using bread machine as toaster oven

Question

Can I bake/heat some frozen spring roll in my bread machine since it has bake function and would this damage my machine? Seems like a good toaster replacement.

Answer 1

It is unlikely to do the job well.

A toaster oven is designed to toast: to produce relatively high heat for short periods of time. A bread maker is designed to bake: to produce a lower temperature for longer periods of time. The bread maker is also likely to trap more moisture inside the space than the toaster oven (especially relevant if you are using it to defrost something, since ice will probably melt and form a puddle of water which will slowly evaporate and make the space humid).

Further to that, if your bread maker is like the model in the photograph, it is limited to preset routines and will not give you much (if any) direct control, or even information, over temperature and time (although of course you can take things out early).

I think a bread maker should certainly defrost and heat your spring rolls safely, but if they are designed for a toaster oven the end product is likely to be worse than intended – certainly less crispy. (On the other hand, it may well come out better than in a microwave, so it depends on your point of comparison.)