Many years back, I was a contributing writer to The Journal, a monthly newspaper serving King and Snohomish counties. One of my assignments was to write an article offering “alternatives to apple pie” for anyone facing an abundance of apples. As our trees yielded buckets and buckets of apples that year, it was a fun topic to explore and experiment with.
For that article, which I called “When Life Gives You Apples,” I included recipes for Black Forest Ham and Apple Paninis, Spiced Autumn Soup, and Apple and Cinnamon Bread Pudding. Of those, the one we made at home the most was Black Forest Ham and Apple Paninis.
When i wrote a blog post about that here, I didn’t include the recipes—just a link to the now defunct newspaper. So I’m rewriting the post now so I have the recipe at my fingertips come this fall.
I hope you’ll give it a try when you have your next bounty. 🙂
You don’t have to wait for fall to enjoy these. You just have to pretend. 🙂
- 4 thick slices bread
- 1 medium Granny Smith apple, sliced thinly
- butter
- pinch oregano
- pinch thyme
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 2-3 TBSP apricot jam
- 4-6 slices Black Forest ham
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In a medium pan, sauté the Granny Smith apple slices until just tender. Sprinkle the seasonings in the pan and stir to coat the apples.
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In a separate bowl, blend the cream cheese and apricot jam. Spread this on one side of each slice of bread.
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Layer ham, then sautéed apples on cream-cheese side of bread. Top with another slice, cream cheese down.
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Butter one side of sandwich and lay that side down in heated frying pan or panini maker. Grill for 2-3 minutes, then butter the top slice, flip, and grill until golden brown.
There are other recipes out there like this that use Gruyere or Brie cheese, but this is my take on it. I haven’t tried those, because we love the cream cheese w/apricot jam. But if you do try one of the other recipes, please come back and let me know!
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