When I first saw this I was skeptical that it would work without making a mess to clean up afterward. I've bought many of these little gadgets in the past and usually the clean up is never as easy as it is shown on TV or the product doesn't quite come out the same. This one works great!!
I was eager to check it out when I first received it from UPS. I didn't have any english muffins and just had some thin lite bread in the fridge so just used that. Seasoned it first (and I highly recommend doing this every time you use it) with some vegetable oil after I washed it like recommended. I heated it up, squeezed the first piece of bread in so it fit in and didn't leave any gapes, added my cheese and bacon, then an extra large egg (it's what I had) and then gently shaped the top piece of bread to fit too without squeezing out the egg. Came out great! Then my daughter came over and I remembered I had some frozen pancakes in the freezer and offered to make her a sandwich and she loved it. My "McGriddle" is made with two small blueberry pancakes (store bought that come in a big bag). I put the first one in, put a small bit of maple syrup to coat it, add some cheese and the sausage or bacon (have done both), then the egg and the top pancake that I also put a thin layer of maple syrup as well. Those come out tasting so good!
I've made them with English muffins, bread and pancakes. I believe because I season it with the vegetable oil each time after I've cleaned it and it's dried that when I go to use it nothing sticks at all. I don't have the white residue from the egg that one of videos showed except once and that was when I made another sandwich right after the first one. It wasn't a big deal, still cleaned up easily.
I also tried to make a Reuben style sandwich as well. I used Weight Watcher's rye bread that I put in and squeezed into the bottom to fit, a little mustard, Swiss cheese, pastrami and sauerkraut and the top piece of bread also molded to fit. I had the "egg" tray slid out when I tried this and the top bread didn't brown because it wasn't up high enough but it was warm and crispy. I may try to arrange the ingredients a bit differently next time and leave the "egg tray" in this time and put the meat on top of that so it gets a bit hotter because it was just warm before and the bread should toast nicely. Bottom line is, you could make a variety of hot sandwiches in this and doesn't necessarily have to be for breakfast.
One thing I did notice and I think others had mentioned was the top and bottom having a sticky residue feeling to them after using. I ran into this too and as it tells you not to use a scrubbing pad on it it is hard to get rid of. I do have non scratch type scrubbers for my smooth top stove and I gently tried using that. Still found it was sticky. One of the things that I think helps tremendously is that after your sandwich is done leave it on and closed while you eat and then wet a dish cloth and wipe the top and bottom with that being careful not to burn yourself and that helps remove that residue. I also just rinse and repeat and wipe down the rest of the the cooking surfaces as well.
A couple of other tips, if you want to try making a sandwich and your bread is too big and you don't want to deal with trying to squeeze it in just use the one of the circles to "cut" the bread like a cookie or biscuit cutter and it will fit perfectly. The pancakes I use are varied in shape and sometimes too big too fit and are frozen so trying to use the cookie cutter idea isn't plausible so in that case I just trim them around the edges a bit with some kitchen scissors I have. Also, the sausage I buy that is round is rather small and we found the first couple of sandwiches would slide around so, after I microwaved it to thaw, I mashed it down a little bit to spread it out to fit better and give you more sausage per bite (and I do recommend thawing out any frozen meat first in the microwave). We also like to scramble up the egg sometimes before we pour it in and that works out well too, haven't tried this yet but for a western style sandwich you could scramble up the egg, pour it in and throw in a little bit of chopped up peppers and onion.
Things I haven't tried but think would be good for hot sandwiches are Italian bread with butter spread on it and garlic powder sprinkled on top of that with the buttered side facing the heating sides and maybe some mozzerella and mashed meatballs or sloppy joe mixture on the inside, the reuben style I already mentioned, maybe a hamburger bun with a thawed chicken patty and your choice of cheese. Basically, just be creative and don't just limit your ideas to breakfast.
Edited on 1-18-2014
Still enjoying my sandwich maker very much. One thing I'd like to suggest and it worked well for us is that if you are making your own biscuits or buying a can of pillsbury grand biscuits you can make up a batch of sandwiches or cook for a crowd easily. While the biscuits are baking in the oven I cook up a couple of eggs at a time in the sandwich maker. I crack an egg in a bowl, scramble it up a bit, pour one egg in the bottom slot, quickly scramble up another and pour it into the "egg" slot and cook for about three minutes. I repeat this process while the biscuits are baking and then when they are done I put my sandwiches together reserving the last two hottest eggs for my husband and I to have a hot sandwich. I get everything ready ahead of time, precooked bacon and the cheese out and just do it like a quick assembly line. The rest of the sandwiches I individually wrap in wax paper and have some breakfast sandwiches ready to throw in the microwave or for my husband to take a couple to work with him. I like that the sandwich maker makes perfectly round little egg patties. Think you could cook up a dozen eggs like this and freeze them too to have a quick and handy, throw in the microwave, pre-cooked egg whether you wanted it in a sandwich or just to throw on a plate with some bacon or sausage.
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