A mini oven, or toaster oven, is just like a full-sized oven, just smaller. They are perfect for heating up small meals, meals for one or two people or snack meals. I’ve just bought the latest Lidl Mini Oven as they are my main oven of choice. The quantities I cook are never large. Using a full-sized oven really is overkill for most items that many people are cooking, baking or re-heating.
You will see from the photo just how much space is inside the mini oven. You can easily bake two baguettes, although you will most likely have to cut them in half to get them to fit – I cut mine in half as a matter of course though. One will fit diagonally.
Apart from the money-saving qualities of a mini oven, I find they are also time-saving as there’s often no need to pre-heat the oven. They are so small that you can put food straight in and not worry about the small amount of time they’ll take to get up to the right temperature.
I’ll admit to often being too keen to eat … and so I end up grabbing the baguettes from the oven before they’re fully browned 🙂 I’m just way too impatient most of the time. Once they’re cooked I’ll scoff them; no time for deep browning in my world, they’re too tasty, hence the bad photo on this page, I was way too impatient.
Part baked baguettes can be cooked in a mini oven, or toaster oven. They come out hot, browned and tasting great. Here are my quick tips to cooking part-baked baguettes.
- It’s a good idea to slice the baguette while it’s still cold. The reason for this is that it’s more manageable and I find I get a better result.
- Cut the part-baked baguettes into the way you’ll be using or serving them. By this, I mean that I slice the baguette lengthways AND I cut them in half.
- Cook both baguettes at the same time and store the ones you’re not eating right now in plastic takeaway boxes (or foil, or a plastic/freezer bag) and they’re handy to use for the next 1-2 days.
There was a time a couple of years ago when I almost lived on these part-baked baguettes. I do tend to go through times when I find something tasty that I like and then eat it almost every day for weeks 🙂 
As I’ve been without an oven recently I’ve missed part-baked baguettes, so I deliberately bought a pack of the Lidl Rivercoat part-baked baguettes when I bought my new mini oven at Lidl the other week.
Vacuum Packed = Long Shelf Life
What’s great about these is that the shelf-life tends to be 2+ months. Indeed, they don’t go off once the date’s passed, I’ve eaten part-baked baguettes that are 1-2 months out of date! Waste not, want not.! The vacuum does start to tighten a little, but they’re still good to eat.
I’ll eat the baguettes in many ways, just hot and spread with butter, as a garlic bread side dish, I use part-baked baguettes as an easy pizza base too.
Cold baguettes are great to use to make a packed lunch to take to work, or a tasty beach picnic or for when on my bicycle rides, when I’ll load up a couple of baguettes with some great sandwich fillings.
You can expect a gazillion ways to use part-baked baguettes in the coming months. I’m so glad to be eating them again.
Cost: Typically a pack of two baguettes will cost £0.40-£0.50. Cut into half, that’s just 10p-12p per serving! A great frugal lunch base.
Instructions: I’ve written down my cooking instructions for these part-baked baguettes in a mini oven: How to Cook Part-Baked Baguettes in a Mini Oven.
Baguette Filling & Baguette Pizza Ideas:
Here are a few ways I’ve used these baguettes, but I’m not very food adventurous to be honest! I’ll often just fill them with cheese & pickle, or cheese & tomato, or even on their own with a spread of butter, or make up some quick garlic butter to make garlic bread to serve as one of the side dishes with chilli con carne.
So versatile!