Well, if I could dare to play around with PB&J, I may as well tackle the other "acronym sandwich" - the BLT! Bacon, lettuce and tomato is a pretty perfect combination as is, for sure. But for my continuing series, Panini Happy Classics, I thought maybe I could make it extra-perfect with a little panini-style variation. Want to skip ahead? Click here for the final recipe.

California BLT Mini-Panini - Attempt #1

• Bread: Sourdough, cut into circles
• Meat: Pancetta
• Cheese: Goat cheese
• Condiments: Mayonnaise
• "Goodies": Baby spinach, cilantro

THE INSPIRATION: I don't know why I've become so bacon-obsessed lately. When you look at the "Browse by Topic" section on these two blogs, "bacon panini" stands out with the most recipes. I think it's the result of having been raised on Sizzlean ("Move over, bacon!") and finally having the chance to appreciate the real thing. One thing I've noticed - if a recipe calls for pancetta, rather than bacon, it somehow sounds a little less Denny's (no offense!) and a little more refined. Call it the Giada effect - with proper Italian accent, of course :-) So in contemplating a variation on the good ol' BLT, I looked to pon-CHET-tah for some inspiration. I was kind of admiring its spiraly round shape and I thought of how cool it might look with a nice round slice of bright red tomato. Then I thought, "What if it were on some circular bread?" Instead of serving one large sandwich and cutting it in half, a serving would be two round "mini-panini". Before I knew it, I was dreaming up sandwich ingredients based on their shapes in addition to their flavor.

One additional source of inspiration: my home state of California. If you recall, a while back I set out to create a panini recipe inspired by San Diego. Well, that one didn't quite work out as planned (ended up as a Caribbean tribute!), but I promised to give it another try someday. Well, that day finally came last week when I decided to make a California-style BLT. California BLTs usually include avocado, so that was a given. Going along with the circular theme I thought about nice little rounds of goat cheese as well. And, of course, the San Francisco Bay Area native in me had to put this all on some good sourdough bread.

THE PREPARATION: To get my sourdough into nice little circles, I took one of my tumbler glasses and traced it with a paring knife. The edges came out a little jagged, but the general round shape was there. Since I was making a bunch of sandwiches for testing, I pretty much blew through an entire loaf of sourdough, punching out a hole in each slice! I felt a momentary wave of guilt over the prospect of such wastefulness until my mom, in town visiting from New York, suggested freezing the excess bread (of which there was a lot) to make croutons. Perfect! So that's exactly what I did. Mom is always right :-)

While I was punching out my sourdough circles, I had the panini grill heating up to 375 degrees. I've decided I want to use the grill for prep as much as possible for these panini (as opposed to the stove or oven) - it really is quite a versatile machine. Once it was heated, on went the pancetta. I must say, a grill is great for cooking bacon (those who have been cooking bacon on their Foreman grills can attest) - most of the grease slides on down the ridges and collects in the drip tray. Not only is it easier to clean up, it's got to be somewhat healthier - at least I choose to believe it does.

I'd never actually cooked pancetta on its own before (just diced it up in other recipes) so I was a little surprised to see how much those little spiraly circles shrink up. I guess I should have known, given how American-style bacon shrinks. Oh well, I could still keep them for my round theme - I'd just need two slices instead of one. The more the merrier!

THE CONSTRUCTION: I brushed a little olive oil on what would be the outer sides of my sourdough circles. Then on the inside I spread a thin layer of mayonnaise and topped it with two slices of pancetta, a thin slice of tomato, two slices of avocado, a slice of goat cheese and the top sourdough circle. Grilled for about 4 minutes until the bread was nice and toasty.

Then - here's a new trick - I turned the sandwich upside-down, removed the bottom bread, inserted some baby spinach and cilantro (my "L" in this "BLT") and closed the sandwich back up. I just saw this recommendation for how to keep greens from wilting when you're grillling on a Food Network special recently. Had to update my Panini 101 article with this new tip- there are now 8 Tips for Making Great Panini!

THE RESULTS: Mmmmm! Like I said before, bacon, lettuce and tomato is a pretty perfect combination. I was slightly concerned that using both goat cheese and avocado would make things too mushy, but it wasn't at all. The creamy-tanginess of the goat cheese melded well with the salty pancetta and bright tomato and cilantro flavors. The extra crunch of the olive oil-brushed sourdough also helped to make this a very satisfying sandwich. Mom and Dad (who have rather discerning palates!) really enjoyed it.

Since I had VIP taste testers in the house and I wanted to offer them more than one sandwich variation to try, I went ahead and did an Attempt #2. But I'd call Attempt #1 a success!

California BLT Mini-Panini - Attempt #2

Now, we liked the goat cheese and the pancetta on my first California BLT but I was curious to see if we might prefer going a slightly more traditional route, with swiss and American-style bacon. So for Attempt #2, I swapped out the goat cheese and pancetta and held everything else the same.

THE RESULTS: Great too! The swiss and American-style bacon definitely produced very different flavors. For starters, American-style bacon is smoked while pancetta is not, so there was now a smoky taste in the mix. Swiss cheese melts a bit better and had a larger "footprint" on the sandwich than the goat cheese did so Attempt #2 was a cheesier sandwich.

We really were torn as to which we preferred - both were really good, for different reasons. So for the final recipe I'm offering both variations.

Check out more from the Panini Happy Classics Series:

• A Little Breakfast Panini Party (Bagel & Lox)
• The Taste of Childhood (Peanut Butter & Jelly)
• This Panini is "In Da Club" (Club Sandwich)
• In Search of M. Croque (Croque-Monsieur)
  
  

• Bread: Sourdough
• Condiment: Avocado spread
• Meat: Sliced turkey, bacon
• Cheese: Swiss, cheddar
• "Goodies": Tomatoes, Mangoes

THE INSPIRATION: "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, for the Eat to the Beat! blog event.

THE PREPARATION: I thought an avocado spread – basically, a more spreadable guacamole – would not only provide great flavor but add color. To get the smooth consistency I wanted, I pulled my trusty mini-prep food processor out of the appliance wasteland that is my pantry. I pureed a basic guacamole recipe - 1 avocado, a teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt, 1-1/2 teaspoons of fresh lime juice, 2 tablespoons of cilantro – plus added 2 teaspoons of light sour cream for an even creamier texture. A little bland on the first try so I added another 1-1/2 teaspoons of lime juice and that punched things up a bit.

Next, I tackled the "center bread". As you know, a traditional club sandwich is "double-decker", with a bottom piece of bread, fillings, a center piece of bread, more fillings, and a top piece of bread. I wanted to keep this tradition with my panini-style club, but I had some concerns about how the center bread pieces might fare in the pressing. My solution: pre-press them on their own. I lightly pressed them on the panini grill at low heat for about 7 minutes.

THE CONSTRUCTION: I spread about 1-1/2 tablespoons of the avocado spread on the bottom slice of bread, layered on a few slices of quick serve fully-cooked bacon (this is so great to have on hand for making panini!), a few 1/4" slices of mango and a slice of swiss cheese. This comprised the "downstairs" of my sandwich. Next went on the pre-grilled center bread and I built the "upstairs": a thin layer of mayonnaise, turkey breast slices, tomato slices, cheddar and the top bread. This was getting a bit tall! Lastly, I sprayed the top with olive oil cooking spray and grilled on low heat for about 10 minutes. I went "low and slow" to ensure the cheese in the middle of this behemoth had a chance to melt without scorching the bread.

THE RESULTS: Good flavors, texture could use a little help. Despite my pre-grilling, the center bread still got a little mushier than I'd hoped. And then I remembered...I didn't spray any olive oil on it before grilling! An olive oil "barrier" was probably more likely to keep out the extra moisture so I made a note to try that in Attempt #2. Also, I think the juice from the tomatoes may have contributed to the mushiness. This comes straight out of my 7 Tips for Making Great Panini - I should have followed my own advice! One surprising result was the importance of how to arrange the layers to maximize the sandwich's visual appeal. When I cut it in half, the tomato and bacon layers weren't too visible due to how I'd positioned them. The beauty of this sandwich lies in the colorful layers, so that was something else I wanted to rectify. Oh well...on to Attempt #2!

Turkey Mango Double-Decker Club Panini - Attempt #2

I learned my lesson in Attempt #1 and sprayed both sides of my center breads with olive oil this time before grilling. While I was at it, I also sprayed the outside of my bottom bread - it's a little messy to spray the bottoms of these things, but it's worth the extra handwashing to have the nice, crostini-like bread. To make the bacon more visible on the sandwich, I cut each slice in half and made a little carpet of bacon, covering the entire bread. You couldn't miss it now! In place of the mayonnaise, I substituted a second layer of avocado spread - the mayonnaise wasn't adding much flavor and definitely didn't contribute to the colorful presentation. Lastly, I removed the seeds from the tomatoes and made sure they crossed the middle of the sandwich so they would be visible when the sandwich was cut in half.

THE RESULTS: Terrific! The middle bread held up much better this time around with the olive oil. The additional avocado spread added nice flavor and I could now see all the layers when I cut the sandwich in half. The mango is kind of a sweet little surprise in this sandwich - it tastes great with the bacon and is unexpected. All in all, I was proud of this adaptation of the traditional club.

Get the final recipe!

Check out more from the Panini Happy Classics series:

• An Ode (or Two!) to California (BLT)
• In Search of M. Croque (Croque-Monsieur)
• The Taste of Childhood (Peanut Butter & Jelly)

Don't tell your cardiologist!

Egg...cheese...bacon...biscuits...your arteries may not thank you, but your mouth sure will! In a continued effort to explore the different types of breads a panini grill can support, I decided to venture into refrigerated dough. Want to skip ahead? Click here for the final recipe.

Egg, Cheese & Bacon Biscuit Panini - Attempt #1

• Bread: Biscuits


• Condiment: None


• Cheese: Cheddar


• Meat: Omelet, Bacon


• "Goodies": None
  

THE INSPIRATION: Some of my fondest memories of growing up took place on our annual weeklong summer family vacations. They weren't extravagant by any means - mostly road trips, visits to amusement parks, renting a house by the lake and the like. One hallmark of these vacations was fast food breakfast - we never ate it at any other time of the year but during our vacations we had it almost every day! Now, with my oh-so-refined palette I know that these meals should have been nothing to write home (or blog) about. But now they've taken on a highly nostalgic meaning to me. My favorite: the Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit at McDonald's - a savory, gratifying concoction that just made you feel good. When contemplating options for a breakfast panini sandwich recipe, my mind turned immediately to this childhood fave.

THE PREPARATION: I know that panini sandwiches generally ought to require relatively little prep and that the easiest form in which to present the eggs would be to scramble them...but I was somewhat reluctant to have loose pieces of egg. So I decided to do an omelet instead. I whisked 6 eggs with 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of dried basil, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. When I looked at the mixture, I was a little concerned over the volume of basil - there was a whole lot of green floating in there! Oh well, it's an experiment.

I sprayed an 8" saute pan with cooking spray, poured in the eggs and cooked them over medium heat for 8 minutes. The bottom was well cooked, but the top was still pretty runny so I finished it off in the oven at 400 degrees for another 5 minutes. When it came out, I had a 1/2"-thick little basil frittata. I inverted it onto a cutting board and divided it into four pieces.

THE CONSTRUCTION: With the eggs prepared, it was time to build the sandwich; I turned on the panini grill to 350 degrees. I wanted to see whether it would be possible to simultaneously bake the biscuits and grill the sandwich on the panini grill. So I took an uncooked biscuit off of the roll of refrigerated dough and cut it in half lengthwise with a pair of scissors to create top and bottom halves and lay them on a piece of parchment paper. Starting from the bottom, I layered the bottom biscuit half, a piece of the omelet, ready-cooked bacon (one trip ripped into two halves), a slice of mild cheddar cheese and the top biscuit half.

THE RESULTS: I could tell this wasn't going to work before I even got the sandwich to the grill! The hot omelet had begun to melt the bottom biscuit half from the moment the two made contact - by the time I'd finished assembling the sandwich and lifted it up the bottom biscuit was a stretchy mess. Nevertheless, I went ahead and put it on the panini grill, in the 4th height position - may as well see it through! The cheddar melted after about a minute, but the biscuit was obviously not even close to done. The first Panini Happy failure :-)

Egg, Cheese & Bacon Biscuit Panini - Attempt #2

For Attempt #2, I decided to start with biscuits that were already baked. I also lowered the height to the 3rd position.

THE RESULTS: Terrific! The grilled biscuit got a nice crispy, toasted exterior while remaining soft inside. I had previously been concerned about how much basil was in the eggs, but I had no reason to worry - it gave great flavor while not being overpowering. The cheddar melted well and the bacon's salty-sweet flavor was a wonderful complement. If only the biscuit hadn't gotten so smashed - the bread had gotten bit thinner than I'd have liked, due to the pressing. So I decided to go for one more Attempt.

Egg, Cheese & Bacon Biscuit Panini - Attempt #3

Attempt #3 was nearly the same as Attempt #2, except I raised the height of the panini grill back to the 4th position.

THE RESULTS: Winner! With the higher grill height, the biscuit got crispy without getting too smashed down. Balance achieved!

Click here for the final recipe!