The Best Cuisinart Toasters
The two Cuisinart toasters have virtually no flaws in toasting, aside from occasionally leaving slim pale lines around the edges. But even though you can see these pale edges, they’re so small that you won’t notice any difference in crunch when you’re eating your toast. We tested toasters using Murray’s bagels, which are the puffiest in New York City. The exterior should remain cool to the touch even after toasting, so that you don’t burn your fingers by accidentally touching the toaster. We interviewed experts like Peter Reinhart, acclaimed baker and cookbook author, to narrow the selection of toasters to test. Additionally, we read editorial reviews from sites including Good Housekeeping.
However, we’ve read customer reviews that say it fails prematurely, so we’re hesitant to recommend it, especially since it costs $180 . It has the same functionality as our two-slot Breville pick, the Bit More, as well as a button that automatically lifts and lowers your toast . We preferred this toaster over the four-slice cuisinart pots and pans set version of the Breville Bit More , which has two long slots that did not toast as evenly. The Smart Toaster is more expensive and will take up a considerable chunk of your countertop. But its exterior is built like a tank, and it offers more features than any other two- or four-slot model we considered.
The right countertop models can churn out all the power you need to complete a wide range of cooking tasks, from toasting and roasting to baking and broiling. Plus, they require a lot less power, which makes them much more energy-efficient machines. Unlike a toaster oven which requires no installation and is ready to use once plugged in, a conventional oven needs to be properly installed. Most of the time, the installation process is not difficult, but it takes time and effort, and sometimes more money. If you’re cooking for a large family or want to prepare a big dinner party, clearly, a full-size oven will be more appropriate. Besides an air fry feature that helps reduce the fat content of fried foods by up to 80%, this oven also offers several notable improvements in design and feature set.
Although the Cuisinart toasters would occasionally turn out toast with pale borders, the Breville’s toast emerged an even, golden brown from crust to center. This may be because the Breville heats up slower and has better temperature stability for more of the toasting cycle than the Cuisinarts . But this doesn’t mean the Breville’s heating elements are better than those of the Cuisinarts. Even though the Breville’s heating elements are slightly less brittle than the Cuisinart toasters’, they’re more susceptible to corrosion because they contain less chromium and aluminum. As with any toaster, to keep the heating elements intact, you should avoid shaking or banging the machine . But again, electrical failures are probably more likely to occur before the heating elements fail in either model.
We looked into long-slot toasters, which can hold larger slices of bread, such as sourdough, or two pieces of toast side by side. But in testing, these models produced bread with raw corners and burnt centers, so we focused on traditional two- and four-slice models. We think cutting longer pieces in half before toasting is an easy solution. Aside from a change in the materials used to make their heating elements, toasters haven’t changed much in the past century or so.
It’s got seven different functions to choose from , and boasts the capacity for 2 pounds of fries, six slices of bread or—according to Cuisinart—a 4-pound chicken. A. Especially if you don’t have an advanced bread slicer, it’s recommended to choose a model with wide or long slots. There are a number of two-slot s that will accommodate homemade bread slices.
An LCD display helps you easily select one of the many cooking functions, and an interior light automatically turns on when the door is open. Plus, it comes with a baking and broiling tray and nonstick pizza pan. Compared with traditional toaster ovens, these models heat up more quickly, so they will cook food faster and consume less energy, thus saving you time and money. Although they are usually pricer, they come with higher quality and all sorts of useful functions to simplify the cooking process, such as the built-in cooking presets, digital display, and automatic sensors.
(this was the #1 recommendation!) I LOVE the Breville brand (it’s what our old toaster oven was) but this one just had more functions than we needed and I didn’t want to spend that much. Plus, the bottom portion (you know, where crumbs fall and then start burning?) has a CRUMB TRAY. Which honestly I didn’t even know until I went to write this post and discovered it! (So, proof you don’t have to clean it too often. ?) But it’s GENIUS! All you have to do is pull out the crumb tray, wipe it off, and put it back in.
Those with digital displays are also easy to operate, and a quick read of the user manual will prepare you for successful toasting. Basic Cuisinart toasts with simple functions cost between $30 and $50. For two- and four-slot models with additional features, expect to spend closer to $70.
Initially, we liked the design of the Dash DVTS501 Clear View 2-Slice Toaster, which allows you to toast a long slice of sourdough bread. Unfortunately, we found its long, slender shape awkward to use and not conducive to every space. Like the Zwilling, this model toasted inconsistently from batch to batch and completely failed to toast during one round of our back-to-back tests. Occasionally, it popped toast out of the slots so aggressively that they ended up on the floor. Although we’re unable to run this level of analysis on every new toaster we test, we suspect this quality of construction is fairly standard for most modern toasters.