Monday 8 October 2012

Go Go Gadget Toastie Maker!

Today is the first ever Go Go Gadget Monday! The idea of Go Go Gadget Monday is to pull my underused gadgets out from the back of my overflowing cupboards and give 'em some love. The other reason is to make sure I really really need these gadgets, we have a pretty tiny kitchen with a super low ceiling which meals we have almost no storage space...our fridge actually lives in the porch leading to the garden because there's no room for it in the kitchen! I've been lusting after both a juicer and an ice cream machine for a while now and unless I get rid of something (or move!) then I probably can't squeeze them in.

The first gadget that literally fell out of my cupboard today is the toastie maker. In my no cooking days the toastie maker my old flatmate & I shared was my most used kitchen appliance. Now it's something I've used maybe twice since Nick & I received it as a wedding gift almost three years ago


I don't know if toastie makers are a thing in other countries? I know that I was super surprised to discover that kettles aren't the norm in American kitchens and that they have amazing things called toaster ovens. Because of these crazy cultural differences I'll be doing a step by step of the toastie making process!

Now a toastie, unlike, for example, a panini, are kinda dirty by nature. They're meant to be made with cheap sliced bread and simple ingredients. A cheese toastie is the classic thing to make in one of these contraptions and if you're feeling fancy you could add ham or pickle. Perhaps, if you wanna go really upmarket, you could add sliced tomato or onion. Nothing else. There is no room for your fancy sourdough, sauerkraut or tempeh here!


I chose Daiya as my cheese, Yves bologna as my ham and the softest white bread I could find in the supermarket. Butter, or in this case, margarine, is one of the most important parts of the toastie experience.

To put together your toastie you place the first piece of bread 'butter' side down on the toastie maker, cover it with cheese...


...add the ham...


...and then place the other piece of bread 'butter' side up and close the toastie maker.


Wait for around 5 minutes until the machine makes a beeping sound and voila, your toastie is ready!


I love how this kind of sandwich differs from the kind you would make in a cast iron pan, under the grill or in your panini press. It's neither better nor worse, just different. The toastie maker seals the edges of the bread creating a delicious pocket of melty cheesy greatness. The edges are crispy and delicious and the inside is hot hot hot! I (almost) always nibble off the edges and take a small bite out of the puffy centre before diving right in.


That's what I did today anyway. If you, for example, get drunk, make a toastie, and take a huge bite out of it you will burn your tongue and it will hurt. Perhaps because you aren't entirely sober you might decide that licking an ice tray will cure your burnt tongue. It won't, it will make everything worse and people will laugh at you when you regale them with this tale of your unbelievable stupidity!

That story isn't enough for me to contemplate giving up this gadget though, oh no! I may not use the toastie maker much, and I doubt that that will change, but on those evenings when you just cannot be bothered the toastie maker is the perfect gadget to help you whip up something hot & tasty.

38 comments:

  1. I've never heard of a toastie maker before. It looks like a good gadget to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. great idea on the underused gadgets! i have a silly cake pop maker. these toasties were called sandwich makers and they were big in the early to mid 90s :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My college friend had one in their dorm room! My roommate and I chose a toaster oven as our main appliance for our dorm room.

      Delete
  3. We have those but I don't think they go by one common name. A sandwich press maybe? I used to have one but I got rid of it long ago!

    I have an electric kettle too though (who boils water on the stovetop?!) so maybe I'm not representative.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oooooh man I want a toastie now! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. My grandparents had one of those, we just called it the sandwich maker, grilled cheese maker, or the grilled cheese sandwich maker. Both of them immigrated here to Canada from Scotland.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't have my Breville toastie anymore :( I moved from a 3 bed house with a massive kitchen to a little flat with a tiny kitchen and it had to go. I make toasties in those sandwich bags in the toaster but it's not the same, no sealed edges!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'll take a toastie, please! I bet they do get incredibly tongue-melting hot! Can't blame you for "opening a little window" in the center before digging in. I would probably burn my mouth every single time - just like I do when I eat a hot cheesy pizza. Impatient, me? Nope.

    ReplyDelete
  8. We had one of those things in the 80s early 90s! I so want one again now!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. lol, when I was kid they had infomercials for those all the time but I've never eaten anything made from one. I can see the drunken tongue burning thing being a real problem.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have a 3-in-1 waffle iron, toasty maker, and grill, but I use the waffle part almost exclusively. I need to get some cheap bread and make use of my toasty maker!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beans! The toastie filling of choice has got to be beans, superheated to the temperature of the sun! (I have previously tried putting chocolate in a toasted sarnie. Bit of a fail.)

    ReplyDelete
  12. They are definitely popular in Australia! I miss having a toastie, I've been talking about replacing my old one but not sure how much use it would get in relation to other appliances! I don't miss the burnt tongues though, I reckon I had a 100% burn rate success with my tongue regardless of being tipsy or sober.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Haha, I love this post! I too have a toastie maker that was used daily before I learned to cook, and which now probably hasn't been used in two years. Boyfriend had it when we moved in together, it's secondhand and I think it's older than I am (no high tech beeping for me). But for some reason I can't get rid of it! I love the cheese from Vegan Diner for toasties, I might need to make some soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG I love that Vegan Diner cheese too, the first time I made it I just kept going back and forwards between the cheese, the cast iron pan, and the sofa making toasted sandwiches and eating them until it was all gone!

      Delete
  14. In Australia, we call these jaffles (and jaffle makers), and I've only ever known them to be filled with baked beans. I'm seriously looking forward to your Mondays; my Mum has always been crazy anti-appliance so there will be much newness here for me!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm American and I have one of these (old - it's from my youth), but growing up it was something only we had (none of my friends had one) and it was some sort of strange as-seen-on-tv type deal that my mom fell for. Anyway, we loved it - we'd come home from school and make a cheese pocket sandwich or one more like a cherry pie, made with white bread and canned cherry pie filling. So gross, but it's making me want to find this thing in my cabinet and start toasting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Holy shit! A dessert toastie with canned cherry pie filling doesn't sound gross to me. It sounds like complete and utter genius! I can see me using my toastie maker even more in the future with ideas like this floating around!!

      Delete
    2. Yeah, it's seriously good. But watch the burning sugary filling - that's a really good way to do the burned lip thing.

      Delete
  16. I had an appliance like that in college! It brings back fond memories of cheesy sammies!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I see toasties at the thrift store all the time! I've never had one myself but an old roomie of mine from Rhajastan used to make them with nothing but lemon pickle.

    xo
    kittee

    ReplyDelete
  18. Omigosh I haven't had a toastie in so long! My mum used to feed them to us for a quick weekend lunch. I used to love to fill mine with left over satay chicken and rice when there was some! Maybe I need to veganise this and get myself a toastie maker... not sure if you can get them in Switzerland though!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I had completely forgotten about my poor old toastie maker! Now I've discovered vegan cheese (and making my own..) I should pull it out. Love the idea of a dessert/indulgent breakfast toastie too with choco hazelnut spread and bannana or chocolate and dandies!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. almost every houshold in The Netherlands has these, we call 'em tosties - also famous lunch food in cafes mostly with chees & ham, or tomato

    ReplyDelete
  21. Toasted sammiges are big in Aus too! We even used to be able to order them from the school canteen. It has been years since I've had one but I still have my machine, you never know when a toasted sandwich craving will hit!

    Also, have you seen Spaced? I can't think of toasties without thinking of that convo - "chuck your boyfriend, have a sandwich!"

    ReplyDelete
  22. We had one of those when I was a kid and used to make cherry pie filled ones too!
    Fun fact: the softest, whitest bread you can buy here in Austria is called "American Style" and the packaging has American flags all over it. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I loved my brevilled toasty maker. I think it bit the dust when I moved though! :(

    Cheese & peanut butter was always my favourite combo.

    ReplyDelete
  24. haha!
    I've done that drunk thing many a time!
    I love cheese and onion on a toastie!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I don't know if it was called a toastie maker, but I got the same thing as a wedding present. I wasn't really sure what it was, so gave it away. Now I want my toastie maker back!
    Ha, ha and I have also learned that bubbly hot cheese and your tongue do not make a good combo, hope the numbness is gone and you can taste things again!

    ReplyDelete
  26. mmmmm, toastie!!! I love the name, I love the look, and i love the gadget! Toastie hot sandwiches are truly one of god's gifts to mankind. I could probably eat 4 toasties in one go right now. Mmmm. They look fantastic! (also I love the idea in the comments before about using that Vegan Diner cheeze. I love that stuff so much).

    ReplyDelete
  27. Dude. Make a little pizza toastie! I have one of these too (the Cuisinart Sandwich Maker) and we throw marina, cheese, seaonsings and maybe some vegan pepperoni in there and it's kind of magical. You know, cheap lazy magic, but still magic.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This definitely brings back memories. These went through quite a fad in the 80s here in the US. I had many a pizza toasties (although I don't think we called them toasties) and grilled cheese sandwiches from ours. And yes, there is certainly a technique to eating them in order to avoid the burn of some molten cheese.

    ReplyDelete
  29. oooh i love toasties....my ultimate comfort food :-)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Haha, I used to have one of those sandwich makers when I was a kid. Spaghetti sandwiches!!!

    ReplyDelete
  31. As mentioned, we call them jaffles here. I used to have the cutest jaffle maker that was a little cow, but it broke. I need a new jaffle maker, I love them!

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me!