Before adding any other ingredients, the secret to a crispy golden brown toastie is how you prepare your bread. Of course, a toastie maker isn't essential for making a toastie, it just makes the process more convenient. As you might expect, the extra butter gave the toasties a darker colour and added a richer flavour, thanks to the added fat. Note: There’s no need to flip your sandwich over if you’re using a toastie maker. Each plate is hot, meaning that the sandwich gets heated from both sides equally.

Push down the lid and let your toastie maker get to work. The average toastie takes 3-5 minutes, but this is usually to ensure the cheese has fully melted. If you’re using a vegan recipe, 3 minutes should be enough.

Side guide

We timed how long it took each toastie maker to switch on the 'ready to cook' light multiple times, to work out the average time you'll be waiting for it to heat up. Among the toastie makers we tested, some advised buttering both sides of the bread, while others did not. To make our tests fair, we chose not to butter both sides of the toasties we judged, but we did make a few extras with both sides buttered to see what different this made:

It also helps if the toaster maker is easy to clean and use, making the whole process fuss-free and convenient. Which are the best toastie maker brands? While there isn’t a single best toastie maker brand, Breville is probably most well-known, which is why we've featured several of its models on our list.Touch the handles but nowhere else - wear heatproof gloves if you can. The sides and tops of the toastie makers we tested were too hot to touch anywhere except the handles. Watch out for little nooks and crannies near the cooking plates - there's likely to be leakage at some point, and if there are gaps in your toastie maker you'll have a tough time scraping out the drips. Detachable plates aren't always as convenient as they first seem - they often have small gaps where they attach, which your fillings can leak into and make the toastie maker difficult to clean. Heat-up times vary widely - some of those we tested heated up in less than 90 seconds, whereas other took more than five. IMPORTANT NOTICE: In an instance where we have sent the wrong product by mistake or it has arrived damaged, please let us know within 24 hours of receipt by calling us on 01455 220 044. In these cases, we will arrange for the courier to collect the goods.

Once you’ve placed your top slice of bread onto your filling to form a seal, you can pop your sandwich into the toastie maker. Be sure that you’ve got both your buttered sides facing outwards! Don't use a knife to remove your toasties - all the toastie makers we tested were easily damaged when we used a butter knife. A wooden or plastic spatula is best for keeping your toastie maker scratch-free. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com. Ultimately, this comes down to personal preference, but we don't think buttering both sides of the toastie is certain to make it cook better or be more enjoyable to eat.Toastie makers can get very hot, so it’s important to be careful when you’re cooking with one – ideally, the exterior should be around 40C or cooler. A good toastie maker will have non-slip feet to keep it stable and indicator lights to let you know when it's ready to cook. It should also seal the sandwich to stop any fillings leaking, or things may get messy! Multipurpose plates We cooked each toastie following the instructions and judged them on how evenly browned and crispy they were. Some toastie makers come with a range of plates that can be easily swapped in and out. This can transform your machine into a waffle maker or grill, saving you both money and kitchen cupboard space. Cleaning Once you’ve turned your toastie maker on and it starts to heat up, you’re nearly ready to go. Simply look out for the indicator light that comes on when your toastie maker is hot enough to use.

Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. We then prepared more than 90 identical cheese toasties and cheese and ham toasties, using the same amounts of cheese, bread, ham and butter each time. We happily consumed and shared out as many of them as we could. Ease of use and heat-up speed The main thing to consider is the features you’d like your toastie maker to have. Here are the ones we recommend you take into account before you add to basket: Safety featuresIt is, however, possible to cook a toastie using a frying pan. You need to ensure the pan is hot before putting in the toastie, and gently press down during cooking to help it brown and cook the filling. Roughly 2-3 minutes of cooking on each side should be enough for you to make a tasty pan-fried toastie. There are a few things that we need to make sure of before you return an item to us. Please ensure the item meets the following criteria: We assess the consistency of the sandwiches’ colour and note the evenness of toasting. Finally, we test how easy each appliance is to clean, because no one wants to spend hours scrubbing away melted cheese. For those of you who love fish, a tuna melt is a wonderful filling lunchtime option. We tend to use ¾ of a can of tuna for this recipe, but if you’re sharing a can between you and a friend, you could go for half and top up with extra cheese. Not exactly a hardship…