Bake, broil and toast by switching cooking modes easily with the slide of a lever. If dual functionality, space-saving design and ease of use are your top criteria for countertop appliances, then take a look at this combination mini oven and toaster. Odds are you won’t be sharing much of the frozen foods you cook in the Easy Reach. Due to its compact size, it barely accommodates a 9-inch pizza, while the most other ovens fit a standard size 12-inch pizza. If tater tots are your thing, this oven will struggle to fit half a bag’s worth.
At just 9 x 18 x 14 inches, it easily fits under a cabinet and doesn’t take up excess countertop space. I had the same toaster oven for about 13 years, and I loved it. It was the Hamilton Beach Toastation, a combination mini-oven and toaster. What made the Toastation unique is that it had a slot on top like a standard toaster but it was also a small oven that could bake or broil.
Features a 30-minute timer with auto shutoff and toast, bake, and broil settings. When compared to all of our other cooking and baking tests, we feel the Easy Reach 4-Slice is best at toasting. As its name denotes, it can toast four slices of bread at once.
One such smart oven worth mentioning comes from Brava, and it’s the most expensive model we’ve tested at $1,295. This oven cooks with infrared light like the Panasonic FlashXpress and relies on intelligent preset cooking programs to do all the thinking or you. Consider both the counter space you have to devote to your toaster and what you’ll typically use it to cook and how much of it you’ll be cooking.
However, I’m accustomed to precise digital controls and presets and wished for those as I turned the dials. Considering its versatility and roomy interior, I found the price was very reasonable. This could be an oven replacement for pretty much everything except the Thanksgiving turkey or other massive meals. The removable accessories were as easy to wash as most bakeware I have, which is good because hand washing is recommended to preserve the longevity of the items.
Toasters are good for more than just breakfast, however — these compact ovens can toast, bake, and broil and reheat with the best of them. After testing several models for speed and evenness, Panasonic’s speedy FlashXpress turned in the best overall stats to earn its spot as the best toaster in 2023. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was ordering an air fryer.
A small one could take 30 minutes whereas an average size potato will take about 40 minutes. They cook up beautifully and will be some of the best baked potatoes you’ve ever had. Air Frying has become all the hype and for good reason, they cook up the food quickly, don’t heat up the house, and you enjoy most of your favorite dishes without having to deep fry it. There are several sub-categories of toaster ovens that perform a series of different cooking tasks.
The oven is only big enough to toast two full bagels at a time. The half-bagel slices in the front toasted perfectly, while those in the rear of the oven hamilton beach were paler and less crispy. Overall, we gave the Easy Reach higher than average marks for toasting and feel it does an acceptable job with this metric.
Ideally, you’ll want them all to come out looking as close to identical as possible. It also preheats extremely fast, holds the heat well and has intuitive controls. Toaster ovens are an essential small kitchen appliance because, let’s be honest, you’re not firing up that big gas stove just to brown a bagel.