The Ultimate Grilled Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich

As you may or may not know depending on how long you have followed me, I am a brand ambassador for a local Chicago, 92 year old, family business called Chateau Dumplings.  I work closely with them to develop recipes using their products, photographing them and managing their social media and marketing events. The partnership was a natural one, as I grew up eating these delicious Czech inspired dumplings most of my life. Traditionally, the bread dumplings were served steamed with a Czech recipe for roast pork. You also served gravy and  red cabbage or sauerkraut with this dish. If you want a recipe for this Roast Pork, you can find it by CLICKING HERE. I absolutely love this traditional recipe but as I came to work for Chateau and had unlimited access to the dumplings I began to find other ways to use them. I was shocked at how versatile these dumplings are.  Mister Tipsy and I rarely buy bread. We don’t eat a lot of bread so when we would buy a loaf we would use a few slices and the rest would go to waste. Let’s face it, bread just doesn’t freeze well. These Czech dumplings are kept frozen and it’s proven to be very convenient to remove a few slices and use them in place of traditional bread.  The owner of the dumpling company used them for making a PB & J snack one night and found it to be so delicious he called me at 10pm to tell me about it. I was not a believer until I tried it for myself. All I can say is wow! Yesterday I decided to put my own spin on this PB & J magic and I tried grilling them. I can assure this is the ultimate grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mister Tipsy ate four of them!

Depending on your food experience you may not be familiar with Czech Bread Dumplings. If you aren’t familiar, they are a traditional Czech/Bohemian delicacy that are served with roasted meats and gravy. They were basically invented to soak up all the delicious meaty bits and gravy from a roast so that nothing went to waste and people could eat the dumplings soaked in the delicious gravy. What makes them different from regular bread is that they are more dense, slightly chewy and they do not get soggy. To me they taste like sourdough that isn’t as sour, and not as crusty and difficult to chew. The dumplings do not have a crust on them, for a lot of people this is very appealing. The Chateau Bread Dumplings come frozen in a box, in loaf form and typically have 9 or 10 slices to each box. The typical way of cooking them is by steaming them, but they are also good toasted, fried in a pan or baked in the oven for use in other recipes. This ultimate grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich is just one delicious way to eat them. The recipe is simple and requires very little ingredients. If you do not have a grill, the sandwiches can be made on the stove, in a skillet or in a toaster oven.

Ingredients

• 1 Box of Thawed Chateau Bread Dumplings
• 1/2 C of your favorite Peanut Butter
• 1/2 C of your favorite Jelly

*I used Jif Creamy Peanut Butter and Smucker’s Raspberry Jelly

• 3 T of Butter, softened
• 4T of Water

Steps

1. Thaw your box of bread dumplings. This can be done by leaving them out on your counter for up to 8 hours.
2. Open the package and add 4T to the plastic bag the dumplings are in. Twist the top closed.
3. Steam in your microwave for 3 minutes. Remove the bag carefully from the microwave. *If you do not want to use a microwave, you can steam the dumplings on the stove, there are directions on the package.
4. Carefully remove the dumplings and separate them. The dumplings will be very hot, so use caution. You can let them cool completely before doing this step.
5. Depending on the weight of the package you may have 9 or 10 dumplings. I had ten so I was able to make 5 sandwiches.
6. Spread the dumplings out on a cutting board and carefully spread peanut butter on 5 of them and jelly on the other 5. Press them together as you normally would a sandwich. These can be eaten as is, but I wanted to grill them. *you can also make these ahead of time for lunches for the week for an easy grab and go item.
7. Spread both sides of the sandwiches with the softened butter.
8. Heat your grill up to about 400 degrees.
9. Place the sandwiches on the grill, let them toast for about 3 to 5 minutes, flip and let them toast on the other side for the same about of time.
10. Remove from the grill. You will have a perfectly toasted sandwich with melted peanut butter and delicious jelly.
11. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

*if you do not have a grill these can be toasted in a skillet the same way you would make a grilled cheese.

The dumplings are available in the frozen food section of a lot of grocery stores. Here in Chicago they are at Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s, Tony’s Fresh Market and many more stores. You can find a location near you by CLICKING HERE. If you do not have a store near you, you can download this product request form, fill it out, and bring it to your local grocery so that they can order them in for you. Download the form HERE.

The best thing about this product is that they are a family owned, fourth generation business. I just love supporting small businesses. I hope you try this recipe and love it as much as we do.

For other dumpling recipes visit ChateauFoods.com

Until Next time, Happy Eating!