Convetion/toaster ovens

[vis1961]

Hey gang, I love to cook and bake, but living alone, I don't have anyone to cook for and hate firing up the big oven for just me. I am thinking of getting a counter top convection/toaster oven. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on what features to look for in one of these ovens? Any help and guidance is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Joe

 

[gfm8959]

Breville Smart Oven

It's a little pricey at 250.00 but definitely worth it. You will definitely use your full size oven less often. Not only is it a good size but it cooks so evenly, much better than most toaster ovens. Cakes and cookies come out great! Check out the reviews on Amazon.

Amazon.com

 

[passatdoc]

I have the Breville Smart Oven and use it all the time for small to medium jobs. Only use the range oven for large jobs. It holds a 13" pizza pan or a 13 x 9 inch pan. Broils, roasts, bakes, toasts, defrosts, reheats. Has lots of automatic programs or you can customize the settings. Can make six slices of toast at once.

Amazon.com and Williams Sonoma sell it for $250. I bought mine during a rare sale at W-S when it was at $225, plus I had a $150 gift card so I paid only $75 plus the sales tax on $225.

There are two smaller versions of this oven, but they lack convection or the capacity to hold a 13" pan (for pizza). I've use it to bake pies or two loaves of quick bread (e.g. banana bread) at once. Convection is important in a smaller oven, because it helps to minimize hot spots and cold spots. You have the option of turning off the convection (as one normally does for yeast breads).

If you wanted a smaller oven just to toast or bake/roast very small quantities, the smaller version of this oven would suffice. But the large size depicted above is more versatile. You just need to have room for its footprint.

 

[vis1961]

Thanks guys

I appreciate the input. right now, i think it's between the Breville and the Calphalon. Both look really like what I'm looking for, but I'm still open to other options.

 

[tlee618]

I too have the Breville, got it last January.  IMHO it is fantastic.  I've not fixed anything in it that didn't do well.  Yes, as a toaster it takes longer but I think all toaster ovens do.  Makes great toast though.  

 

[gfm8959]

Anxiously awaiting...

Let us know what you decide and how you like the oven!

 

[vis1961]

I think I've decided ...

I was seriously thinking about the Breville, when I remembered seeing Michael Symon (Iron Chef America) advertising the Calphalon oven over the Holidays. I checked it out, and it has many of the same features and the same capacity as the Breville. It is also $50.00 cheaper. That may not sound like a lot, but for me it is. I ordered a brand new one from eBay and it should arrive early next week. I can't wait to put it through it's paces. If I don't like it, I can always send it back and get the Breville. Here is a link to the oven I bought. What do you think?

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[passatdoc]

Looks like a nice oven. Appears to do most of what the Breville will do. I'm not a big pizza fan, but the Breville can take a fresh or frozen pizza, you dial in the size--and push the "frozen" button if frozen---and it does the rest, perfect pizza every time.

The Calphalon appears to be two inches longer than the Breville, which for some could be an issue if counter space is tight. The Calphalon appears able to accomodate the same sized pans as the Breville: 12-13" round pizza pans or 9 x 13" pan or roaster.

 

[sudsmaster]

I've tried a few by now, and have found the Cuisinart convection oven to work the best for toast, pizza, and small servings of convenience foods like fish sticks or fries.

 

[macboy91si]

B&D

A nice cheapie, the Black & Decker convection I bought 2 years ago works very well, I only use my large oven for big things now. It cooks evenly and just last night I made a frozen lasagna in it and it turned out better than it does sometimes out of the full size. Not quite as big as the Breville but for $45 it fit my bill just fine.

Just my 2 cents

-Tim

 

[kimball455]

Amana Radar Range with Convection

I have an Amana Radar Range over the stove that has a convection feature. Got it because I wanted two ovens but did not have space for a second full size oven. Use it a lot, most things that I cook fit in it. Does not heat up the kitchen too much in summer, the A/C can keep up and uses a lot less electricity that the full size electric oven on the Jenn Air Dual Fuel range.

 

[passatdoc]

Finding pans to fit a counter top oven can be a challenge, but they are well worth it if you can find them. The Breville Smart Oven comes with a square baking pan with broiler insert, plus a round pizza pan. I've added two accessories:

1. Nordic Ware 10 x 7 inch crisper pan. Nonstick and perforated, so anything heated in it (leftover pizza, fries, tater tots) will come out extra crispy. Breville makes a 13" perforated pizza crisping pan that a pizza fan might consider, though I haven't ordered it. The pan that comes with the oven is fine if you don't need the crisping feature. About $7 at Amazon.

2. 13" covered roaster by Granite Ware. Covered roasters small enough to fit inside are hard to find, and I suspect my roaster would not fit in many ovens smaller than the Breville. Granite Ware would not be my first choice in terms of finish, but it cleans up fine with hot soapy water or in the dishwasher. Because the lid has handles on the ends and not on top, the vertical clearance is low enough to fit the oven. The core is steel, so heat conduction is good. Comes with a rack insert. Large enough for 2-4 chicken breasts plus veggies, or a turkey breast plus veggies. About $20 at Amazon. Not cheap, as full sized Granite Ware roasters run $20-35, but worth the price by allowing one to roast meats and veggies with moist results.

If you are cooking for just two or three, this makes so much more sense than firing up the full sized range oven, plus pre-heat is much faster. Given the small size of the oven cavity, there would be a big risk of hot or cold spots, but convection minimizes these issues. If you have an electric range or built in oven, you'll be using roughly half the power (or less) of using the full size oven. My range oven is gas and so is not directly comparable, but gas ranges are not very efficient due to the need for venting (hot air released into the kitchen because the burners need a continous supply of fresh, oxygenated air). So I'd rate the energy efficiency of using the Breville as at least a wash, and maybe I'm a bit ahead. I like the quick pre-heating of the oven and all of the pre-programmed functions that really work.

 

[sudsmaster]

Yes, good small nonstick baking pans can be difficult to find to fit these small ovens. The Cuisinart will take a 12" pan but not a 13". For pizza I either just use the rack or a 12" expanded aluminum pizza round I picked up at a restaurant supply. It's mostly holes so it doesn't seem to affect the browning of the bottom of the pizza at all, and makes handling the pizza a bit easier.

For stuff like fries or fish sticks I use the stainless broiler pan/tray that came with the oven, and use the convection mode. A little splash of spray oil keeps things from sticking.

 

[macboy91si]

Breville

The Breville is a nice little oven, I was looking at it a little more closely on Amazon and I have to say I really like the layout. Hopefully the digital controls are durable, bu aside from that I liked what I saw. I especially liked the presets for more common items and how it cycles the heat for the different items. It looks like it has a nice big convection fan as well. IF I had the money to burn, I'd consider this oven, but I personally couldn't justify spending the money when my fully functional B&D is still working.

 

-Tim

 

[passatdoc]

@macboy91si: agree, $250 is a major chunk of change. I wanted a toaster oven, but I only had a toaster. It was a KitchenAid two slice machine (thick slots, but standard width, did not accomodate long pieces of bread) which to be honest never really worked very well in the ten years I owned it. It had bagel and defrost buttons, but even at highest setting it never TOASTED very well. I had purchased it at Robinsons-May (now Macys) with a gift card, I think it was $40-45 or so and was proof that the KA label does not guarantee a quality product. About half of slice would be toasted on the bottom (deepest into the machine) but not on the outer half, and I could see that half of the wires inside were no longer glowing.

I would never toss out a functioning toaster oven that simply wasn't as large or feature-rich as a I wanted. There are close to 500 reviews posted on Amazon, with over 400 of them rated five stars, and most reviewers relate that they bought the Breville as a first time countertop oven, or they replaced something that died---as opposing to throwing out a working but smaller/older toaster oven.

My sister had given me a $150 Williams-Sonoma gift card that I misplaced and then found (3-4 years later) in a kitchen drawer. W-S had the oven temporarily on sale ($225 instead of $250), so I paid $75 plus the tax on $225. Under those circumstances, quite a deal. Even at $250, if someone is starting with no toaster oven or one that broke, the Breville is worth the money. It must have a computer chip in it or something, because it does vary the heat for special programs like defrosting and size of pizza. If you change the selector to pizza, the control changes to size of pizza rather than temp. You tell it how large the pizza is, it does the rest.

Note: it does not do automatic conversion for convection baking/roasting, which usually is 20-25 F less than the usual temperature, and maybe a few minutes less of cooking. You have to make the changes manually. Convection is the default setting for bake/broil/roast, but you can turn it off or leave it on, and you can reduce the temperature if called for. The timer and other controls are electronic, not manual.