Testing the Balmuda toaster

THE difference between a S$49 toaster oven and a S$539 Balmuda toaster is not just the price but the attitude. Where you slam a slice of bread or curry puff in the cheap toaster without a second thought, the Balmuda calls for a slightly more reverential approach: You open it carefully, maybe stroke it in admiration because it’s so sleek – it even beeps gracefully when it’s done – and pull out your baked good like a master chef lifting out his pastry du jour.

Part of the marketing spiel of the Balmuda toaster is that it’s not just a heating element but a lifestyle experience. You can picture the kind of setting it deserves to be in – soft lighting, island kitchen, KitchenAid mixer and zero clutter. If that’s your lifestyle, good. If a war zone of rice cooker, air pot and unpacked groceries is your reality, then the presence of a Balmuda is going to give all your appliances – and you – an inferiority complex.

The first thing that stands out about it is the tiny little cup that comes with the toaster, which is the key to its success. It measures out exactly 5 ml of water, which you pour into a little opening at the top of the toaster. When the machine heats up, steam fills the interior, permeating the dry bread to soften and plump it up. After that, there’s a final blast of heat to give the surface a golden, even crisp.

The oven has several settings for toast, grilled cheese, artisanal bread (sourdough or buns) and croissants. There are also pure (non-steam) heating options, so you can warm up small portions of leftover lasagne and the like, or even bake a few cookies. It’s not the most practical option, but the option is there if you want it.

But the proof still lies in the toasting, and there are areas where the Balmuda does exceptionally well, though not so well in others. 

For one, it makes the best toast you will ever have. A thickish slice of defrosted sandwich bread has the perfect combination of crunchy exterior and pillowy insides, even though the real age of the bread is several months. Even a New York bagel, precious cargo stashed in the freezer for almost a year, plumps up beautifully with its original chewy resilience intact.

The result is a far cry from previous attempts to revive them in the regular toaster oven, from which they emerged as dry, tough weapons of possible destruction. 

We found it best to defrost bread totally before toasting, even though the manual says you just need to leave them in the oven for a couple more minutes. It’s less reliable, and you may end up with toast that’s still frosty in the middle.

It also excels in croissants, because it will not burn even if it almost touches the heating element on top. Try doing that in a regular toaster oven, which would scorch it in no time. We even gave it the ultimate challenge – to restore a Cedric Grolet croissant, which the shop insists has to be eaten within 15 minutes of coming out of the oven before it goes limp. 

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The result? A discernible crunch when it’s cut, with interior layers that still offer some resilience when pulled apart. Granted, it was slightly dry, but it was also that way when we had it fresh at the cafe on the day we got these. So when they say the Balmuda restores a pastry to its original state, it means they can’t improve a product that wasn’t perfect to start with.

Do you often pop leftover neighbourhood bakery buns into the microwave to soften? In the Balmuda, cheese or otak buns become nice and spongy with a satisfying baked finish.

So if you’re inclined to buy bread and buns in bulk, this oven will be your next best friend. One drawback is that pastries with fillings don’t seem to heat up properly within, especially in the case of a pain suisse which puffed up nicely on the outside, but stayed stodgy within. That said, maybe a bit more experimentation is required.

You’ll want to be careful about spillage as well, as the oven doesn’t come with a tray yet – you’ll need to use your own for now – so don’t overcrowd your cheese toast. An accidental chocolate leak caused it to burn and leave stains in the metal water trough that make our heart ache whenever we look.

Verdict? If you don’t really care about toast perfection and don’t want to fuss with teeny cups of water, stick to your oven toaster. But if you can amortise the cost of the Balmuda over the extra amount of bread you’re going to eat, go for it. It does what it does extremely well. Now all we need to do is redecorate our kitchen to match.

The Balmuda toaster retails at S$539 and is available in Takashimaya