Morphy Richards 511644 MICO Toastie Toasted Sandwich Maker Microwavable Cookware, Silicone and Coated Metal, 350 W, Orange

Great little gadget. Only takes a small slice of bread but works really well, just butter each side, plonk it down, add filling carefully not to the edge, seal and ping for about 2 mins. Miraculously you end up with a crispy toastie! He only weird thing is that if you use too little cheese, it kind of vanishes into the bread. Easy to clean up too. Saves the faff of using the big taostie maker.

So which toastie in the photo is the microwave one and which is the traditional method?Following the instructions - no different from a normal toastie maker- I loaded the new micro toastie maker with buttered bread, ham and Brie. After putting on the top slice I locked the sides of the maker and encountered my first problem/concern - the sides of the toastie maker do not meet, meaning there is a large gap where the top and bottom join. Convinced this would not go well, and all the fillings would spill out of the sides, I decided to make a back-up in my traditional toastie maker.Whilst the old maker heated up, I cooked the new one in the microwave for 2 minutes (I have a 800W microwave). I then turned it over (the whole machine i.e. the orange maker not turning the actual toastie) and cooked for a further 2 minutes. Removed from the microwave with oven gloves and my traditional maker was now ready to cook.5 minutes with the old toastie maker and I have 2 completed sandwiches for comparison.The toastie from the new maker slid out easily, no mess, no anticipated spillage, no residue, just a well sealed toasty - I was quite amazed so don’t be put off if you have a significant gap around the edges like I did!The toastie in the traditional maker, as usual, stuck to the metal plate and required a little help in removing.Taste test. Both toasties tasted good. Both were cooked and both were on par with each other for the filling taste and cooking. However, the microwave toastie was far crispier, browner and not soggy like the traditional one. It looked like a professional toastie and didn’t taste far off!My biggest surprise was how brown and even the microwave one made the bread and how dry and crispy it became.So, as you will have guessed, the toastie from the microwave in the photo is the one on the left and the traditional one is on the right!Cleaning is also a big bonus - it only required a wipe over whereas the traditional machine needed a proper clean from butter and leaked cheese. In future I will put the microwave safe plates in the dishwasher but for one quick (and I mean quick) toastie a quick wipe is sufficient.A game changer for me and for lunches.I would note that the bread I have used is gluten free so slightly smaller in size which helps.I also bought the maker on offer so it makes it incredible value for money and very easy to transport to use in the kitchen at work making lunches more exciting and economical.Also looking forward to using it to reheat pizza slices with a crispy top for something different.A massive 5 stars from me for a useful, unusual and different gadget!

This is a great little toastie maker if its just for one. 1.5 mins on each side makes a nice toastie depending on thickness of bread and filling. Easy to clean. A bit expensive for what it is though.

Fantastic wee gadget. I tried it for the first time with cheese. 3 minutes one side and 2 on the other and it came out perfectly, nicely toasted ,and the cheese melted well. A lot more easy to use than my toastie machine and easier to clean. I recommend this 💯

Did not believe it would work--but it does--great toasted sandwich!!! Would certainly recommend. Very easy to use.

Brilliant makes great toasted sandwiches very quickly and cleanly in the microwave

Brilliant. So easy to use and they come out amazing once you perfect the timings for your microwave

This toasts better than I expected, but there has to be another way to design the edges or the closures so that meltable fillings stay put.It's great if all you have access to is a microwave, or if small appliances just take up too much kitchen space. It might also be good for croissants and bagels, but I didn't try that. Maybe there's a perfect combination of bread type, slice thickness, and type and volume of filling that'll make a sandwich like the ones shown on the box. But I haven't found it yet.Don't expect it to perform as well as a regular sandwich toaster – It's more like a mini panini press. It doesn't close tightly enough to seal the edges of the bread. That might sound minor, but I found it a pain in the neck. The closures stretch to accommodate the thickness of the sandwich, but they're quite loose, so unless you have extra-thick slices, a lot of filling, or both, it's just holding the layers in contact. Anything that melts oozes out. As cheese is probably the most common ingredient in toasties, that means you have a challenge.If you keep everything within the edges, cheese escapes and melts on the grill plate, then oozes underneath into the silicone cover. It's easy to clean when you dismantle it, but the resulting sandwich is a bit sad. I've experimented with different sliced breads and hard, soft, and vegan cheeses. All kinds of supermarket loaves toast fine with some trial and error to get the timing right. I'm persevering to try to find the sweet spot and my next experiment will be using ciabatta rolls and treating the MICO Toastie as the panini machine it actually is. I'm overthinking toasties way too much, but I'm betting ciabatta's large holes and continuous crust will keep the cheese contained. We'll see.Pros:* easy to clean* no inaccessible spots in its innards or casing for cheese to leak into* good for a hot lunch at work* small and convenient – easier to store and keep to hand than a cumbersome electric oneCons:* doesn't compress enough to keep cheese contained* can make bread hard