I thought breakfast sandwich makers were a total gimmick – here's why trying one changed my mind

The humble breakfast sandwich may be a simple-but-classic choice for kickstarting your mornings, but there are plenty of ways to make it.

While you can't go wrong with frying up a sandwich in a trusty pan, you can invest in a sandwich maker. These gadgets promise quicker, healthier breakfasts - and the Drew & Cole Breakfast Sandwich Maker claims to give you the power to make the perfect English muffin in just five minutes.

The Breakfast Sandwich Maker is just one of the many kitchen gizmos in Drew & Cole’s product line-up, with the brand being well known for making some of the best air fryers and pressure cookers. The breakfast maker prides itself on its ability to recreate the iconic breakfast muffin served by a certain fast food chain - only more nutritious and customised - along with other recipes. But can’t an ordinary pan do that, too?

To find out, I tried the Breakfast Sandwich Maker to see if it really can make delicious breakfast muffins and sandwiches in no time, or if you’re better off using just using your trusty pan. Here’s how I got on…

What is the Drew & Cole Breakfast Sandwich Maker?

As per its tagline, the Drew & Cole Breakfast Sandwich Maker “toasts the muffin, melts the cheese, cooks the egg and heats the ham…all at once!” With the power of 600W, the electric sandwich maker features a dual-layered cooking system which stands at just 14.5cm high. The bottom layer is for heating up the bread and filling, while the top layer simultaneously cooks the egg.

Price-wise, the RRP of the Breakfast Sandwich Maker is £39.99.

The first thing that struck me when unboxing the Breakfast Sandwich Maker was its size and weight. The sleek, round design is light and compact, perfect for those with smaller kitchens or anyone who - like me - lives in shared accommodation and doesn’t want to hog the kitchen counters.

However, the drawback of the small circular design is that it’s limited to toasting only circular bread (think crumpets and rolls) and becomes overfilled easily (I found that ingredients can leak out of the rings if you pair a large egg with a large bap).

Meanwhile, there’s a lot more versatility when using a pan, as you can add more ingredients and toast any type of bread.

At the front of the sandwich maker are two lights: a red power light and a green light to signal when it’s preheated. The green light was pretty difficult to see in direct sunlight one bright morning, and there’s also no timer, which some customers have complained about, but I didn’t mind as much.

However, there was a common complaint I agreed with. According to the manual, the cover is supposed to stay up once opened, leaving your hands free to add ingredients, but my cover snapped shut when I let go. I assumed I had missed something, but after trawling through customer reviews across retailers, I found this issue was not unique to me.

Overall, the design is intuitive, like the Drew & Cole air fryer, and I found it easy to clean thanks to the detachable rings and cooking plate. I simply washed the detachable parts in soapy water (they’re also dishwasher safe) and wiped the rest of the breakfast maker with a clean damp cloth. Plus, the detachable parts take up way less room on the drying rack and dishwasher than large, clunky pans.

Which one cooks better?

Let’s start with the two main advantages this sandwich maker has over the pan. First of all, it pretty much does the cooking for you, with the bulk of the work going into the preparation.

The plates are non-stick, so all you have to do is brush the rings with some oil before preheating. (I found it requires much less oil, which is more nutritious and cost-effective, than the pan). In my experience, it took three minutes for the maker to preheat fully, time I used to prepare my ingredients.

Once preheated, all I had to do was add the ingredients and close the cover. And that’s pretty much it for your side of the deal. While cooking in a pan involves a lot of hovering over the stove, you can pretty much leave the maker to do its thing. This was a huge plus on busy days, as it allowed me to get on with other parts of my morning routine.

The second advantage is time. When making the classic egg muffin in the pan, I found it took over twice as long as the five minutes it took in the breakfast maker. (I also tried some eggless recipes in the maker, some of which took only three minutes.)

Once the five minutes was up, all I had to do was slide open the cooking plate and open the cover to unveil a neat breakfast snack. A large egg may get stuck in the ring, but I found that gently pushing it down with a spoon freed it easily. Overall, it’s a perfect little machine for professionals and commuters who don’t want to spend precious time supervising a sizzling pan.

That said, parents who want to make breakfast for the whole family will prefer a pan, as the breakfast maker can only make one sandwich at a time (and you need to leave two minutes in between sandwiches). You can also only add pre-cooked meat (I used vegan ham slices), while a pan cooks your full English sausages, too.

Which one looks better?

To answer the question you probably have. Yes, the breakfast maker does indeed recreate the “world’s most famous Egg Muffin”.

When comparing the breakfast muffins I made, the one made in the breakfast maker took home gold for presentation.

The egg was cookie-cutter neat, as though I’d just bought it at a fast food joint. While looks aren’t everything, there’s no denying that the breakfast maker does produce healthier fast food alternatives without sacrificing style.

Which is better for breakfast sandwiches?

The Breakfast Sandwich Maker is ideal for busy workers who don’t have time to keep an eye on the frying pan or stop at the drive-thru on weekday mornings. The sleek, portable design doesn’t take too much space in shared kitchens, while the dual-layered system is easy to use if you’re not much of a cook.

You’re better off using a pan when making a large, hearty breakfast for everyone before the school-run, but if you’re looking to recreate a healthier breakfast muffin at home, this gadget does exactly what its tagline promises.