I have made crumpets, English muffins and other stovetop breads in skillets and manual griddles of various types and after watching another person make a batch of crumpets on a similar electric griddle I decided to order this Cuisinart Electric Griddler Five to see if it would be easier as well as have multiple use features such as an open or closed grill, and panini or sandwich press that can be tilted to apply very even pressure. The unit is compact and attractive enough to earn a permanent place on my kitchen countertop and is simple to move to wherever I want to use it. In the fully open flat position I can easily pour and bake a variety of pan breads. Although the griddle plates are not perfectly level so as to facilitate drainage of oils produced by non bakery products, on my countertop I was able to level out the plates by setting the unit’s four legs on a thin bread board and then resting the wide cool handle of the opened top on a potholder. When using next to my smoothtop electric stove, I place the legs on the adjacent countertop and lay the handle on top on the cold stovetop, which is 1/4” lower than the counter. Either method achieves a fairly level result for both halves of the open unit. Just be sure the unit is cold and not plugged in when trying to find the best way to level your appliance. By getting both halves of the unit fairly level, good quality silicone egg rings as well as metal crumpet rings remain flat enough not to leak their contents and the nonstick surface of the griddle is very easy to clean. I prefer to wash all of my nonstick bakeware by hand but the removeable cooking plates for this Cuisinart Griddler can also be popped into a dishwasher.This Griddler is easy to set up and use. Instructions are simple. No matter the heat setting, the unit maintains the chosen temperature well enough to do the job. Grilling burgers and pressing patty melts took some time but worked well and didn’t create a mess. After the grill plates cooled down I wiped off most of the leftover grease and charred bits with a paper towel before removing the plates to soak in soapy water. There was no need to use the hard edged grill cleaning tool that came with the Griddler. After soaking, a soapy sponge took care of the softened residue and a simple rinse made the grill plates look new again. I did wipe the grease from the slide out plastic drip tray and popped that into the top rack of my dishwasher which worked perfectly to restore it to grease free cleanliness without any warping.My Cuisinart Griddler Five arrived extremely well packaged to protect it from the inevitable tossing about during the shipping and delivery process. I am glad to report that Cuisinart no longer applies sticky labels to any part of this beautiful appliance. The outer stainless steel surface wipes clean with a damp cloth, leaving it free of fingerprints. After unpacking my new appliance I simply washed and dried the grill plates, tested the heating coils to make sure they worked and then started pouring my first batch of crumpets within an hour. I use 4” (extra large) stainless steel rings to make my crumpets because they are a perfect size to also make English muffins and double as hamburger bun rings in my regular oven, too. As shown in my attached review photos, eight of these big rings fit comfortably on the two griddle plates when the appliance is in the fully open flat position. Using this Griddler has been much easier than cooking with any of my skillets on the stove. I have yet so see any damage to the nonstick surface of the griddle plates that are advertised as being non-toxic. And unlike many skillets, the plates do not warp when they are heated.I like the simple to use controls for heating this appliance and have not found any problems with them. The digital display and the timer work well, too. While it would be nice to be able to control each side of the griddle separately, I know the unit would have cost much more to manufacture to supply such a feature. Before choosing this particular model I found that high quality appliances with single side capability cost at least twice as much.I chose the Cuisinart brand because I have generally gotten very good service from other types of Cuisinart appliances over the last four decades. While a couple of other brands of small appliances have been just as reliable for me, Cuisinart seemed a safe bet regardless of where its products might have been manufactured. The Cuisinart design team is still one of the best.Even using it several times a week I hope to get years of good service from my Cuisinart Electric Griddler Five. If a problem does come up I will update this review to reflect that. For now, I can only recommend this high quality appliance as a great value that is serving my needs very well. Thank you, Cuisinart, for a job well done! 🙂