I’m over boring air fryers — this mini oven is also an air fryer, and it puts Ninja to shame

Although I think the Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven is more of a toaster oven than one of the best air fryers, it holds its own in both categories. While it is perfectly capable of doubling up as a spare oven during busy cooking occasions, it’s best used as an everyday air fryer or mini oven.

Whether you live alone and don’t fancy turning on the main oven for one meal or need to air fry enough to feed a huge family, the Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven will make easy work of it. I tested it by cooking enough food to feed the entire office, and we all had a great time.

It’s currently majorly discounted (down from £250 to just £88), so that means there’s no better time to get a new mini oven/air fryer. Find out where this appliance excels in this Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven review.

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? Small households who don’t want to turn on the main oven OR big families who need an extra pair of hands
• What does it do well? It can double up as a second oven, or a big air fryer
• What are its weaknesses? There’s no precise timer, and it can leak steam
• What should you use it for? Every day cooking, making big meals or a backup oven for special occasions

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven: Specs

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven review: Price & availability

The Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven has an RRP of £250 on Cuisinart’s U.K. site, but it’s usually priced at £199 on Amazon U.K.. This specific model of oven is unavailable in the U.S., and the new version the TOA-70 is £229. TOA-70 has 8 cooking settings to the TOA-60’s 7.

At the time of writing, it’s just £88 on Amazon U.K., and £88 down from a massive £250 (a saving of £160!) on Cuisinart’s U.K. store.

While the RRP of £250 is objectively a lot of money for an air fryer + toaster oven, the new sale price of £88 is an utter steal. This is perfect for those who need an extra oven for those big family meals (think Christmas lunch) or just a more versatile or larger air fryer. In contrast, my favorite air fryer, the Phillips 2000 Series, is £99 and has just a 7.5 liter capacity.

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven review: Design

The Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven is a pretty big appliance. It’s a whopping 40cm wide and 35cm deep, so I wouldn’t recommend it for smaller kitchens.

It comes in black, with stainless steel embellishments around the dials and on the door handle. I think the color looks great. The facade is very sleek and modern.

Above the glass door are four dials and a light button. Each dial corresponds to: time, temperature, cooking mode, and toast color. Yes, there’s a whole dial dedicated to the color of your toast.

I was disappointed to see that the time and temperature dials aren’t very precise. For example, the timer has notches for 5-minute intervals, but not to-the-minute. This was disappointing for two reasons: one, I had to guess when selecting timings for ‘22 minutes’, and two, I couldn’t see the exact cooking time remaining. For temperature, I had to guess for temperatures outside of the pre-marked settings.

However, the Cuisinart toaster oven does have a huge 17 litre capacity, much better than the aforementioned Phillips 2000 Series and the 8.5 litre Cosori Dual Basket Air Fryer ($169). For large households, this is definitely the best choice, because it doubles up as a second oven for special occasions — memories of my mum using the convection microwave to roast potatoes on Christmas Day come to mind.

There are two racks inside the toaster oven: aptly named level 1 and level 2 (although level 1 is lower, and level 2 is higher) Cuisinart has instructions on when to use each height rack in the instructions, but in a nutshell: everything should go on the top rack except for fresh and large items, which should go below.

My favorite design aspect is the removable crumb tray. This effectively catches oil and grease so the bottom of the oven doesn’t get grimy. I’ll discuss cleaning this later.

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven review: Cooking performance

To test out the toaster oven’s 6 (keep warm doesn’t really count) settings, I cooked a range of foods using all of the modes. As with all other toaster ovens I’ve used, the cooking won’t start until you set the time. It’s also very quiet, at just 52dB on average.

Air fry

To test the ‘air fry’ setting, I cooked frozen hash brown bites (like tater tots) and frozen nacho cheese chicken nuggets. The hash brown bites took a little longer than I anticipated; 25 minutes instead of 20 on 180°C. Even so, they were worth the wait. The outsides were crispy and crunchy and the insides were super fluffy and moist. Everyone in the office went feral for these.

Next, I cooked nacho cheese chicken nuggets. The packet said 10 minutes at 200°C, so I abided by these instructions. However, after 10 minutes the nuggets were not ready (they weren’t even warm to the touch!) so I put them in for another 10 minutes. Cuisinart’s recipe recommends 10 minutes at 200°F for frozen nuggets, but my experience proves otherwise.

Grill

I cooked cauliflower cheese to test the ‘grill’ setting. After heating using the ‘roast’ setting for 20 minutes, I set the oven to grill to crisp up the top layer of cheese. I let it grill for 5 minutes and it was really brown and bubbling in just that short amount of time. I would definitely recommend the grill setting for crisping up cheesy dishes.

Roasts & Pizzas

Cuisinart says this setting should be used for food that requires even browning. To test this, I roasted some grilled mushrooms (as per package instructions) and some frozen pizzas.

First, I roasted the mushrooms for 20 minutes at 180°C as directed by the packet. The mushrooms were deliciously moist, although the gratin on top wasn’t cooked as evenly as I’d like to see. However, this didn’t negatively impact the flavor or texture, and I wolfed them down.

After the mushrooms, I put the ‘pizza’ mode to the test. As per Cuisinart’s instructions, I put the baking tray on the higher level. Cuisinart recommends that frozen food be cooked on level 2. The pizza packet recommended 22 minutes at 190°C.

I did my best guess at the temperature and time, but as I’ve discussed many times now, there are no precise settings. However, after just 18 minutes the pizzas were perhaps a little too done. Still, though, they were utterly delicious.

Bake

To test ‘bake’, I cooked up some mini sausage rolls and some cheese pasties. The cheese pasties said 18 minutes at 180°C, but I put them in for 15 at 200°C. As the dials don’t show precise times — just in 5 minute intervals — I set it for the next best thing. The pastry was deliciously flaky and browned, and I thought the inside was moist and cheesy. However, one colleague mentioned that the middle was a little underdone. I would always use one of the best meat thermometers to check the internal temp of meat.

Next, I cooked up some frozen mini sausage rolls. The packet said 200°C for 22 minutes, but as the dials are pretty imprecise, I had to settle for 20 minutes. Thankfully, the sausage rolls were perfectly soft in the centre and crispy on the outside.

One colleague reported that they were better than when cooked on the Cosori Dual Basket Air Fryer, but another reported that the pastry was a little dry — as I discovered in my Corsori review, the ideal sausage roll seems to vary massively based on personal preference.

Paninis & Toasties/Toast

Cuisinart says the difference between the Panini & Toast setting and other settings is that the fan runs at a slower speed. You also use the fourth dial to set the ideal ‘colour’ of your toast. I tested this out with some freshly baked white bread. I set the dial to number 3 (from 1-6) and let it toast.

However, once the dial had moved to the ‘finished’ position, the bread wasn’t even a little browned. I put it back on at number 6 this time and waited. After a moment I realised I had to set the temperature to get the toast to brown, so I set it to 150°C and waited again.

After a couple of minutes I had lovely brown toast! I do think this took longer than using a normal toaster though.

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven review: Storage & maintenance

As the Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven is pretty bulky at 40cm wide and 35cm deep, it will need a large counter space or a decently-sized storage cupboard. I would recommend this only for large kitchens with a lot of unit space, as it will likely look very cramped in a small kitchen.

Unfortunately, the replacement air fryer crosshatch tray and the replacement baking tray are no longer available to buy on Cuisinart’s website. Cuisinart does not confirm that the air fryer tray and baking tray are dishwasher safe, so I would just clean by hand. The inner glass door is removable, which means the toaster oven could be deep cleaned easily.

One of my favorite aspects of the toaster oven is the crumb tray, which I discussed in the ‘Design’ section above. This slides out for easy cleaning, however be warned that I would recommend cleaning this after every single use as I found it quite tricky to get off burnt-on grease.

On a more positive note, however, the Air Fryer + Toaster Oven is advertised with a great 3 year warranty, 2 years longer than the standard 1 year.

Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven review: Verdict

The Cuisinart Air Fryer + Toaster Oven is a really great product. While it’s not perfect — mainly because of the imprecise dials that forced me to guess temperature and timings — it would be a fantastic option for homes without ovens or homes that need second ovens.

It’s very easy to clean thanks to its removable drip tray, and it made light work of everything I threw at it during testing. On top of that, it looks the part with its sleek black-and-metal facade and is very easy to use.

For just £88, too, this is an utter steal. I’d grab one of these before they sell out at this pricepoint, as I can imagine they will be uber popular.