Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Banana Panini -- Tyler Florence Fridays

This week for Tyler Florence Fridays I went with an easy recipe I knew would be a hit. How could you go wrong with Tyler's Grilled Peanut Butter, Jelly and Banana Sandwich? We had some extra homemade bread left and when that happens around here it's time to take out the panini press. Tyler has some delicious panini recipes out there, but this one was so simple, and so kid friendly, I knew we would love it.



8 slices good quality white bread
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1/2 cup grape jelly
2 ripe bananas, sliced

Butter the bread slices on 1 side with butter and place them butter side down. Spread 4 slices with peanut butter and top with the banana slices.

Spread the remaining slices with jelly and put them, jelly side down, on top of the bananas. Press them gently to flatten them slightly.


Place each sandwich on a preheated panini press and grill until the bread is toasted, about 5 minutes. Alternately, preheat a dry cast iron or non stick pan. Place the sandwich in the pan and weight it down with another pan or a clean brick wrapped in foil. Grill 5 minutes, turn the sandwich over, re-weight it, and grill for another 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

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I used extra chunky peanut butter and went light on the jelly. I have always been one to prefer more peanut butter and less jelly on a PB & J -- and that works well when making them on the panini press because too much jelly could leak through the bread and make a sticky mess. My bread was sturdy and held up no problem but I could see that happening if you used a softer bread. The peanut butter, jelly, and banana filling all meshed together and the bread stayed nice and crispy and crunchy, yum!