Toaster Oven Features

Toaster ovens have many advantages beyond toasting a slice of bread. These small appliances do what larger ovens do but for smaller amounts of food and they take up less space.

Baking or broiling with the main gas oven uses lots of energy and can get the house too warm especially on hot summer days. For smaller baking or broiling jobs, a countertop toaster oven uses less energy and doesn’t heat up the house to uncomfortable levels.

Home cooks shopping for a new toaster oven will discover there are many convenient features available in toaster ovens.

To bake a chicken and even a 12″ pizza, a toaster oven such as the Cuisinart TOB-195 Convection Toaster Oven has plenty of room. This Cuisinart toaster oven has the look of a commercial oven. It is operated by digital display and electronic touchpad.

Several toaster ovens, such as the Krups FBC2 6-Slice Digital Convection Toaster Oven include convection heating for faster baking. The Krups toaster ovens with the convection feature have a patented quartz technology for even heating.

Some toaster ovens such as the Black & Decker CTO6301 6-Slice Convection Toast-R-Oven, include an auto shutoff function after baking is done — a safety feature that gives peace of mind.

Other convenient feature some of the newer toaster ovens have are slide-out crumb trays, non-stick interior surfaces, oven light and rotisserie grill.

Although having a toaster oven makes baking smaller meals convenient, some models can get extremely hot on the outside surfaces — so be careful near one that’s on and keep it a safe distance away from younger children.