The humble toaster oven is a kitchen workhorse. It’s so versatile that it can do more than just toast bread and reheat pizza. For example, you can cook full meals in a toaster oven.
The toaster oven also makes the perfect substitute for your microwave when you need to warm up leftovers or defrost frozen food quickly. A toaster oven even gets the job done if you just want a snack and don’t want to go through the trouble of preheating your stovetop or conventional oven.
Oh, and did I mention that you can make popcorn in your microwave?
Read also: Best Ways to Make Popcorn on Electric Stove
Toaster ovens are so versatile that you can even pop popcorn in them!
A toaster oven is a small countertop appliance that can be used for a variety of different cooking tasks, including making popcorn. Most toaster ovens are designed to heat up food items such as pizzas and other baked goods, but there are some models that have been built specifically for popping corn on the stovetop.
If you’re looking for more information about how these appliances work and whether or not they are worth purchasing, read on!
Using a toaster oven to pop popcorn
If you’re like me, you often find yourself craving popcorn but don’t want to or can’t use your stovetop or microwave. The solution? A toaster oven.
Toaster ovens are great for small batches of snacks (think: a single bag of microwave popcorn). They’re also great for reheating leftovers and keeping things warm until the main course is ready! And because they’re so much smaller than standard ovens, cleanup is much easier too.
Why not use a toaster oven for popcorn
You can do it, but it’s not for everyone.
As with most methods of cooking popcorn in a toaster oven, you’ll need to use a cookie sheet. If you don’t have one handy, you can buy one at any grocery store for about $5.
To get the popcorn to stay on the cookie sheet, place about ½ cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer on top of it. Then sprinkle some salt on top of them (this will help them pop).
Put your cookie sheet inside your toaster oven and turn it on high heat until they start popping. Once they do, keep an eye on them because they might be done before five minutes are up!
When they are finished, they will fly around the toaster oven and are very susceptible to burning.
The real pros and cons of microwave popcorn
When it comes to easy popcorn, you’ve got two choices: microwave or stovetop. Microwave popcorn is convenient and fast, but the price tag can add up—and there are pros and cons for both methods.
- Convenience: If you’re looking for a quick snack or dinner accompaniment, microwave popcorn fits the bill without any of the hassle of waiting for kernels to pop on a burner or constantly stirring them in oil. With just one button press (and maybe a little shaking), you’ve got hot, fluffy corn with minimal effort involved—no cleaning required!
- Control over ingredients: You don’t have to worry about getting that perfect ratio of salt and butter when making your own microwaved version; even if you’re watching your sodium intake, no more reaching into that cardboard box only to discover that some companies pack their bags with way more seasoning than anyone could ever need. Plus, if there’s no butter in sight at all? No worries! Just add some as desired before eating.
- Costliness: Even with good intentions like these in mind, we’re still talking about an extra $2-$3 per bag here, depending on where you live–and sometimes even more than that! Depending on how much popcorn you eat on any given day (or night), this will really start adding up over time.
- Artificial colors/flavors: While the chemicals used may be perfectly safe for humans once cooked thoroughly within those plastic bags–they still aren’t ideal when eaten raw like this due to potential risks like increased cancer risks associated with artificial food coloring consumption.
- Teflon health concerns: One big downside of using this method goes back again to those Teflon-coated pans used during cooking times–which means they might release harmful chemicals called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) into our bodies after ingesting foods cooked directly over them.
What about an air popper?
You might want to buy an air popper or make it on the stovetop if you want to avoid oil.
The best way to make popcorn is without any oil at all, but that’s not always realistic. If you’re going to use oil, try using a small amount of coconut oil or butter.
If you don’t mind spending some money and have limited space for storage, an air popper could be a good choice for healthy popcorn. Most air poppers are small and can be stored away easily until they’re needed again.
Many people find that they get better results when they use their air popper regularly (at least once per week) instead of just occasionally making popcorn in their microwave or other devices where there may be too much moisture in the atmosphere around them, which causes clumping problems when cooking with regular kernels from grocery stores’ bulk bins (or even worse–those pre-packaged bags).
Some companies sell specialty gourmet varieties as well, so keep your eyes open; this could lead into another topic if we wanted: health food!
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our article on how to make popcorn in a toaster oven. We know there are certain situations where this is just what you need, and we were happy to help. If you have any questions about the process or anything else related to the topic, feel free to drop us a line in the comments section below!
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