T-Fal Avante Elite Convection Toaster Oven
The T-Fal OT-8085002 (or the "Avante Elite Convection Toaster Oven") is a convection toaster oven manufactured by T-Fal USA, which is related to a French brand and makes all kinds of cookware. Convection means that it cooks the food by pushing heated air over the food using a fan. It's designed to be both quick and to cook foods evenly. This model is 1600 watts, and can be used to bake, broil, or reheat foods. You can use it like a standard toaster for bread, or pretty much any kind of food. With bread, it's got nine different settings for how brown you want it to be. It costs roughly $100 on Amazon, but it can vary.
Here's a picture of it taken out of the box:
The Controls:
You can see a picture of what the controls look like here:
One problem I had with this: setting the clock does not work as described. It's supposed to speed up as you keep the button held down (i.e., change the time a lot faster). That didn't happen for me - it kept the exact same speed. So to actually set the time, you're going to be sitting there for awhile as it slowly adds minutes. Not a good thing if you ever get a power outage.
Making Toast:
This requires you to only press a couple of buttons: the toast button, selecting your level of toasting, and then start. I didn't find it hard to do at all.
Here's a picture of the first round - trying a single slice of toast on setting "4" (the default):
Here's the toast result - it came out perfectly:
I decided to run another slice through on the "2" setting to see what happened:
Here's the main problem I had with the toasting function: it's not consistent. The first one I tried, "4," came out perfectly. The second one I tried, "2," is supposed to be a lower setting - but it came out a little more toasted on top. The third one I tried was the lowest - "1" - and it just made the bread a little crisp without actually toasting it. You can see them compared on top here:
On the left is "1," middle is "2," the third one over is a "4."
Here's what they look like on the bottom, where it actually came out closer to what the numbers would make you expect:
So it was kind of hit or miss on the toasting. None of them were burnt or inedible - in fact, both the "2" and the "4" were perfectly fine in my opinion. I just didn't have as much control as I would have liked over how toasted the bread ends up being. Part of this may be that I'd already done one toasting and there was still warm air in there. But I still would have liked some more precision.
Baking a Cookie:
Here was my first effort at baking a cookie:
I set it at 350 degrees, 13 minutes on the timer. The timer was a little more painful than I would have liked. Basically, they've chosen to minimize the number of buttons, but the result of that is you end up hitting them a lot more. So it defaults to 30, and I have to hit the minus button 17 times to take that down. This was kind of annoying - I'd prefer to have some numbers I could enter or a dial.
Here's what it came out like fresh out of the toaster oven:
It came out pretty well and tasted fine.
The Bread Warmer:
This is one of the features they hype. You can see it here:
It's a nice feature, but there is one downside to it: you can't really use it when you're using the oven part. They say you can, and technically that's true. The problem is, if the oven is on, the warmer is being heated by air from the oven. So it's actually cooking, not just warming. So a good idea in theory, and good for once you've completed all your cooking - but it's not going to be a place you can store stuff mid-session if you're still cooking something else.
Extras:
It comes with several extra trays and a set of tongs. Here's some pictures of them:
All of the pans together:
The advantages:
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The room. It's a little bigger than standard, 11 inches. That means you can fit slightly more inside. One big plus for having this is that it can fit most frozen pizzas
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Controls are easy to use and aren't very complicated
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Takes up a lot less energy than a standard oven
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Has a "bread warmer" feature for when you just want to warm something up, but not really cook it. It's basically a separate area in the oven.
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Nearly silent
The disadvantages:
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The baking racks slide out very easily - that can be a problem if you aren't expecting it, because you can easily think you're just getting the baking pan.
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Have to click the buttons a lot to get anywhere. This is particularly bad in setting the clock, which can take a really long time.
It costs around $105. For the price range, I think it's a pretty decent option. Cheaper ones I've tested (under $50) have mostly been junk. My verdict is - I liked it, and I liked the features, but it wasn't perfect. If you've got the money to spend, you might go higher. If this is your price point and you don't want to spend another $50 or $100, this isn't a bad choice. More money will get rid of several minor annoyances and may get you a better control system - but functionally, I think this is a good toaster oven. You can buy it online here.
Company Website:
http://www.t-falusa.com/tefal/default.asp
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