People have been toasting bread since they first discovered how to cook unleavened flour and water mixtures. In fact, the earliest bread recipes involved burning the bread for consumption.
Over the millennia, people learned how delicious bread can be when it is allowed to darken moderately. In the past, this was done by dangling the piece of baked goods over open flames. Eventually, it evolved into the modern methods we know today such as toasters.
The toast itself can come in different forms depending on what equipment is used and what is being made. Pan toast, french toast, oven toast, and grill toast are good examples. Even grilled cheese sandwiches are technically toasted.
If you want the simple and direct kind, the five toasters list we have here will surely help you decide. They are durable, effective, and reliable. Take a look at them yourself and see what they have to offer!
Best Toasters Comparison & Rating
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Want to Learn More?
Before you decide what toaster to buy, you might want to find out more about the best options available. This is to make sure that you will absolutely enjoy the toaster that you would get for your kitchen. Also, be sure to click the yellow buttons below to see their best deals on Amazon! With that, here are five of the best options that we found especially for you.
BUYDEEM DT-6B83 4-Slice Toaster
Beautiful and functional, this toaster deserves a place in any home kitchen or diner. It’s great for toasting bread, bagels, and even muffins. It also comes with nifty functions such as the complete ejection of the toast. This helps avoid burns on your fingers when you try to get them. The toast themselves will always come out at exactly the shad you want. It has extra-wide and deep slots that are perfect for hand-cut slices from home-made bread or XL-sized bagels. Lastly, its seven-shade settings work with precision which gives you perfectly toasted slices of bread.
Hosome 2 Slice Bread Toaster
This is a nifty toaster that toasts, defrosts, keeps warm, and reheats bread. It’s a light machine but features an undeniably solid built. The toasting rack comes all the way up, so you don’t risk burns or injury. As the rack is pushed down, the warming arm comes right up, and once done, it goes back down to stay out of the way. You get to decide how light or how dark the bread is toasted. It has a separate reheat button allowing you to actually set the 1-6 heat setting for the 30 seconds of reheat. It also has a handy bread crumb tray that is recessed and deeper so it will collect more crumbs if need be.
IKICH Prime Rated 4 Slice Toaster
This is a great toaster to have for those with large families. It can toast four slices or pieces of bread, bagels, English muffins, or pastries at the same time. The separate timers mean that you have more control over the toasting process and what you are toasting. You can also stop the whole thing if you notice that the bread is getting burnt with a push of a button. This can work just as well for sliced baguettes and sourdoughs, as regular sliced bread.
IKICH 2 Long Slot and 4 Slice Toaster
For fans of slicing bread sideways or horizontal cuts of sourdough bread, this is a great toaster to have. You get the same function as a toaster with four slots, but with the option of also toasting elongated slices. These wide slots are ideal for cut bagels and other types of bread. The browning is done evenly on both sides, which saves time. If the toast has gone cold, it can be reheated without burning the bread too. Cleaning this toaster presents no challenges, either.
Elite Gourmet ECT-3100 Maxi-Matic 4 Slice Long Toaster
This is a handy toaster that lets you do four slices at once, as well as thicker slices of bread. It can even accommodate bagels, even without a specific bagel function. Nonetheless, it is ideal for four regular slices of bread or two artisan slices. The toasting is done evenly on both sides and you are the one in control of how light or dark it will be. Once done, the slices will pop all the way up for easy retrieval. You won’t struggle to clean this toaster either.
Toaster Buyer's Guide
Toasters should not take a long time to start browning bread. At most, it would be a few seconds. If it takes longer than that, this means that the toaster is severely underpowered and you do not want to keep using it. It will only lead you to feel frustrated and would waste your time.
Ideally, you want to get a toaster that can give you the ability to decide how dark the bread will become. This can be in the form of a dial that lets you control the shade or a time to choose how long the bread is going to toast. The worst outcome is when you have to repeat the process several times before you get the shade you want.
The main function of a toaster is to simply toast the bread. This usually implies that it would work only on sliced bread. However, there are toasters that can also have other features like defrosting, warming, and reheating. Many toasters can also accommodate bagels, bigger slices of bread, and even frozen pastries.
One of the cleaning features that any good toaster should have is the tray for collecting crumbs. However, the rest of the machine should also be easy to wipe down, brush, or scrape. This goes doubly true for toasters that can accommodate bread with fillings.
Toasters typically have simple designs, with a slot, some springs, a lever for pushing the sliced bread down, and the dial. Regardless of whether the machine is complex or simple, however, their design must be excellent. This means that they need to be efficient, durable, and convenient.
FAQs
A toaster will only ever toast. It can be bread slices, bagels, or pastries. Toaster ovens can toast, as well as bake, roast, or reheat.
Toasters that have unique designs or will burn unique shapes onto slice bread are interesting, but are not necessarily worth getting. They only really have value to collectors.
Most toasters used at home only have two. For homes with big families, four would be more suitable for their needs.
Toast can be as light or as dark as you want. Good toasters would give you the option to decide this with a toggle or a command button.