Melted Chocolate Persimmon Panini!

My Melted-Chocolate Persimmon Panini made from creamy vegan dark chocolate spread and soft, sweet fuyu persimmons is an easy, savory-sweet treat! Serve with a side of spicy hot cider (or a party-style Hot Toddie) and let the holiday festivities begin! Try my melty-chocolate grilled panini recipe today! Your five minutes away from gooey chocolate bliss..

Melty Chocolate Fuyu Yumminess…

Easiest recipe ever? Yes!…

..festive persimmons are not only delicious, but also high in healthy fiber (more fiber than an apple!) – persimmon nutrition facts.

Make sure your Fuyu persimmon is ripe! Soft and squishy is perfect. A hard persimmon will taste like biting into a fuzzy sweater. Not a happy moment.

My warm, crisp panini needed a bevie to go with it. So hot spicy cider it was!…

Pure, Fresh, Hot Apple Cider. My deliciously-rustic apples from the Union Square Greenmarket inspired me to buy a quart of fresh apple cider (Migliorelli Farms) to make hot-spiced cider (sublime on a cold NYC day!)..

Side of Hot Cinnamon Cider…


Vegan Chocolate Spread. There are several options for the chocolate spread. My faves are:

* One Lucky Duck’s Raw-tella is off the charts amazing. But also quite expensive, at $19.50 a jar. Worth it for an occasional splurge. Buy it here.

* Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams spread will have a slightly peanut butter taste – but will still be delicious. Love this stuff. I used this to make my Chocolate-Covered Cherry Dessert Panini (and even won a recipe contest with that recipe!)

* Le Pain Quotidien’s Belgium Dark Chocolate Spread “Noir” is also animal-product free. It has a (*may contain dairy) note, but if you don’t have a dairy allergy you should be fine.

* Dark Chocolate Dream by Natural Nectar is awesome and certified vegan. Find it at specialty stores.

My vegan dessert panini recipe…

Melted Chocolate Persimmon Panini
vegan, serves 1-2

1/3 baguette (about 6″ slice), sandwich-sliced
2 Tbsp vegan dark chocolate spread (see above notes for options)
1 RIPE fuyu persimmon
dash of coarse sea salt
dash of cinnamon

Directions:

1) Warm up your panini press or get a grill pan ready.

2) Slice your bread.

3) Spread your chocolate on the inner side of both slices of bread.

4) Slice your ripe panini into thin rounds. Lay over top bread.

5) Sprinkle a dash of salt and cinnamon over chocolate. Put sandwich faces together.

6) Grill for 2 minutes or until grill marks appear and bread becomes lightly toasted.

Slice. Serve!