Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We could not live without our Breville Smart Oven. It is the only toaster oven that is excellent for toast and actually broils and convection cooks at the chosen temperature.

... and has good warranty service.

Tim

I'm beginning to think I want/need one of these. Keep talking. Please.

fitzie

As I've said before...we are our own little economic recovery engine.

Amy

Wow, now I'm really sold. I can't get over to WS until next week, but I think it's a winner!!!!!!! Thanks again everyone!!!!

Merry Christmas to me.

Karen

I just finished making roast chicken in mine last night. I spatchcocked it (it actually fit fairly well in a quarter sheet pan) and it was done in about 35 minutes. With a bit of Penzey's 4s smokey salt, it was great. I have leftovers in the freezer for sandwiches or another dinner. It's also totally handy for appetizers, toast (the timer countdown letting you know when it will be done is handy for timing other things like your eggs), open faced sandwiches, broiling onion soup...pretty much the only thing I haven't done in it is bake.

If you get one, Karen, the quarter sheet pans from restaurant supply places are handy. They are sturdy aluminum ones like the large ones recommended by CI, and do not warp. I always either line with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy clean-up, and my life is so much easier for it. Since I'm cooking for one most of the time due to DH's travel schedule, it means I am actually willing to cook for myself since I don't have to heat up the whole oven. It pre-heats in about 5 minutes (rather than 15 - 20ish for my big oven), plus it has a timer countdown that turns the oven off once it is done (which is handy). I'm not a huge fan of the pans it came with (they warp), so tend to use the quarter sheet pans or my own ceramic stuff a lot (emile henry is broiler safe, so works well, as does the le creuset stoneware, but I have also used BIA gratin dishes, and most other oven safe dishes I own, and they've all been fine).

I wouldn't have gotten one if my oven hadn't been on backorder for 6 weeks when I needed warrantee replacement, but I always say to DH that if it were to die for any reason, I'd replace it the same day. My only regret is that I didn't buy the bamboo cutting board for the top of it when I had the chance. Now I can't find it anymore in stores here, and none of the online retailers which will ship here seem to carry it. I do, however, have the pizza stone and pizza crisper on order and en route, so I can report back about those.

The only real hitch I've run into with my BSO (Breville Smart Oven) is the cheesy drip pan.
It is not non-stick and over time it gets cruddy and cannot be cleaned....I've tried everything short of the dreaded oven-cleaner. I also think that the crud interferes with the radiant reflection and my toasting time seems to have increased.
I've recently placed a sheet of foil on top of the pan hoping to at least eliminate further build-up and, at best, maybe will help in reflecting the heat.

I use Dawn Power Dissolver (it's really oven cleaner) to clean our tray. It does mess up the finish but at least it is clean.

Tim

Thanks for the tip, I happen to have some on hand and I'll give it a try.

Dawn Power Disolver actually worked on my drip tray.
It took considerable elbow grease and an SOS pad with it, but the gunk came off.
Hurray!

I still love my Breville smart oven and still use it daily....but I've been noticing lately that my toast is not toasting quite as much as normal. I used to do everything on setting 4, and now it takes setting 5 (or 6) to get the same level of darkness. Has anyone else noticed this?

My unit is out of warranty (I've used it daily/multiple times per day now for almost 2 years) and it's still working fine for everything else. If it is putting out less heat on other functions, I haven't noticed, so it can't be that obvious. It's just curious about the toast, so I thought I'd see if anyone else had noticed anything similar.

As an aside, I also bought some Wegman's ceramic cooktop cleaner for my stove, and on a whim used it on the glass of the toaster oven. It works great for cleaning all that cooked on stuff off. Worked great on my full-sized oven door too. I ran it through a self-clean cycle and then finished up the glass with the cooktop cleaner. Took some elbow grease but worked like a charm.