SANDWICH PRESSES

The appeal of warm, crunchy-yet-soft toasted sandwiches goes up as temperatures go down, so perhaps now is the time to add a sandwich press to your kitchen arsenal. Cafe-quality models are widely available at reasonable prices, so there's no need to step out into the cold to get tasty toasties, paninis and focaccias.

I tested Sunbeam's Café Contact Grill & Sandwich Press, and Breville's The Perfect Press. Both are flexible enough to handle other snacks, such as French toast, warm wraps, filled croissants and open melts, including grilled cheese, while the Sunbeam also doubles as a kind of frying pan-barbecue combo. Neither are remotely high-tech (think manual controls and lights to indicate "power" and "ready" ), but they deliver the goods, are easy to use and also clean, thanks to non-stick cooking surfaces and stainless steel exteriors. They can be stored upright to save space.

The key advantage of these over cheaper models is that sandwiches aren't squashed by the top plate. The Breville has counter-weighted hinges that can reduce the load from up to two kilograms to 425 grams. The Sunbeam uses a floating hinge system, so the upper plate can easily be locked at one of four height settings.