It was four years ago I bought a Diablo toastie maker – and today I’ve got to dig it out again as there’s a Beach BBQ potentially on the cards (weather permitting, as they say!). These are “as seen at the Ideal Home Show” in London too last year, if you were there!
The Diablo Toastie Maker is pure genius as it’s a portable toasting iron that you can use on your hob in your kitchen, or slide into your car as you head out for a beach BBQ, or to take on a camping holiday. It’s a neat gadget that everybody loves to have a go with and the Diablo toastie maker requires no power. It’s solid metal, made of titanium, with a “non stick” coating. This lovable little gadget is “for life!”
All you need is a heat source (preferably flames), which means it can be shoved into a firepit, onto a BBQ rack, in a chiminea, or just use on your gas hob. As a rule of thumb, use it on small/contained fires – so don’t stand over a huge/raging bonfire as you’ll get too hot from the flames; use the Diablo where you can sit it down and just watch it. Although the Diablo allegedly works on electric hobs too, but I found that was way too slow as they’re slower to heat up than simply turning on a gas flame. The Diablo does not work on induction hobs.
The official instructions say:
Pile ingredients high between two pieces of bread and cook on a stove top for a couple of minutes either side. When you’ve finished, just pop it into the dishwasher – no messy cables to worry about.
Ditto for hand-washing, just toss it in the sink. In fact, these are:
- Non-stick
- No plug
- Dishwasher safe
- Suitable for gas, electric, ceramic, halogen cookers indoors as well as campfires, camping stoves and firepits outdoors. You can also use these on disposable BBQ packs.
My tips and instructions for using a Diablo would include:
- Heat it up for a couple of minutes first, to get it nice and hot.
- Trim the edges of the bread once you’ve closed the Diablo, else they’ll burn.
- If you’re at home in your kitchen, using your hob, make sure you use a heatproof trivet to lay down the hot Diablo on, so you don’t burn your worktop or chopping board! I use my silicone iron mat 🙂
- If you’re cooking meat or fish, then use ready-cooked meat or fish, not raw. Toasties do not cook for long enough to cook meat and fish through (although it might be fun to explore cooking a single burger over an open camp fire (without the bread), which will take a lot more than the 2 minutes each side to achieve, but might be great for those raw burger and rare burger lovers!
- If you’re using vegetables, then use pre-cooked ones. They won’t cook from raw in the 4-5 minutes in a toastie.
Easy Cleaning
The Diablo is really robust and built to last a lifetime. 
Once in use as a toastie maker the handles are held together with a clip that flips over the handle end.
Why Diablo? 
I found out that it’s called a Diablo because of the “devil’s horns” shape that the hinge makes!
The concept is just like a sandwich maker: A filling that’s enclosed within a pocket of bread, with the edges sealed.
It’s entirely manual, so can be used wherever there’s a fire or flame! But it’s smaller, so slides into the tiniest of spaces in your cupboard or backpack.
What’s also attractive, to me, is that there’s usually no need to butter the outside of the toasties, something I hate doing when having used a toasted sandwich maker in the past as I found I got in a messy muddle with that.
How Big is the Diablo?
If you read about it first, then see it, it might look smaller than you expected. The Diablo is 4″ across and the sides are tapered. Advertised dimensions give:
- 4.3″ x 1.25″ x 14″ (full length of the handle)
Creating 4″ wide single-serving circular sealed toasties.
Diablo Toastie Maker Tips and Twists:
- Use any type of bread – including tortillas, folded or cut to size or even brioche bread for sweet toasties.
- Make your own, thin, pastry to make pasties on the fly.
- Try it with a single crumpet, or toast a muffin.
- If using meat, ALWAYS use cooked meats, don’t try to cook raw meats in the Diablo, the cooking time isn’t long enough.
- Spread your bread with chutney, sauces, mayo or jam – the side that will be inside the toastie when eaten.
And now the main event, some savoury Diablo toastie maker filling ideas:
- Cheddar Cheese and Red Onion Chutney
- Hawaii pizza: Ham, Cheese, Herbs
- Pork and apple (use ready-cooked sausages, such as cooked cocktail sausages, sliced)
- Cheesy Beans
- Fiery jalapenos and mozzarella
- Chilli beef, with or without rice (microwave pouch rice)
- Indian Samosa (mashed potato & peas with a twist of curry)
- Chicken and mushroom – make your own mix, or, if camping, open a tin of chicken in white sauce
- Your favourite calzone, or turnover filling
- Omelettes!
- Curry and rice – use a microwave pouch rice!
- Hotdog and mustard. Use tinned hot dogs and, if camping, sachets of mustard that fell into your pocket in a cafe 🙂
Breakfast Toasties:
Whether in your house, or out in the wild camping, a Diablo can even whip up a quick breakfast:
- Hot sausage and scrambled egg – use pre-cooked sausages, ready-cooked cocktail sausages are what I use.
- Ham and scrambled egg.
Sweet Treat Toasties:
They’re not just for savoury meals, you can make sweet treat toasties too:
- Foraged Blackberry and Apple – perfect if you’ve just picked yourself a handful of blackberries
- Tinned or frozen fruit, with a dollop of clotted cream
- Nutella and marshmallows
- Melted chocolate and strawberries
- Chocolate and banana
- Apple and sultana.
Now I just need the weather to be kind for my beach BBQ! This beach BBQ is one where you have to bring your own kit with you – so I plan to take my Diablo and a small camping stove – job done! I might have a go at cooking a full burger in it …. see how I feel on the day!
These toastie makers are perfect for one person, so if there are two of you (or more), you might like to consider getting one each – and enjoy all the fun of the Who Makes the Best Toastie Contest!
Where Can you Buy a Diablo Toastie Maker?
If you’re at the Ideal Home Show at any time, you might spot them, although (sshhh) you can buy them online much cheaper. Camping shops and caravan and camping shows will probably have these for sale. Otherwise, there’s always the cheats method – buy online!:
