Panini'ing Leftovers: Chocolate Filled Churros

As you may know, I utilize my waffle iron for reheating nearly everything.   It is my most common way to prepare food.  You can read all about my adventures waffling all sorts of items in my master post.

My waffle iron is a Cuisinart Griddler (highly recommended!), which is actually a grill and panini press, that has additional, removable, waffle plates. I always leave the waffle plates in it, and thus call it "my waffle iron". I basically forget about the other 5 functions it has.

But sometimes I am lazy, and fail to clean my waffle plates in a timely manner, or they are in the dishwasher (did I mention, best kitchen appliance ever, they go in the dishwasher!), so, I need to resort to using the panini plates instead.

Which is what happened in this case, when I had a leftover batch of churros to heat up.  For this adventure, I suspected panini plates would be just fine.  I knew that  donuts worked well like this, so, why not a churro?

Leftover Cocoa Cream Churro Transformation.

This one was an easy success, which I expected.

Simple re-heating, no mess, perfect result.

The Original: Mini Cocoa Cream Churros.

"Mini churros filled with chocolate imported from Spain. Pre-fried."
The original was a churro, mini size, stuffed with a chocolate filling, from a vendor called White Toque.  They are a frozen product, for food services, and baked off by the purchaser.

I had them at an event.  They were ... fine.  Not really as crispy as I wanted, no "fresh fried" feeling to them.

Leftover Cocoa Cream Churro.

I wasn't really into my cup of churros at the event, so I saved them, thinking mostly that the method of serving was the issue.

I heated one up in the toaster oven later, and it was *considerably* better that way, hot, melty chocolate inside, crispy exterior.  I dunked it in whipped cream.

But, I knew I could do better.

Leftover Cocoa Cream Churro: in the panini press.

I planned to waffle it, but alas, my waffle plates were dirty, and I was lazy.

So, panini plates would need to do.

325* grills, and in it went.

Cocoa Cream Churro: Getting Crispy!

I checked after a few minutes, and I could tell my plan would be an easy success.  The exterior was getting nicely crispy, and I could see the chocolate filling getting molten.

After a few more minutes, it was time to extract ... and, turn into a creation of course.

The reheating process was one of the easiest I've ever done, and, no cleanup at all, just a quite whip down of the plates.

Panini Pressed Cocoa Cream Churro a la mode, plus whipped cream, toffee bits, sprinkles.

As I expected, it worked great.

The exterior was crispy.  The chocolate inside was hot and melty.  Definitely better than the original, and, I thought slightly better than simple oven reheating too, as I liked the even crispier nature of it.  And of course, the toppings were perfect.