preheated panini maker and close the lid. Grill until cheese is melted and bread is toasted, about 4 to 5 minutes.
If making a grilled cheese sandwich instead of a panini, place in a heated cast iron skillet, cook until browned on one side, use a metal spatula, gently flip the sandwich and toast the other side until the cheese has melted. You may need to lower the heat on the pan to give the cheese enough time to melt without burning the bread.
Recipe from The Ultimate Panini Press Cookbook by Kathy Strahs, Harvard Common Press 2013. Republished here with the author’s permission.
