Cuisinart Griddler...PANCAKES ARE BACK!!!

Several weeks ago my darling son decided the kitchen was a great place to have a football game with his sister. Well, at least nobody got hurt...that is except my electric griddle! I'm sad to say it's injuries were life threatening, and it didn't make it - Sniff...Sniff.

Every Saturday morning at our house for as long as I can remember, I've gotten up early and made the family a nice breakfast of Pancakes and Bacon. It is the only morning we can all eat together. Since my griddle broke, I've tried several times in my frying pans...with rubbery, inedible results. I had looked into getting another electric griddle, but had seen the Cuisinart Griddler at the Mall, and fell in love! So off to the store I went to finally get my Griddler!!!

The Griddler:

This is a combination Panini press, smooth surface contact grill, open griddle and open grilling surface appliance...ALL IN ONE COMPACT UNIT!

EXTERIOR:I'll start by saying that the unit itself is very attractive. It has a stainless exterior with a sturdy press handle. The exterior and the knobs are non-stick and a breeze to wipe clean with a dry or damp cloth,(which I found out when I put too much cheese in my Quesadillas last night and cheese oozzzzed out all over the front of the unit. It literally peeled right off!

INSIDE:The inner plates of the unit snap in and out with ease. All you do is press the buttons on the sides of the unit and they slide out, or tilt and slide back into place until you hear them snap in. The unit comes with TWO sets of Plates. One set is smooth and one has grilling ridges.

POSITIONS:The Unit can be used in two positions. It can be used closed as a press or open as a flat griddle or grill. To open it flat, all you do is hold the handle with your left hand while depressing a button on the right side of handle. This releases the top lid and you can lay it open all the way flat. This essentially gives you two separate grilling surfaces. I love this feature because I normally would have to cook my bacon at one time, stop, clean the griddle and proceed to make pancakes. With the Giddler, I can use one side for pancakes and one for bacon!

THE PLATES:The first thing I want to mention (which was a very important point for me), is that the plates are dishwasher safe! You just remove them after cooling for at least 30min. and toss them in the dishwasher...clean-up is done!

The smooth plates can be used in the closed position for making things like Quesadillas (which we made last night). I just pre-heated the unit and buttered one side of some flour tortillas, filled one half of each with some leftover chicken, sauteed onions and cheddar cheese. I flapped them in half and layed on the griddler (I could do two at a time). I depressed the handle until I could feel it touch the tops and pressed flat. I let them cook about 4 minutes. They were crispy on both sides and warm and melty in the middle...YUM! My family loved them, I got to use up leftovers, and it was fast and easy! You can use the smooth plates in the open griddle position for things like pancakes, bacon, eggs (one thing on each side!). For families with different tastes, one kid could have eggs on one side and the other a grilled cheese sandwich on the other. Anything that you would use a flat griddle for you can do here. The one thing I did find not quite as good as my plain electric griddle was due to the separate plates, I wasn't able to get as many pancakes on at one time. I could get 2 less on the griddler. (A good trade-off for the tons of other features this unit has!).

The grill plates are great closed for doing panini sandwiches and cuban sandwiches. Also nice for grilling burgers! The open grill becomes a great indoor grill for times it's rainy or the weather doesn't permit grilling outside. You can do chicken, beef, vegetables...you name it!

CONTROLS:One of my favorite features of this grill are the nice large easy to use controls. There is no guess work here. There are three knobs. The left knob is labeled "Griddle" and has various temperature settings from 200-425 degrees. The center knob is labeled "Selector" and has an off, griddle, and grill/panini setting. The third knob is labeled Grill/Panini and has settings of Warm, Low, Med, High, Sear. So as you can guess, you move the center knob to the desired cooking method, then only that methods knob will be activated. So for example if you choose Griddle on the enter knob, the griddle knob will come on. The center knob lights up red when on. The other two will show no light until they reach whatever temperature you choose. When the green light comes on, you know the unit has pre-heated.

Accessories:The Griddler comes with the two sets of plates described above, a scraping tool for the grill plates, two drip cups (Which are really nice because they aren't attached to the unit. They sit under two spouts that come off either end of the plates and catch grease or other liquids running off. When getting full, just dump and return in place. They are dishwasher safe as well as the scraper. (Yeah!). You also get a combination instruction and recipe book with the unit. They give you a sampling of recipes to try with the Griddler using all its plates and features. There is also a build in cord keeper on the back of the unit. You can wind the cord arount the prongs and keep it out of the way when storing.

I got lucky, and happened to find a $5 off coupon for the store I purchased my Griddler. I even picked one up for my neighbor who had been looking for one. They can be hard to find at some stores, I know William Sonoma near me has had them on back order for some time now. You can generally find them for $129.99. A great deal for what you're getting I think. It fits nicely on a counter or tucked under a cabinet in its folded position. You store one set of plates in the unit and one on the side.

All in all I'm very happy with my purchase, and we'll be having Pancakes again on Saturday!