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.
The baking pan is correctly sized to keep messy food from dripping directly onto the heating elements. It slides into the brackets on the baking rack’s underside, so it’s a perfect fit. Unfortunately, though it has a coating, it isn’t completely non-stick so it can accumulate some stains after a tough roasting mission. We could fit four slices of toast, a 9-inch pizza but we could barely fit a 3 lb chicken inside the Mueller, unlike the same-sized Breville BOV450XL.
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.
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.
Technically, you’ve got to set three different dials and move the rack just to toast a slice of bread. And you’ve got to be sure to put that slice of bread in the center of the rack for even toasting. Even Heating
You have to be very precise when “throwing” in your slice of bread or Pop-Tarts. Ease of Cleaning
Removable crumb tray is going to be a huge bonus. Just to toast, have to set temperature to toast, move the rack, change setting to toast, and set timer.
With multiple cooking features, innovative technology, automatic shut off, thirty minute timer, and a spacious interior, this was an amazing option at an affordable price. A black pan can be used for roasting, baking, or catching drippings when using the rotisserie. A smaller silver pan and a coordinating broiler rack can be used for roasting small foods as well as for baking.
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 toaster oven. 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.
Additionally, as a Japanese appliance, the Panasonic FlashXpress is designed around degrees Celsius for temperature input. There’s a converted-to-Fahrenheit selector on the temperature indicator, but the markings are oddly spaced. You can get either 425 °F or 390 °F, but nothing in between (we chose 390 °F). But this idiosyncrasy didn’t negatively impact any of the items we cooked—most toaster ovens heat at least 10 to 15 degrees over or under the set temperature anyway.
Keep in mind this high-quality item is made of durable metal and is sold individually. As previously mentioned, the Easy Reach struggles to maintain temperature. During our tests, we strategically placed calibrated thermometers inside the oven. After setting the desired hamilton beach temperature, we allowed the oven to preheat and then checked the temperature at timed intervals. We toasted just one slice of large white bread in each model, aiming for medium brown toast. The time it takes to toast a full batch of bread at the medium setting.