Both the Miele SpeedOven and the Miele CSO have broiler elements. I don't use them for making toast, but I don't see why you couldn't. The broiler in the SpeedOven is smaller and less powerful than the one in the CSO. So, I'd probably opt for using the latter.

In our household, we also have three ovens for much the same reasons. The third one is in our Bluestar gas range. It has a super powerful broiler element. Very impressed with that. And yes, we use it for toast all the time. It does benefit from adding a little bit of fat to the bread first, though. Otherwise, it is easy to burn the toast.

If I was hard pressed having to give up one of the ovens, it would be either the SpeedOven (a microwave is nice, but not that important) or the in-range oven (the oven is wonderful, but honestly, I could probably cook with just the two smaller wall ovens).

Hi nycbluedevil_nyc!

Hey there cat_mom. Hope you and hubby are well. We have been living out on Long Island with two or three of our daughters and their fiancés/boyfriends since last March. It’s been quite the crowd, and the only upside of this terrible pandemic is that the kids come back to the nest. It’s been mostly a lot of fun having them around. We all work remotely all day and have dinner together at night. We did need to postpone a wedding twice.

So now that we are out here, no one is enjoying that NYC kitchen and those bathrooms that I worked so hard on. So I decided to tear this one out and redo it, mostly because I just can‘t live with these flagstone floors anymore. The cabinets are actually quite pretty and when we moved in a few years ago, I changed the appliances and counters, among other things. But I want to upgrade if we are going to be spending more time here, which we would do, pandemic or not. So here we go. Three ovens and I can’t make toast. Folks here use the toaster a few times a day even though I rarely do. I want the counters clear so the Breville oven will need to disappear. Maybe the solution is using one of the antique toasters I got from the guy at Toaster Central. At least they are conversation pieces and quite beautiful.

Thanks for the shout out. Say hello for me.

I realize toasters are a one-trick pony, but if you have family or guests that like to make toast or bagels, etc., IMO nothing is as easy as a toaster. I'd consider either keeping one in the pantry (plugged in so it can be used there), or getting an attractive one like you mention. (I like the 50s style Smeg toasters. Mine is a knockoff because I didn't want to pay $200+ for a toaster.)

Maybe I can bring one or both of these from my NYC apartment!

I bought these two toasters a few years ago from a guy who sells refurbished antique toasters. I think his website is called toastercentral.com.

Thought I would share.

I know the advantium speed oven has a specific toast feature... don’t have it installed yet so unfortunately I can’t speak to how it works.

Since you asked so nicely, I figured I'd give it a try. Usually, I use either our countertop pop-up toaster or the high-powered broiler in the Bluestar gas range. But since we do have a Miele SpeedOven, I decided to give that a try for a change.

I put three sliced English muffins onto an oven rack at the top of the oven; one of them was already quite stale, the other two were fresh. I also put a small amount of butter on each of them:

I set the oven to maximum broil and watched the bread. The broiler element visibly cycles on and off every couple of seconds, and about 5 to 6 minutes later the bread comes out nicely browned:

As you can see, the slice that was already a little stale browned more than the others. But they all were nice and didn't taste burned.

In conclusion, yes, the Miele SpeedOven can substitute for a toaster. I don't think I'll keep using it for this purpose going forward, as I have more suitable tools. But if I didn't have those, I think I'd be fine with using this appliance.

It does take longer than my gas oven. And it probably uses a good amount more energy than my countertop toaster. But either one of those issues is unlikely to matter for occasional use.

On the other hand, if you expect to make a lot of toast quite regularly, then a more compact dedicated appliance would save you energy. It'll be years though before that cost amortizes.

I've run into the same issue. Despite a kitchen full of high-end appliances the best way to make toast / bagels is in a toaster. I have a Breville one and love it.

Thanks for doing that test! I plan on using the broil setting on my Miele CSO as my toaster.

I want to keep my counters clear of appliances too. There will be a Vitamix, an Espresso maker and I just added a plumbed coffee maker/instant hot water dispenser.

I hear you. My blender is on an appliance lift in one of my cabinets. It doesn't use my space quite as efficiently. But the reduced clutter is well worth it. We do have an electric water kettle and a small single-slot toaster out on the counters. But that's. And I could probably hide the toaster as it doesn't get used that often. Only the kettle gets used all the time

I almost never make toast, so I don't own a toaster. When I do want to make toast, the broiler in my oven works just fine. You have to keep an eye on it and flip it, of course, but for me that's a small trade-off for eliminating a one-trick-pony I rarely use. Surely one of your ovens will have a broiler that will do this job for you.

Since people in your household are toasting items several times a day either an oven broiler or an antique toaster-both which require turning the item over-will get old very quickly with the required attention to avoid burning either the toast or fingers or arms while retrieving the toast.

Thanks all for the responses. Once my daughter and fiancé stop living with us (COVID), the need for toast will be greatly reduced.

M—thanks for doing the test. I think the speed oven will do the trick. And by the way, you have convinced me about the CSO. But now I am so torn between the Bosch and the Miele. I don’t want to hijack my own thread, but I will. The Bosch combination convection steam/convection oven seems great, other than the size (a bit smaller than the Miele). I don’t care about lack of a broiler, since I would prefer to do that in a larger oven. The Miele would be great except that their reasonably priced oven (6281) only comes in the PureLine rather than the ContourLine which I prefer. I don’t love all the glass Of the PureLine. I prefer the stainless trim of the contour line. It seems extravagant to get a more expensive oven just to be able to get the stainless, and I don’t really care too much about all the programs. On the other hand, with four Miele appliances, maybe I can come relatively close in cost to the Bosch. I know you have the Miele. Which models and did you consider Bosch?