Black & Decker G48TD Waffle Maker

Christmas time comes once a year, and with it, comes a lot of cheer. But not necessarily just what you wanted!

Our family has gotten too large to exchange individual gifts, so my daughter came up with the brainstorm to draw names and, with a monetary limit stated, have a gift exchange party! Great idea. Well, my granddaughter was fortunate enough to draw my husband's and my names.

But she was stymied for ideas, so, at her request, I listed a few items that would be welcomed, within the budget allowed.

A Belgian Wafflemaker was high on the list of what my husband felt we needed. I understand that these make two large waffles.

We opened the beautifully wrapped package, anticipating and joking, "What on earth could this be?" The joke was on us. A wafflebaker it was, but Belgian it wasn't. It wasn't Egyptian, either! It was from the country of Black & Decker.

The Gift

Black & Decker? Grill and Wafflebaker Model G48TD is a beautiful appliance with a gleaming chrome finish and black handles on the sides and one on the top for opening.

It measures 9 1/4" x 9 1/4" at the base and 12" deep on the top, which includes the plug housing. The side handles are 1" wide and the wafflebaker stands 4" tall.

Opening the lid, you see that it makes 4 - 4" square waffles.
The grid is the non-stick variety and it snaps out very easily. When you turn the grids over, there is another non-stick, plain side for grilling.

So you see this appliance is MORE THAN A WAFFLEMAKER. It is also a grill. The instruction manual states that it is Three Appliances in One ---- a Wafflebaker, Open Grill and Closed Grill.

Thinking that over, if I choose to make the waffles with the lid open, would that be considered FOUR Appliances in one? Just kidding here. There's a good reason for the Open/close feature. Later.

The cord is permanently fastened (no quick disconnect) with nearly 30" of cord. On the front there is a dial which stipulates

 Waffles
 High
 Low
 Medium
 Off


There is a red light on the dial, which comes on when, heating and off when it has reached the desired temperature.

Let's get Technicalities out of the way Here

Black & Decker? Grill and Wafflebaker Model G48TD is listed as such:

900 Watts, 120 Volts, AC Only, Listed by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.

There are MANY WARNINGS about being careful with this appliance. Of course, it shouldn't be immersed in water, used outside, and IT GETS HOT!

I miss the Cool-Touch feature that I have on my toaster, my GE Cool Touch Grill and my Aroma Cool Fry Deep Fryer.

This baby heats on the outside as much as it does on the inside. My husband jokes and says we could cook sausages on the outside while baking waffles inside!

So extreme caution must be used, and I think that goes for most wafflemakers, so I'm not picking on B & D.

Before using the first time, I washed the grids in hot, soapy water, and lightly brushed it with cooking oil. I do this after each use, too, and lightly oil it prior to using each time.

Okay - on with the Waffles

I oiled the waffle grids, closed the lid, turned the dial to WAFFLES, the light came on, and it took 8 minutes to preheat. So we had time to make the batter. My husband generally does this. (I know --Lucky Me!)

I'm sorry, I don't have a special recipe here. We generally make a batter using the BISQUICK recipe off the box or Aunt Jemima Buttermilk Waffle Mix. I will tell you DO NOT use the JIFFY WAFFLE MIX - it is awful!

The light went out and the batter was ready, so we poured 1/4 of a cup of batter into each section and closed the lid. The light will come on, again, and when it goes out, the waffles are done!

For some reason, the first batch is never as brown as subsequent batches are. But all batches of waffles were crisp and delicious. I think I recall my husband saying we didn't really NEED Belgian waffles. These were perfect.

The Grill Feature

It is easy to turn the grids over to prepare for grilling. Just snap them out and back in. In all honesty, the only thing we've made on this side were grilled cheese sandwiches because we use our GE Grill (which I have reviewed on Epinions) for other delicious grilled meals.

We preheated the grill on the HIGH setting, then placed the cheese and dill pickle slices on the pieces of bread, lightly buttered the outsides, put them in the hot grill and closed the lid. In about 3 minutes, we peeked and saw the cheese was melted and the bread was golden brown.

Honestly, they were the best grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had! By this time, we were blessing my granddaughter for such a wonderful gift.

We used a little too much cheese, so it did overflow, but it was a cinch to clean the grids afterwards, no problem at all.

Suggestions from the instruction sheet:

Closed Grill Cooking

 Bacon??????.9-12 min.
 Frankfurters??.12-16 min.
 French Toast??..2---3 min.
 Hamburgers???3---6 min.
 Ham Slice????.3---5 min.
 Sausage links?..15--20 min.(probably less for frozen, precooked)
 Sausage Patties?9--11 min.

Open Grill Cooking

Eggs --1-6 eggs. Cook 2-3 minutes, turn as you wish.
Pancakes 1-6 turn halfway through. 3 to 5 minutes.

Any of the closed grill items, add cooking time and be aware that the fatty meats will splatter more cooking this way.

I refuse to review something I know nothing about, so this morning I used it to fry an egg!

It took 8 minutes to preheat the grill (with a little bacon grease) at the HIGH setting .When the indicator light went off, I had trouble opening the grill to the flat position as it was so extremely hot - You have to open the lid, lift up from the handle till you feel the release, then lay it out flat. It's hard to do when you feel the heat so close to your hand. The handle wasn't hot, though.

I ended up dropping it down, Clunk!

Probably someone else could do it better than I could.

But the egg fried perfectly, did NOT stick at all and it tasted delicious. To be honest, though, I'll stick with my frying pan.

I hate pancakes so I didn't try them, but I'm sure this grill would do a great job making them.

I thought perhaps this grill would be good to use in a motel room, but my husband reminded me about its heat, and the cooling off process is quite long (about 20 minutes) so that suggestion is out. I can't recommend it for that purpose, unless you have plenty of time.



In Closing

I don't hesitate a bit to recommend the Black & Decker? Grill and Wafflebaker Model G48TD to anyone. However, I feel I must stress how VERY HOT this grill gets - if you have children around, it could be very DANGEROUS.

It is easy to use (in the closed position), easy to clean and does a great job.

As with other appliances of this type, we wish that we could control the heat a little better. But after experimenting a bit with high/low/etc. we've become quite proficient at it.

So - keep Black & Decker? Grill and Wafflebaker Model G48TD in mind for yourself or for a gift to someone you really like.

We've been very pleased with most of the THREE USES for this WaffleBaker! My granddaughter did us a favor with this gift.


Thanks, again, for reading. I hope this has helped in your purchasing decision. Please email me or use the Comments, if you have any question.

Lorace

Full Two-Year Warranty

Black & Decker,(US)Inc.
6 Armstrong Road
Shelton, CT 06484-4797

Consumer Assistance & Information.