Small toaster ovens are much lighter and easier to tuck away in a cupboard. Check the number of slices of bread your chosen hamilton beach toaster toaster oven can handle at once. How well the toasters or toaster ovens produced a batch of even, medium-brown toast.
We noticed that crumbs tended to accumulate on the inner ledge at the base of the oven’s door. However, we found it easy to brush them onto the crumb tray using a pastry brush or a paper towel. In our last round of testing, in April 2021, we tried out two trendier models that ultimately couldn’t compete with our picks. It’s important to think about both the internal and external size of any toaster oven you’re considering.
But fewer heating elements aren’t necessarily an indication of poor toasting performance. If the oven cavity is small, two elements are enough to regulate heat. That said, avoid larger toaster ovens with only a couple of elements because they won’t be able to distribute heat evenly. The more heating elements a toaster oven has, the bigger and more expensive it will be. Without a doubt, the Cuisinart distributed heat evenly across its voluminous cavity, toasting nine slices of bread in a single batch to near golden-brown perfection.
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 prototype at best. Balmuda’s The Toaster is a $300 appliance that’s different from most other toaster ovens because it steams bread while it toasts. In theory, it’s supposed to help keep the “inner moisture and flavor from escaping,” but we’re not convinced it makes a difference. In fact, we weighed white sandwich bread and rustic sourdough bread before and after toasting to see how much moisture the bread retained. On average, plain white sandwich bread actually retained less moisture when toasted in the Balmuda than when toasted in our top pick, the Cuisinart. The KitchenAid KCO211BM Digital Countertop Toaster Oven didn’t toast as evenly as our picks, and several slices of bread were burned in patches on the bottom.
You’ll find the Hamilton Beach 31344D Roll Top Toaster easy to clean after each use thanks to the included bread crumb tray and the removable glass roll top door. The unit is smaller than other hamilton beach toaster models on the market, but still cooks up to four slices of toast at a time, as well as a 9-inch pizza. There are also two rack positions, so you can bake or broil your favorite foods.
Since most of the door is glass, I suggest not slamming it in either direction and making it a point to close it gently. At 15 inches high, 23.4 inches wide, and 18 inches hamilton beach toaster oven deep, this is a fairly large oven that eats quite a bit of countertop space. Fortunately, it’s not an unattractive piece, so it could sit out if it’s used every day.