Breville "smart oven"

[tikidoc]

For those thinking of getting one of these ovens, sign up at Bed Bath and Beyond and they will send you a 20% off coupon for one item. They sell the Breville oven for $250, so the coupon gets it down to $200.

I really love mine. I have even based ciabatta in it using the convection setting. It does a great job and heats up very quickly. I need to put my oven thermometer in it to check temperatures, but as far as cook times, it has been spot on with most recipes, so I suspect it is pretty close.

Jess

[mgaretz]

For those thinking of getting one of these ovens, sign up at Bed Bath and Beyond and they will send you a 20% off coupon for one item. They sell the Breville oven for $250, so the coupon gets it down to $200.

I really love mine. I have even based ciabatta in it using the convection setting. It does a great job and heats up very quickly. I need to put my oven thermometer in it to check temperatures, but as far as cook times, it has been spot on with most recipes, so I suspect it is pretty close.

Jess

I bought mine the same way a few weeks ago and I love it so far!

[paulraphael]

...

I have been following this discussion with interest. I currently have the Cuisinart Brick Oven and I can get 1/4 sheet pans in it too. When it finally bites the dust, I will be looking at the Breville as a replacement. Being able to use 1/4 sheet pans has now become something I am not prepared to sacrifice!

So my Brick oven finally bit the dust - it no longer maintains its temperature. Suspect it may be something simple like dirty contacts and my SIL will be attempting to repair it. However, living without a small oven is not something I am prepared to do so I pulled the trigger and bought the Breville Smart Oven. .... Once you get over these quirks the oven is a joy to use. It's early yet as I have only had it for a week or two but so far, so good.

I'm curious to hear your updates. I have the Cuisinart brick oven and it has NEVER maintained temperature accurately. I sent back my first one because of this and the second one had the same problem, so it's basically only usefull for toast and broiling. It's adequate for these things but in my mind very underpowered.

I wonder how quickly the Breville makes toast, and how subjectively powerful the broiler is. If it's as good as all that, I may decide my brick oven is truly a brick.

[mgaretz]

...

I have been following this discussion with interest. I currently have the Cuisinart Brick Oven and I can get 1/4 sheet pans in it too. When it finally bites the dust, I will be looking at the Breville as a replacement. Being able to use 1/4 sheet pans has now become something I am not prepared to sacrifice!

So my Brick oven finally bit the dust - it no longer maintains its temperature. Suspect it may be something simple like dirty contacts and my SIL will be attempting to repair it. However, living without a small oven is not something I am prepared to do so I pulled the trigger and bought the Breville Smart Oven. .... Once you get over these quirks the oven is a joy to use. It's early yet as I have only had it for a week or two but so far, so good.

I'm curious to hear your updates. I have the Cuisinart brick oven and it has NEVER maintained temperature accurately. I sent back my first one because of this and the second one had the same problem, so it's basically only usefull for toast and broiling. It's adequate for these things but in my mind very underpowered.

I wonder how quickly the Breville makes toast, and how subjectively powerful the broiler is. If it's as good as all that, I may decide my brick oven is truly a brick.

I got a Breville recently and it's great. It makes toast quickly (and you can make 6 slices at once). The broiler is very powerful. It preheats very quickly. My gas oven preheats so slow that it seems like a I can bake something in the Breville and be done in the time it takes to preheat the gas oven!

[Anna N]

....

I wonder how quickly the Breville makes toast, and how subjectively powerful the broiler is. If it's as good as all that, I may decide my brick oven is truly a brick.

The Smart Oven asks you to set the number of slices you wish to toast and you can set the lightness/darkness level. If you want to toast 6 slices very dark then it takes 5-6 minutes.

The broiler is powerful, however, if you use the supplied broiler tray and rack I find it puts things very, very close to the elements. If you have something fairly thick to broil then you might run into a problem. I tend to use a 1/4 sheet pan with a rack instead of the supplied pan to gain a little distance from the element. Overall I am still highly impressed with this oven.

[Alex]

I wonder how quickly the Breville makes toast, and how subjectively powerful the broiler is. If it's as good as all that, I may decide my brick oven is truly a brick.

It depends on what and how much and how dark you're toasting. It also depends on whether you're starting with a cold (i.e. room temp) interior or one that's already heated up from the previous toasting or other use. For us, the first two slices of multi-grain bread, medium darkness (setting #4), are done in four minutes. Two frozen bagel halves take five minutes. Banana bread, for some reason, takes a little longer.

I haven't used the broiler much, but keeping in mind the size of the unit, it seems pretty efficient and even-heating to me.

[Sid Post]

I have used my 800XL for about 18 months continously. If I wasn't living in an extended stay motel for a long period of time, I probably would never have known how good a toaster oven could be.

I routinely cook pork chops, steaks, etc. in mine with the broiler with good results. Hamburgers are easy but, the steaks and other thicker things like chicken thighs need to be put on the middle rack position since they are too thick for the top slot and would touch the cooking element.

Frozen pizzas turn out great. The convenction cooking feature cooks quickly and evenly. Be sure to turn the heat down a notch to keep from over browning the cheese and crust.

Toast and bread are set and forget things. The darkness control makes optimal browning very easy. Toast, muffins, and bagels are done before coffee is ready even when coffee is started first.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Sid Post (log)

[GlowingGhoul]

After using many models over the years, the 800XL was a pleasent surprise. Performs very well, excellent amount of room inside, and aesthetically pleasing enough to reside on the counter next to other high end small appliances.

My only gripe is quality control and the tactile feedback of the knobs. I bought and returned 2 for arriving with dents, scratches, and a warped crumb tray that pulled out every time I opened the door. The knobs feel sloppy and the clicks as you turn them are indistinct.

That said, it's the best model on the market by far IMHO, and once you get a good one, it's a very nice unit overall. We use it every day.

[gfweb]

...

I have been following this discussion with interest. I currently have the Cuisinart Brick Oven and I can get 1/4 sheet pans in it too. When it finally bites the dust, I will be looking at the Breville as a replacement. Being able to use 1/4 sheet pans has now become something I am not prepared to sacrifice!

So my Brick oven finally bit the dust - it no longer maintains its temperature. Suspect it may be something simple like dirty contacts and my SIL will be attempting to repair it. However, living without a small oven is not something I am prepared to do so I pulled the trigger and bought the Breville Smart Oven. So far I am very impressed though it is one appliance where reading the manual really is important. There you will find that the pre-heat temperature is only 80% of the set temperature and that the temperature should be taken with the rack in the "toast" position. The rational offered by Breville for the 80% is that you will lose 20% of the heat when you open the door to put your pan in there. Seems reasonable until you figure that it is STILL going to lose 20% of its heat only now it is really 40%! So after a rather depressing result with my first attempt at bread baking I have learned to put a thermometer in there and wait until it actually reaches the set temperature.

The other thing I have noticed is that it appears to automatically adjust for convection so it adjusts the set temperature down by 25F if you chose the convection option.

Once you get over these quirks the oven is a joy to use. It's early yet as I have only had it for a week or two but so far, so good.

Any more bread experience with the smart oven?

[lindag]

After reading all the reviews shere I've placed my order for the 800XL today.

One thing I'd particularly like to use it for is baking bread.

Has anyone done this successfully?

Any tips or comments would be appreciated.

[Anna N]

After reading all the reviews shere I've placed my order for the 800XL today.

One thing I'd particularly like to use it for is baking bread.

Has anyone done this successfully?

Any tips or comments would be appreciated.

The issue with bread will only happen if you are baking a loaf in a 9x5 or similar pan and it really rises! There simply is not enough height in the oven to accommodate a high risen loaf. You have about 5.5 inches between the top of the shelf in its lowest position and the heating element (and that is without a pizza stone in place). Other than that I have baked lots of bread with no issues and it does a fine job.

There is no possibility of putting a pan of water on the bottom of the oven so I spray the loaves prior to baking. I have a pizza stone in the oven when baking free form. It was one I had in the house, 13 inches in circumference, and it just fits as there is a `bay`` to accommodate the supplied pizza pan.

[gfweb]

Do you have baguette or french bread pans that fit the smart oven?

[mgaretz]

After reading all the reviews shere I've placed my order for the 800XL today.

One thing I'd particularly like to use it for is baking bread.

Has anyone done this successfully?

Any tips or comments would be appreciated.

I have made challah a few times and it came out great.

[tikidoc]

I have done ciabatta a bunch of times and it worked great.

[Anna N]

Do you have baguette or french bread pans that fit the smart oven?

Not me but I have never used them even in my full-size oven.

[lindag]

Anna,

Those are some killer loaves! Won't have my oven until Monday; were those baked one-at-a-time?

It'll be interesting to experiment with different shapes, although mostly I bake 9x5 loaves for toasting or sandwiches.

I did order the Breville pizza stone at the same time as I like to do homemade pizza as well.

[Anna N]

Anna,

Those are some killer loaves! Won't have my oven until Monday; were those baked one-at-a-time?

It'll be interesting to experiment with different shapes, although mostly I bake 9x5 loaves for toasting or sandwiches.

I did order the Breville pizza stone at the same time as I like to do homemade pizza as well.

Thank you. No, they are mini baguettes and were baked 2 at a time. You can, of course, use the diagonal of the oven to get more room lengthwise. I think it is around 17 inches edge to edge so you would have to make your loaves a bit smaller than that but it is something to think about. I hope you don't run into issues with the 9x5 if you are using a bread pan as there is not much height to play with. I did mention this earlier.

[gfweb]

Thanks, Anna et al. Got the thing yesterday and I love it. Warms up quick and has intuitive controls. Baguettes came out great.

The thing does down-temp when convention is on, which I don't see the point of. Set for 400 and you get an actual 360 on convection (though it says 400). The fix is to keep convection off till warmed-up, put in the food and then turn on convection. Then you get the 400 you asked-for.

Engineers think too much sometimes.

[Anna N]

Another quirk I discovered today is that it assumes you will not be cooking anything for more than 2 hours - reasonable except when you love slow braises! It is a safety feature but a damned nuisance for us slow cooking fans.

[Marlene]

Another quirk I discovered today is that it assumes you will not be cooking anything for more than 2 hours - reasonable except when you love slow braises! It is a safety feature but a damned nuisance for us slow cooking fans.

Yes that's a bit of a drawback.

[sahmd]

I got mine a few months ago and am very pleased. Roasted my first chicken in it tonight, so I thought I'd share. It was delicious. :-)

[Anna N]

I got mine a few months ago and am very pleased. Roasted my first chicken in it tonight, so I thought I'd share. It was delicious. :-)

Out of curiosity how big was your chicken (oh and thanks for sharing ).

[lindag]

In reading the instruction booklet that came with my 800XL (which arrived yesterday, thankyouverymuch)

I see that they recommend whole chicken be no larger than 4.5 lbs. I'm impressed! That's pretty darned big for a toaster oven!

Anyway, I plan to start putting my oven through its paces today; starting with a bagel, a fresh pizza...maybe some frozen fishsticks, a guilty fave from Costco.

Speaking of the fishsticks, I'm thinking that they'd go on the bottom shelf on the 'bake' setting(?)

Package instructions say bake at 400° convection for 9-11 minutes in a conventional oven.

[mgaretz]

Speaking of the fishsticks, I'm thinking that they'd go on the bottom shelf on the 'bake' setting(?)

Package instructions say bake at 400° convection for 9-11 minutes in a conventional oven.

That's the place to start, but watch them as you get close to 9 minutes. Sometimes the Breville cooks things more efficiently than a full size oven.

[sahmd]

It was a bit over 4 pounds, stuffed with lemon, onion, garlic, and rosemary. 15 min at 400F (convection), then a bit less than an hour at 375. Crisp skin and juicy (white and dark) meat.

Next time I may start it a bit higher and pull it out a bit sooner, but it was pretty darn good.