The Best Toasters for Bakery-Style Bliss at Home

Cheap appliances are almost always a waste of money, but at $50 (£80) this polished stainless steel design from Cuisinart is excellent value. It has looks to match considerably more expensive four-toaster slots in this round up, and it feels solidly built.

The controls are all on one side of the toaster, and clearly marked. The dial gives you browning settings from 1 to 6, which is not as generous as some, but still enough to both under-toast and burn my bread before I found the ideal setting at number three. Setting four worked well for a slice of multi-seed loaf that benefitted from a crispier finish. My only qualm is that the control dial doesn’t have much resistance and moves a little too freely, which means there is potential to accidentally adjust the browning setting when you’re in a hurry.

There's also defrost, cancel and reheat options, which gives this toaster great flexibility and further enhances its value. The bagel setting that ensures the inner elements heat a little cooler when toasting - so you get a fluffier middle and crispy outside - produces particularly satisfying results. And for me, this is the icing on the cake, or should that be the cream cheese on the bagel?

With its modest good looks, this KitchenAid two-slice toaster looks subtly stylish on the side. I sampled the eye-catching black finish to complement my matching KitchenAid Stand Mixer. The toaster has an all-metal construction that I found easy to clean and it maintained its box-fresh matte finish without any messy fingerprint marks ruining the style. It also comes in more colorful shades such as cream, pistachio and red should you prefer.

At just H8.2 x W12 inches, this is a compact design that doesn’t take up too much countertop space. Yes, there are only two slots, but they are wide and roomy I had no issue finding room for my thick and unevenly cut sourdough. I found the high-lift lever useful to check in on small round muffin slices without interrupting the heating cycle too. The sides get hot in use, but not dangerously so.

The variable browning slider is also considerately designed to let you hone in on the exact shade of toasting you're after. I found the shortcuts for defrosting, reheating and a specific bagel setting useful, while the reheat button came in handy when I forgot to take my toast out when it first popped up.

There’s nothing overtly flashy about this design—aside from the price—but it’s convenient to use and smooth to operate. It has a sophisticated black finish, and while its boxy form may not save on countertop space, it does give you flexibility to toast either two slices or four, which helps cut energy costs.

With good variable control with eight browning settings via each two-slot dial, the toaster produces very even results. This made bread easy to butter after toasting as no one slice was left too crispy or under-browned on one side.

Bagel slices fit nicely inside each slot here too and there’s a custom bagel that toasts perfectly on one side. The sides of the toaster don’t get too hot in use, which is reassuring if you're tight for space or have inquisitive kids. What’s more, the crumb tray was easy to find and clean when needed. It’s positioned just under the double controls, which meant I didn’t have to up-end the toaster trying to find it. Having tested quite a few designs with discreetly positioned crumb trays, this is a small, but important design win in my view.

If you’re already a fan of Smeg and have one of its appliances - be it a fridge, blender or stand mixer - you probably won’t think twice about adding this two-slice toaster to your kitchen. Its pastel green finish and vintage stainless-steel styling had me at hello. There are other attractive colors to consider too including polish steel, white, red and black. Should you wish to go bold with budget and design, there’s also the Dolce & Gabbana Blu Mediterraneo 2 version that really makes a statement.

Most premium toasters come with numerous preset modes that need an instruction manual to identify, so I really appreciate the simplicity of the controls here. A lever can lift the toasting slots up and down and a clearly marked stop button does what it needs to. The design toasted bread evenly and I could select the browning level between one to six depending on whether I wanted crispy bagels or softer slices of wholemeal toast.

A dedicated bagel button—browns one side of the bagel evenly without toasting the other—and one for toasting from defrost completes the offering. While I was pleased with the straightforward design of this toaster, the sides did get a little hot in use, and if you like to eat large artisan loaves you may want to opt for a toaster with larger slots. My lofty, malted sourdough slices were way too big to lower fully into the slots here.

Always on the hunt for an excuse to break from my keto plan, I spent my waking hours devouring a selection of carbs, all in the name of research. I tested each toaster comparing the performance, design and durability. I looked at how convenient and well designed the controls, and how premium they looked and felt in use, while also checking how hot their exteriors got in use. But above all, I checked how evenly each design toasted bread, and that if they claimed to be great for bagels, muffins and awkward baked good, they didn't disappoint. - Emily Peck

Toasters are the undisputed champions of, well, heating bread products, but imagine making a full-on toasted cheese sandwich in one? What about reheating pizza slices, or cooking nuggets, all in your toaster? What you need is a toaster bag.

These non-stick heat-resistant pockets are brilliantly simple and highly versatile, and keep mess to a minimum. Simply load your sandwich with a filling of your choice, pop it in a toaster bag, and toast for a few minutes. The bags come in various sizes, can be used multiple times and some are dishwasher safe too.

Yes, gravity still comes into play when the cheese starts to melt, but that's a small price to pay for having a hot sandwich or snack prepared with minimal fuss, and that comes ready-wrapped for easy crumb-free eating.