Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker

Food, Gadget, review

The Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker

(via Nicks review)

First things first.

The Hamilton Beach 25475 Breakfast Sandwich Maker cooks one sandwich at a time — most people will find this silly to mention.

It takes 5 minutes to cook — this is stated on the product marketing material, and being electric, it takes additional time to warm up like-every-other-electric-heated-appliance. That warm up time is less than 5 minutes, after which you can make sandwiches back to back at 5 minute cooking intervals. Cleaning between sandwiches is a snap, I usually just use a napkin.

It only accepts sandwiches that fit in it — really? Yes, this is mentioned in negative reviews as well. Believe it or not, if you want to make a sandwich in this appliance, you will have to find bread that fits in the thing, say, like, english muffins or mini-bagels. Oh the trauma!

Now some caveats… you’ll need precooked meat to go in the maker. It will not fry bacon. If you looked at the picture and thought that it could fry bacon in the position it’s in, in the same amount of time it took to do an egg on top, you might need to reassess your culinary expertise. My work-around for this… precooked bacon that I place in the machine by itself during warm up, the meat is crispy by the time the maker is ready to go. No time wasted. Also, it will not make the inside of the bread crispy, since this is not touching any heated surface… see bacon remark above. I have not found this to my disliking, and rather like how it melds the sandwich altogether into one eggy, cheesey form. Others that want each item perfectly segregated might have to look elsewhere.

I did find that if you are finicky like me and prefer the traditional breakfast sandwich arrangement… bread-cheese-meat-egg-bread, that you will have to cook your sandwich upside-down, in other words, in the bottom compartment place the top bread, then cheese, then meat; close the tray, and in the top compartment crack the egg and place the bottom bread. When finished, slide open the egg divider thingy, open the machine, and turn the sandwich right side up, and voila.

As mentioned, cleaning is easy. The middle part completely comes off, it just unhinges and can be washed separately. If cooking sandwiches back to back, I don’t find this entirely necessary, I just quickly wipe all the surfaces with a napkin and get going. (my pre-cooked bacon routine above has the added benefit of making it even easier to clean) However, the non-stick surface alone does its job terrifically, with or without bacon grease.

Overall I love the maker. I have a delicious breakfast sandwich in about 9 minutes from turn-on to finish, and have only one small item to clean afterwards.

Click here for Amazon Reviews

From Amazon:

• Ready in 5 minutes, cook delicious breakfast sandwiches in the comfort of your own home
• Use your own fresh ingredients, including eggs, cheese and much more
• Make sandwiches with English muffins, biscuits, small bagels, and more
• All removable parts are dishwasher safe; surfaces are covered with durable, nonstick coating
• Quick and easy recipes included