The biggest drawback to this model is the toast shade setting on the timer dial. You have to turn the knob past the 10-minute mark and then reverse it to the desired shade setting. However, it’s difficult to determine exactly where the dial should be placed for your preferred toast shade. Eventually, we were able to find the sweet spot on the dial for our desired doneness, but it took multiple attempts. That said, the toast came out remarkably even for a toaster oven of this caliber.
During my test sessions, it could easily fit up to 4 slices of artisan bread or a 9” pizza. I do not know about you, but that was more than sufficient to handle the needs of my family. If you’ve never used a toaster oven, the first thing you need to know is that it’s not a toaster. Mind you, you can make toast with it, but that’s hardly its only use or even the primary one. Depending on the household, it can fill a surprisingly wide gap between the microwave and a traditional oven. Need your snacks warmed up quickly, but hate that microwave sogginess?
Just from its name, you can tell exactly what this masterpiece is capable of. It’s without a doubt one of the best convection toaster ovens you can invest in nowadays, and for good reason. During my research sessions, I came across hundreds of people who pointed out that they have been using this exact model in their restaurants and that it was perfect for rush hour periods.
Some toaster ovens can even work with air frying recipes, though that may require some adjustments. But if you’re looking to do a lot of air frying in your toaster oven, you may want to check out our separate guide to air fryer toaster ovens. Air fryer toaster ovens tend to look like larger versions of your classic toaster oven, but come with all the functionality of a toaster oven, air fryer and even roaster combined. If your countertop already houses a toaster oven and you’re wishing you had space for an air fryer, consider this the ideal more-than-2-for-1 upgrade. Like traditional ovens, many toaster ovens use convection heating or at least offer it as an option for baking. Other models make up for the lack of convection with multiple heating elements placed around the oven.
It was one of the fastest models to preheat to 350 °F, taking just over three minutes. While this wasn’t billed as a toaster, it is the “multi-use” recommendation in The Spruce Eats’ list of best toaster ovens, so I tested what it could do with pale bread and bagels. I cooked bagels on the broil setting and toasted the bread using convection. I got a reasonably even toast, although I had to watch the browning since I wasn’t sure how long it would take. This review would be incomplete if I didn’t include this masterpiece from Hamilton Beach. I first came across this unit while reviewing appliances for a guide I was working on.
And at the end of cooking, the cooking timer alerts you and turns the convection toaster oven off automatically. When it’s time for cleanup, the interior wipes down fast and the crumb tray is removable. The exorbitantly priced Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven produced the most evenly browned toast of any model we tested.
There’s generally a tray at the bottom that catches crumbs, melted cheese or other debris. The Cuisinart TOB-40 Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler is easy to use, but on its medium setting, bread became too dark. Also, this model has no timer, so you’ll have to keep a close watch on your food to prevent it from hamilton beach toaster oven overcooking. You’ll need to wait until 2023 to buy or install a new electric oven, when the rebates go into effect. In every round of testing we conducted for this guide, we started by filling each toaster with as many slices of basic white bread as we could, then set each machine to toast at medium shade.