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My love affair with small appliances started early.
The Easy-Bake oven was my first glimpse of the magic that could come from a miniature box, leading to some experiments with microwave cooking—think nachos and Rice Krispie Treat bowls—at my toddler height. The minute I got my own off-campus apartment at university, I invested in my own toaster oven.
Twenty-odd years later, toaster oven technology has gone far beyond the analog dial and hot coils of my first model. But my love for the small oven remains strong and it is the most used appliance in my daily life.
The word “oven” is crucial in its name because it does everything my full-sized conventional oven can do and more. In fact, it’s not just a toaster oven; It’s a countertop oven.
If I had to choose to keep just one of my kitchen toys – the high-speed blender, the mixer, the ice cream maker with compressor, the multicooker – the countertop oven would probably win out. (OK, I admit it would be hard to give up the mixer.) This is where my commitment to my countertop oven reaches. Here are the reasons.
The toaster oven is the original multitasker
Instead of having several appliances occupying my kitchen counter, the mini oven does the work of many. It toasts bread and bagels, of course, but it also has the ability to convection bake, air fry, dehydrate, and ferment dough.
Its grill is spacious enough and works much more efficiently than the grill in my conventional oven, and I don’t even risk breaking my back to shove baking trays into the bottom drawer of the large oven. (Who designed those bottom drawers, anyway?)
My countertop oven is also my secret weapon in the fight for better leftovers. When I create a monthly meal plan, I always plan on reheating half of what I’m cooking, so this is a crucial feature. AND, as most dishes are better when not cooked in the microwave, I let my countertop oven restore the original, crispy, bubbly texture of my meals. No more soggy chops or mushy pasta casseroles in this house!
A countertop oven is a quick solution
Yes, I understand that a countertop oven will never heat food as quickly as the one-minute express cook button on a microwave. But I will argue that the flavor trade-offs are worth it and that you will still be heating food and cooking more quickly than you would in a large conventional oven.
My countertop oven preheats to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (232 degrees Celsius) in five minutes (I timed it), while my large oven takes 15 minutes to reach the same temperature. That’s a big difference – I can finish eating my leftover, but perfectly warmed, pizza in those 10 minutes!
Plus, the convection and frying functions on my countertop oven cook food faster and more efficiently than conventional heat, since the convection method circulates hot air around the food, for more even heat distribution. I can save at least five minutes on baking time every time I prepare meals in the countertop oven.
When our kitchen’s decades-old range finally went to the great scrap heap in the sky a few years ago, I refused to replace it with high-end models. My top-of-the-line countertop oven is half the price you would buy a regular oven for, and I use it twice as much.
It’s a summer savior
I will never forget the testing process for my first cookbook, “Classic Snacks Made from Scratch,” during a sweltering New Jersey summer. It was July and I was working on several homemade cookie recipes, which meant leaving the oven on for hours – in a house without central air conditioning.
Between sessions, I lay on the kitchen floor, sweating and crying, wondering why I was voluntarily subjecting myself to such torture.
I don’t have central air conditioning yet, but luckily I’m not regularly tasked with developing and testing multiple baked goods every day of the week. However, for everyday baking and baking in the summer, I will use my countertop oven, which puts out much less heat than my large oven and cools much more quickly when the cooking cycle is finished.
If I want to bake some treats that require larger pans or multiple pans, I simply I will roast on the grill.
What to look for in a countertop oven
So I convinced him to ditch all his other appliances and replace them with a countertop oven. Excellent! But before you rush out to buy one, think about which oven best suits your cooking habits.
Choose a model that matches your everyday kitchen utensils and bakeware. My countertop oven is deep and wide enough to fit a standard 9-by-13-inch (23-by-33-centimeter) casserole dish or baking dish or a 10-inch (25-centimeter) round baking dish or cast-iron skillet. This means I can prepare meals for up to six or eight people in one small appliance.
Size matters. Yes, choosing a smaller oven can be tempting when it comes to keeping your kitchen open and tidy. For greater versatility, however, I recommend choosing the largest model that fits comfortably in the space you plan to use it in. Your food needs air to circulate around it in the oven to cook more efficiently, so having a space that is too small to allow this won’t do you any favors.
Consider what extra functions you will need. As I noted earlier, my countertop oven comes with a lot of features – including some functions that I don’t even bother using. I’ve never tried the slow cook function, for example, even though it’s there. Some models come with WiFi functionality so you can control them via an app. Decide if these things are worth the money you are going to spend on them.
*Casey Barber is a food writer, artist and editor of the website Good Food Stories.
