When we tried cooking chicken nuggets in both baskets, neither basket got as hot as it needed to be—the nuggets in both came out soggy on the inside, with crumbly breading on the outside. The proof setting offers a low temperature range from 80 to 100 degrees F . Directions advise that the first proof should be done at room temperature and then the dough is to be divided, shaped and proofed in the TOA-65.
As it was, these two produced the most even and attractive toast that corresponded to the preset, but the Ninja (winner!) did it in half the time. The Breville, KitchenAid and Crux barely toasted the bread at all when set to medium — which simply means you’d have to use a darker setting — while the Cuisinart over-toasted the bread. Breville won the fry test with perfectly golden fries in six minutes.
I roasted a whole chicken at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 55 minutes. In under an hour, I had a perfectly roasted chicken that was evenly cooked. This test was to see how accurate a particular oven’s toaster presets are and how fast it can toast. Every oven on this list has a digital interface with dials, buttons or both to control it, although some were much better than others. The Breville’s was the most complex, a result of all its many functions and cooking presets, while the Cuisinart interface was the only one I truly did not like.
A 12-inch pizza and a batch of biscuits baked to perfection in the time recommended on the package. On air fry mode, it browned and crisped French fries, plus both homemade and frozen chicken nuggets, to a light golden brown. Once a cooking mode is selected, the Ninja automatically goes into a short preheat mode and beeps when it’s time to place food in the oven. Air fryers have become a staple in many homes thanks to their ability to create crispy crunchy foods without lots of fat. When kitchen space is at a premium, an air fryer toaster oven combo may be the best way to add capabilities and get the most out of your kitchen workspace. It can toast, convection bake, and broil while being a fun-size oven that you can leave on the counter.
I set the Ninja to a slightly lower temp per its manual and in eight minutes had perfect fries (a very close second place and it likely would have won or tied if I’d set it to 450 F). KitchenAid also took eight minutes on 450 F, while the Crux took nine minutes to get there and the Calphalon took 12. The Cuisinart was actually the fastest at just three minutes, but it burnt the edges of the fries and didn’t cook evenly. At this point, I began to suspect the Cuisinart has an unusually intense air fryer function, for better or worse.
You lose some of the value-adding features found in dedicated air fryers, such as shake timers and air frying presets. Nevertheless, in our tests, we achieved crispy, delicious air-fried chicken wings and golden fries, as well as some great results using the other settings, too. Air frying and convection cooking both work similarly in the sense that they both use a fan to circulate hot air. Air cuisinart toa60 fryers, however, typically have heating elements that are more concentrated and located on the top, while most convection ovens work with the same heaters already built into an oven or toaster oven. Air fryers also typically have a larger fan that works quicker and is positioned on top of the heating elements versus a convection oven with a smaller fan located in the back or side of the oven.
You can also select recipes and the app will send the temperature and time settings to your oven. For safety reasons, you can’t start the oven remotely from the app. However, you can give voice commands through Alexa or Google Assistant over Wi-Fi. Foods like frozen French fries and chicken nuggets cook up brown and crispy. However, with homemade recipes, you’ll see less even coloring and get a lighter crunch. The air fryer was wonderfully quiet during use and didn’t go louder than 54.8dB on our noise meter.