Air Roast Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving
Today, the air fryer is an indispensable part of my culinary arsenal. Trust me, I will use this to take the pressure off the oven at Thanksgiving. It allows you to quickly cook anything you’re going to bake in the oven, like peppers or salmon , in a fraction of the time, and you can put it away if you need to reclaim counter space. This year for the holidays, leave the oven available for other tasks while you air fry your pumpkin pie.
A great pumpkin pie is cooked gently so the mixture doesn’t fall apart and has a well-baked crust. In a regular oven or air fryer, this can be easily accomplished if you keep a few things in mind. Pumpkin pie filling is custard filling, also sometimes called egg filling. All this means that eggs are an important part of the ingredient list and are responsible for binding other ingredients together, but they need to be cooked carefully. According to America’s Test Kitchen : “When custards like crème anglaise are heated, they become thick and creamy as the milk and egg proteins unfold and bind together. However, if you overheat them, too many bonds are formed and the proteins stick together.”
If you’ve ever had a short or watery pumpkin pie, this might be why. In addition to eggs, pumpkin pie includes pumpkin puree, sugar, spices and a liquid such as condensed milk. The result is a fairly wet mixture. Wet mixtures easily result in soggy crusts. To avoid this with all pumpkin pies, blind bake the crust before adding the filling.
If you don’t have an air fryer or are looking for a new one, try one of these:
How to Air Fry Pumpkin Pie
Despite its reputation for aggressive convection heating, the air fryer can be used for both blind baking and gentle baking of a cake. To solve both of these problems, use a lower temperature and the “bake” setting instead of the “air fry” setting. The pie will still bake faster than in a conventional oven.
Set up blind baking as usual. After placing the pie dough in a pie pan, line it with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. (I use dry beans, but you can use ceramic beads, sugar or rice.) Place the crust in an air fryer preheated to 350°F on the “bake” setting. This is easy to do in a model with a swing door.
Note for air fryers with a basket: I have a model with a basket that fits just right on a 9-inch aluminum pie plate, so there is no room for my hands. To lower the cake without burning yourself or dropping it on its side, make a strap out of foil. Tear off a piece of foil about 16 inches long. It should sit under the widest part of the cake and extend up on both sides long enough for you to catch the ends. Fold the foil three or four times lengthwise to create a strap about two to three inches thick, like in the picture. Grasp the ends of the strap and lift and lower the pie into the basket. The strap will remain and you can remove the pie later. Fold the ends down so they fit within the basket.
Bake the weighted crust for about 10 minutes or until the edges begin to color. Lift the weights by gathering the edges of the parchment paper. The crust should look dry on the bottom. Use a fork and pierce the bottom crust five or six times. Close the oven and bake for another two minutes until the bottom is cooked through. It doesn’t have to be this way, but if the crust at the bottom is puffed up, just press it down with an oven mitt and smooth it out. Reduce temperature to 325°F and leave on bake setting.
Fill the baked crust with pumpkin pie filling. If you are using a basket model, leave the crust in the air fryer basket. Easier to fill while it’s already installed. If you have a swing door option, remove the entire pan from the oven. Fill the casing while it’s on the baking sheet and return everything to the oven. Bake the pie for five minutes at 325°F, then reduce the temperature to 300°F and continue cooking the pie for another 10 to 20 minutes. All this time, leave the “baking” function on. The pie is ready when the edges of the filling are just starting to take on color and the center is set with the slightest hint of wiggle. Cool the pie on a wire rack. Enjoy it warm, at room temperature, or chill it in the refrigerator if you prefer it cold.
When baking pumpkin pie, keep in mind that the timing may vary. Therefore, the deadline for the deep fryer is quite wide. Air fryer models vary in speed, pie recipes have more of this and less of that , and consider whether your pie is deep or not. Test your pie after it’s done: first five minutes at 325°F, then change the temperature to 300°F for 10 minutes. Depending on how set the filling is at this point, you may need to continue baking it for a while longer.