I pitted a microwave toastie and an air fryer cheese toastie against a Crimpit, toastie bags that slot into your toaster, a stovetop toastie maker you can also use for camping, a traditional toastie maker and a non-stick frying pan to see which turned out the best cheese toastie.
My verdict? Most gadgets will make you a decent toastie. The difference is in the level of faff and, let's face it, that's important after Christmas when you're exhausted from all the celebrations and just want to take it easy.
Find out which I'll be choosing for my cheese toastie betwixtmas when I'm snuggling down on the sofa for my yearly fix of Elf, plus a few additional tips I've picked up along the way to lift your toasties to the next level.
Eat well, live better and stay healthy.Toastie maker
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In the 1970s, Breville released the Snack and Sandwich toastie and it transformed my Saturday lunches.
Mum worked on Saturdays. Dad's culinary repertoire didn't go much further than omelettes, so when I got the hang of this new machine Mum brought home, there was no stopping me come lunchtime once Saturday Superstore was done (Google it young people!).
Everything got Brevilled. My favourite remained the jeopardy involved in cracking an egg onto your piece of bread already starting to sizzle in the Breville and speedily but carefully getting the top slice on and hooking the lid down before any of the egg white started to seep out.
'A toastie with the sides sealed remains a thing of glee'
A toastie with the sides sealed remains a thing of glee for me (and many of my colleagues, who highlighted a crisp edge as a toastie must-have when I did a straw poll of the tastiest unusual combos - see further down the page).
Could a 2020s version of my childhood fave reignite those happy memories?
The Tower sandwich toaster I tested advised that the normal cooking time would be three to six minutes. I checked after three minutes and again after five and decided to leave it for the full six minutes to get more of a crunch.
Then, there it was, just as I remembered. The scalloped grill lines, the wedged shut edges, the satisfying crack as I split my cheese toastie in two.
Those wedged-shut edges though, in my opinion, make this sort of toastie maker better for a bulky toasted sandwich that you don't want to leak, such as my fried egg from back in the eighties, or baked beans and cheese or a mass of combinations.
I reckon though, I found better options for the simple best cheese toastie.
Air fryer toastie
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I'm one of those people who are evangelical about their air fryer. Mine is a multicooker that air fries as one of its functions and I can't remember how I functioned without it.
It was just over a year ago when I bought a reconditioned Ninja Multicooker when the world was trying to cut the cost of cooking.
The Ninja Foodi Max 15-in-1 multi cooker OL750UK also slow cooks, pressure cooks, proves and bakes bread, dehydrates (it's wonderful for making dried liver dog treats), makes yoghurt, grills and more.
Yes, it's a big ugly beast on my worktop. However, it meant I could get rid of my on-its-last-legs toaster and pack away my slow cooker to bring out for Christmas only when it's useful to have an extra for mulled wine on the go.
I make yoghurt for us every week in my multi cooker. Having a pressure cooker again has transformed cooking fresh beans and pulses - chickpeas take just three minutes after an overnight soak. No more pans bubbling for hours and windows streaming with condensation come winter.
I've made so much in my multi cooker in the last fifteen or so months since I bought it. However, I'd never attempted a toastie.
'Results didn't disappoint'
The results didn't disappoint.
Of all the toasties I'd made so far, this one had somehow managed to get the butter from the outside of the bread to permeate into the bread while still crisping it on the outside.
It was delicious, if slightly more brittle than my other favourite - the cheese toastie in the stovetop toastie maker.
Stovetop toastie maker
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This is the wildcard in our line-up of toastie-making gadgets. It's advertised for use outdoors but reviews I'd read included people getting excited about using one at home. Full disclaimer - I have a gas hob so it was fine for me to use it.
So glad I did. You need to keep an eye on it as there are no instructions about how long a cheese toastie should take (it depends on the size of your flame). It also takes longer than others as you're only cooking your cheese toastie on one side at a time.
'Reminiscent of Girl Guides'
The flip-it-over design made it dead easy though and felt quite fun (kind of reminiscent of Girl Guides camping toasting marshmallows on a campfire).
You'd struggle using it to cook two toasties together on a standard hob though as the gas rings are too far apart.
As it was close to lunchtime when I tested this, I also used it to cook a fried egg (see pic below).
It turned out perfectly with a nicely cooked top but soft inside. All without the jeopardy involved in flipping and potentially breaking your yolk when cooking with a frying pan.
Microwave toastie maker
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I'd never tried a microwave toastie maker, so this one piqued my interest. Before I read the instructions I figured it would be something to do with using my microwave's grill.
However, that's not the case. You use the microwave setting, preheat the microwave toastie maker for no less than 30 seconds, and then build your sandwich on it.
Watch out when you lift it out of the microwave after preheating as the plates are hot. However, the silicone sides are no problem to manage with oven gloves.
'From the toastie-with-grill-lines-but-open-sides school'
No jammed-together edges with this cheese toaster maker. It's from the toastie-with-grill-lines-but-open-sides school.
The instructions advised that a cheese and ham toastie should take three minutes on 900w power, after pre-heating the 'grill' for two minutes, so that's what I did.
Sadly, there wasn't anywhere near as much crunch to the bread as with the Tower toastie maker.
The grill lines were fainter but you could make them out.
I expected more mess in the microwave though. However, I was pleasantly surprised as just one small cheese drip remained to wipe up.
Frying pan
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Most people who cook have a frying pan and after making a toastie in one I reckon you won't go far wrong if you don't want to pay out for an extra toastie maker gadget.
It's true you need to keep flipping it to check if it's done and you don't get quite the crunch you'll find from a cheese toastie made in an air fryer or dedicated toastie maker.
'Use a decent-sized flame to ensure an even crunch'
However, if you're short on storage and/or cash you'd be hard-pressed to pick a frying pan toastie out as a poor relation in a toastie line-up.
Make sure you heat your frying pan in advance for a good crisp and use a decent-sized flame to ensure an even crunch.
Toastie bags in a toaster
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These reusable toastie bags turn your toaster into a toastie maker without the faff of having to clear up escapee bits of melted cheese.
Not all bread will fit - the sliced white I was using was a bit of a squeeze.
I'd also buttered the outside of both slices of bread (as I did for all the toasties) and this made getting my toasty into its bag a little messy.
Once in, it popped neatly into the toaster (make sure yours has a wide-enough slot to fit two slices).
You do need to keep checking it's done unless you're really familiar with your toaster's settings.
The toastie bags made a decent toastie, as with most of the gadgets I tried.
'Also did an excellent job of reheating pizza'
Other reviews I read (as the toastie bags I bought didn't come with any instructions) also included recommendations to use them for reheating pizza or making small portions of oven chips.
I can testify that they did an excellent job of reheating pizza. However this is something I'd normally do in my air fryer, so I wouldn't need the bags for this.
If you have a wide-slot toaster, want to make toasties in it and don't care about clearing up the mess, it's worth seeing if your toaster brand works with one of the many sandwich cages on sale.
Crimpit
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I'd not heard of the Crimpit until I started doing this testing. It seems I'm one of the few people who haven't. Many, many people are evangelical about this little gadget.
For anyone like me who is new to the Crimpit, it looks like a tiny lunchbox. To use it, you open it up, and insert a slice of sandwich thin (tiny bread slices you find in your supermarket bakery aisle).
You add your topping (making sure there is space left around the edges of the bread), top with a second sandwich thin, pop the lid back on and push it down firmly. This pushing should give you your crimp around the edges.
Finally, you open the Crimpit and tip your packaged-up sarnie out.
I'd seen some users complaining about their Crimpit being difficult to remove from the box, but that wasn't the case with the ones I made - they popped out quickly and cleanly.
'Perfectly edible little sandwich, but didn't wow'
Once you have your Crimpit sandwich you can pop it into a toaster, air fry, oven bake, grill or dry fry it. I went with the air fry option.
It provided a perfectly edible little sandwich but it didn't wow me.
I can see why those wanting smaller portions rave about the Crimpit and why the cut-sized sandwiches would appeal to children.
However I eat singed bread and cheese rarely, as a treat, so when I do I want it to feel like a treat and the Crimpit just didn't give me that feeling.
What makes the best cheese toastie?
My favourites were the air fryer in my multi cooker for ease, speed and taste combined and the stovetop toastie maker for an unusual experience.
However, like I said, pretty much everything tested made a decent cheese toastie.
Best toastie fillings
I also reached out to my colleagues and our social supporters for their best unusual toastie fillings for anyone who might fancy trying something a little different this Christmas.
These are the ones that caught my eye from their recommendations:
How I tested to find the best cheese toastie
To discover what it takes to make the best cheese toastie, I shortlisted all the most popular gadgets used to make toasties, bought them (except the products I already owned which I've mentioned above) and put everything to the test.
My credentials to bring you this test? As the senior editor at Which? responsible for testing the latest and trending gadgets it's my job to ensure we're bringing you the definitive verdict on the the products that you want to read about at the right time.
I'm also a journalist and editor with more than 20 years experience in homes, food and health, including almost 10 years as an editor at Which?
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/what-makes-the-ultimate-cheese-toastie-aRrOv6y0OBKz