Can You Bake With A Toaster Oven?

Is it practical to bake with a toaster oven? Can you actually make bake goods properly with a smaller, countertop toaster oven?  Are toaster ovens really ovens?  The answer to all of those questions is a resounding YES!  Toaster ovens are real ovens.  They get to and maintain temperatures the same way a traditional oven does.  Cookies that bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes in a traditional oven will do the same in a good toaster oven.

Learn What A Toaster Oven Can Do

A toaster oven is not a microwave.  It will not cook a frozen meal in 90 seconds, it is a completely different kitchen appliance.  It’s small like a microwave, but it serves a completely different purpose in your home kitchen.

What tends to confuse people about a toaster oven is its size.  Most toaster ovens are around 20″ long, about 15″ deep and about 10″ high.  Despite the small size, this appliance can do almost everything that a full sized oven can do.  It is designed for baking and broiling and it does both tasks very well.

Toaster ovens have glass front doors.  This allows you to watch the process of any food that you are baking, making it easy to check on foods than a traditional oven.  There is usually only one rack in a toaster oven, although a few have two.  Obviously this oven is meant for smaller pans and trays, your usual 16″ X 12″ large cookie sheet just isn’t going to fit inside a toaster oven.

Many Toaster Ovens Are Also Convection Ovens

A convection oven is an oven that uses fans to circulate the hot air, meaning that foods cook faster and more evenly.  Many toaster ovens have this feature, it makes them even more convenient for baking small batches of food.  The convection process doesn’t require any special actions by the baker, it just moves the hot air around the inside of the oven.

What can you bake in a toaster oven?  Almost anything that you can bake in a regular oven.  Pies and cakes turn out great, although you won’t be able to bake a sheet cake in a toaster oven.  Again, the pan is just too large.  Cookies bake up very nicely, and one benefit of a toaster oven is that you can bake just a few cookies and not heat up the whole house.  Almost all types of baking can be done in a toaster oven.

Drawbacks to a toaster oven are few but they are important.  As mentioned, you are limited by size.  While a pie usually fits just fine, large pans don’t fit and won’t work.  Baking a lasagna works fine but again you will need to use a smaller pan.  Broiling is possible with most toaster ovens, but it doesn’t always work as advertised.

So check out a toaster oven!  It takes less space than you would expect, it doesn’t heat up your kitchen and you can bake just about anything that you want.  It’s a great small appliance.