Luckily, the varied colors partially meant varied textures which were all good and deserving an 8/10. The golden brown areas had a more crispy outside while the light golden areas had a softer inside. Our head chef Tuyet Pham determined that it would go great with omelets, eggs benedict, and sandwiches but not so much with soup. Although it can toast 6 slices at once, in our tests, it didn’t brown the slices in the front as evenly as the ones in the back. In spite of the fact that they needed 18 minutes to cook to a medium doneness, the burgers were more gray than brown, although they were moist and juicy.
Toasting, baking, and broiling — a quality toaster oven can do it all, and when you’re searching for quality at an affordable price, look no further than a hamilton beach. When you want to make perfect toast, and plenty of it, it’s easy to toast six or more slices of bread at once in a toaster oven. But if more than just toast takes your fancy, all Hamilton Beach toaster ovens can bake and broil, and some have even more cooking functions, such as air frying and convection cooking.
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? Need your potatoes, pies or side dishes baked while your main course is taking up the oven?
Corner to corner, no other oven was as consistent (aside from the exorbitantly priced Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven). Similarly priced large toaster ovens (like ones from Breville and KitchenAid) concentrated heat in the center of the oven and had more significant fall-off of heat toward the edges. The FlashXpress made crispy-yet-melty Bagel Bites that were more consistently browned from one edge of the pan to the other.
The Hamilton Beach Air Fryer Sure Crisp Toaster Oven is considerably smaller and less expensive than the other models we tested. It doesn’t sport electronic controls or a lot of fancy features and settings. While it’s baking performance was disappointing and it’s not large enough to roast a chicken, it shines at toasting and does a credible job of air frying. We received this toaster oven a couple years ago as a Christmas gift. It is a great size, fits nicely on our counter top, and does a great job of cooking.
This seemed odd to me at first, but with kids in the house, I’m glad to have the auto-shutoff safety feature. The oven also has a broiler which is nice if you’re looking to make crostinis or melt some cheese on a loaf of garlic bread. The 2-in-1 comes with a tray for baking and broiling and there’s a crumb tray on the bottom which is easy to remove and empty. It was not too expensive and it does a pretty good job at many things. I am able to toast bread pretty quick and it comes out looking golden brown and crispy. I have also been able to broil and bake many kinds of meats like chicken, beef and pork and the meats come out tasting juicy and delicious.
It offers just three temperature settings—350 °F, 400 °F, and 450 °F—plus four presets, and it can only fit two pieces of bread. The Balmuda has other design flaws (a flap on the door) and twee impracticalities (the easy-to-lose steam cup), and ultimately, we found it to be just a snazzy-looking hamilton beach air fryer prototype at best. The FlashXpress’s one annoying quirk is that you can’t add time or change the temperature midway through a preset cooking cycle (although you can change the toast shade settings). This means you have to turn the Panasonic off and back on again to adjust it.
The timer on our upgrade pick, the Breville Pro, also begins counting down once the oven is preheated. However, it will pause the timer when you open the oven door, whereas the Cuisinart doesn’t. However, after the chicken test, there were burnt bits stuck to the upper heating element’s guard and grease on the cooking chamber’s ceiling. There was ample space between the ceiling and the upper heating element, so we proceed to try every cleaning method possible.
The bottom of the oven acts as a detachable crumb tray which not only makes it easy to remove the falling bits and crumbs but also to clean the entire interior. Some Hamilton Beach toaster ovens have preset programs for common foods, such as bagels and pizza. These are especially useful when you’re new to the world of toaster ovens and aren’t sure of the cooking times for your favorite foods. The majority of Hamilton Beach toaster ovens have simple dial controls, but some high-end models have touchpad controls with a digital display.