On 5/13/2014 jordan2 said: On 5/13/2014 tkins said: On 5/13/2014 jordan2 said: On 5/13/2014 tkins said: Yea and another vote for the Breville Smart Oven. Have always had a toaster oven and would not be without one. I had Cuisinart Toaster/Convection Oven, that I loved, but they don't make that particular model any longer. My husband surprised me with the Breville Smart Oven for Christmas, when he noticed the Cuisinart was not browning/toasting/working as well as it used to. In the Cuisinarts defense, it was over 12 years old and used multiple times everyday. As other posters have mentioned, you can do so much with them now. There are two of us, aside from the usual toast and such, it is great for small batches of cookies, pot pies, openface toasted cheese sandwiches, french fries, onion rings and so much more and the best part is that it does not heat up the kitchen in the warmer months.
tkins
tkins do you have the large oven or the mini one? I'm thinking of getting a Breville but not sure which one to go with. Each one has their good points so I'm unsure which one to get. Price isn't a deciding factor for me. If the oven is good it will be worth the price.
I have the Breville Compact Smart Oven Model #BOV650XL/B It has a pretty small footprint 16 1/2 inches from left to right and 11 inches from back to front not counting the handle. I absolutely love it, it is really versatile and pretty user friendly, didn't take long to get familiar with it. We made a small batch of cookies to get a feel for it and then I read in the directions that there is a one time process to prepare the oven oops, I did do it after the fact anyway. Let me know if you have any other questions, I will check back in the morning.
tkins
Thanks for the feedback. The reason I'm leaning towards the larger oven is it is a convection oven too,I don't think the mini is. Also the larger one comes with a baking pan, broil pan, and pizza pan. I also think the rack comes forward when the door is opened. I wonder if the convection featured is really that important?
Hi jordan2, Always happy to help. Since my husband did the research on this originally and picked the one he thought best for us, I was not familiar with the Large and Mini version, so this morning (hence the delay in responding), I did a little of my own research and here are my thoughts. First, there does not seem to be much difference in size between the three models
Breville width depth
Mini Oven 14” 15.5”
Compact Oven 16.5” 15.5”
Smart Oven 18.5” 16.25
All three come with the baking pan and only mini version does not come with the broil pan. You mentioned that you like the fact that the large model comes with a pizza pan and has the auto rack eject feature in addition to the convection feature. After doing a quick price comparison on a few different websites to get get a rough idea and there may be some better deals, but it looks like those 3 options, the 2 extra inches on width and the 1 extra inch on depth, cost roughly an extra $70.00. Would those features be worth the extra $70.00 to you? You can get the pizza pan by itself for $19.99, but I did notice that a large number of reviewers were not happy with the Breville pizza pan, bubbling and flaking after a few uses. Honestly, I think as long as you stick with size listed for the oven you choose, you can find a better/less expensive pizza pan and additional baking pans (cookie sheets, regular and mini muffin pans, cake pans and so on) that will work just fine. I have a few nice sets of non-stick bakeware specifically for toaster ovens that I got years ago from here and Chefs catalog. Since these types of ovens are more popular now, they are probably better than the ones I got and easier to find.
Now to address the Convection aspect. When we bought our current house, the regular oven has a convection mode with two use options, one option lets you choose/convert the temperature and length of time to cook your food and the other option is an easy convect, which does all the thinking/converting for you, you tell it what the regular temperature and bake time is and it automatically converts it for you. At the time I didn't know that the oven could do that, so I did get some books that explained how to adapt recipes etc for convection cooking. If you do decide to go with the convection version, I recommend getting at least one book, if you are not familiar with convection cooking.
With regards to the convection feature, my Cuisinart Toaster Oven did have a convection mode and I did use it occasionally for small batches of french fries, reheating fried foods and those things that I wanted a little crisper, but my new Breville does not have a convection mode and I really don't miss it.
One of my favorite features that my new Breville has, is a frozen food setting and it just blew my mind the first time I used it. I was still getting familiar with it and had some frozen scone dough from Schwans and decided to use that as an experiment, it turned out perfectly cooked, beautifully browned and much faster than the regular oven. I have used it for a variety of frozen items and each time they are perfect. For regular use, I have made cookies, individual size homemade pot pies, crumb topped fruit pies, toast, which is always evenly browned and so much more.
In the end, my husband really does know me well, because after looking into the three different models, he chose the exact same one I would have and I research the heck out of things. I do apologize for the length of my response, but I wanted to make sure I covered everything, but if I didn't let me know, I would be happy to answer any other questions you may have. By the way, my experience with toaster ovens, goes way back to childhood, my family and my grandparents were never without one and I can honestly say aside from the first toaster oven my husband and I got when we got married, that lasted over 20 years (they don't make like that anymore) the Breville is probably the best one I have ever owned/used. Just think about the features that you really want and will use and decide from there. Good Luck.
tkins
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Living alone or empty nesters can benefit by using a toaster oven. Many come with wonderful features such as convection baking, built in rotisserie, and bump outs in the rear for larger pizzas as well as the standard features regularly found on toaster ovens. Check for the features you would prefer and definitely go for it. Remember a toaster oven is just like your larger oven in the fact it also needs to be preheated. (About 10 minutes) sometimes this is overlooked when baking broiling or roasting. Also look around your kitchen and see if you have smaller baking pans and dishes as most of us probably do. Also frozen pizza turns out better if it has been thawed before baking in oven with no pan for crispy crust. I even added a small pizza stone for making things crisper. Enjoy your new oven.
