How to air fry a pumpkin pie

The air fryer is an essential part of my cooking arsenal these days. Everything that I would otherwise roast in the oven can be done quickly paprikaor Salmon– and if you don’t have a large toaster model, you can probably put it away when you need countertop space again.

This year over the holidays I’m leaving the oven free for other things and air baking my pumpkin pie.

You can certainly bake cakes in the air fryer

A great pumpkin pie is cooked gently (so that the mixture doesn’t burst) and has a well-baked pie crust. Whether in a traditional oven or an air fryer, this can be easy if you keep a few things in mind.

First, pumpkin pie filling is a custard filling, sometimes called eggy filling. This just means that eggs make up an important part of the ingredient list and are responsible for binding the other ingredients – but they must be cooked gently. Accordingly America’s Test Kitchen“When custards like crème anglaise are heated, they become thick and creamy as the milk and egg proteins unfold and combine. However, if they are overheated, too many bonds form and the proteins clump together.” If you’ve ever eaten a gritty or watery pumpkin pie, this could be the reason. We avoid this with a lower fan speed. (More on this later.)

Then there is the moisture factor. Aside from the eggs, pumpkin pie contains the eponymous puree, sugar, spices, and a liquid like evaporated milk, all of which make for a fairly moist mixture—and moist mixtures can easily lead to soggy crusts. To prevent this, pumpkin pie crusts, whether air fried or not, should have a blind bake before adding the filling.

Blind baking is the only reason you can even make this cake in the air fryer. Air fryers heat from above, which is why you can’t use them to bake false bottom cakes. Luckily, the crust of your pumpkin pie is baked before the filling even gets involved.

If you are looking for an air fryer, read here My top tips for 2024:

How to air fry a pumpkin pie

Although the air fryer is known for its aggressive convection heating, you can use it to bake both blind and gently. To solve both problems, use a lower temperature and the Bake setting instead of Air Fry.

The difference between these settings is the fan speed. Air frying uses a much higher fan speed, while the bake setting is much slower. You can probably even hear the difference when you change the setting. The cake will still bake faster than in a regular oven, but that shouldn’t be the case. The top should not cook too much.

I like to scrunch up the parchment paper before laying out the dough so that no large wrinkles cut into the dough.
Photo credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

1. Blind bake the base

Prepare your blind bake as usual. Place the pie dough on a pie plate, line it with parchment paper, and fill it with pie weights. (I use dry beans, but you could use others Ceramic beads, sugar or rice.) Place the crust in an air fryer heated to 350°F on the “bake” setting. This is easy to do with the swing door model, but not impossible with basket style air fryers: I have a basket model Only It fits on a 9-inch aluminum pie plate, so I don’t have room for my hands.

To place the cake in the basket without burning yourself or throwing the cake in sideways, make a foil strap by tearing off a piece of foil about 16 inches long. It needs to be wide enough to fit under the widest part of the cake and long enough to come up on both sides, leaving enough overhang for you to grab the ends. Fold the foil lengthwise three or four times to create a ribbon about 5 to 7 cm thick, like the picture below. Grasp the ends of the strap, lift the cake and lower it into the basket. The strap remains intact so you can remove the cake later. Bend the ends down so they rest inside the basket.

Use the aluminum foil tape to raise and lower the cake into the basket if necessary.
Photo credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Bake the crust with the weights for about 10 minutes or until the edges begin to color. Lift the weights out by gathering the edges of the parchment paper. The crust should look dry on the bottom. Using a fork, pierce the bottom crust five to six times. Close the oven and bake the cake for another two minutes to allow the base to cook through. This shouldn’t be the case, but if the crust puffs up at the bottom at all, just press it down with an oven mitt and flatten it.

2. Reduce the temperature and bake the cake

Reduce the temperature to 325°F and leave it on the “Baking” setting.

Fill the blind baked crust with your raw pumpkin pie filling. If using the basket model, leave the crust in the air fryer basket. It’s easier to fill while it’s already seated. If you have the swing door version, take the entire tray out of the oven. Fill the shell while it’s on the tray and put the whole thing back in the oven. Bake the cake at 325°F for five minutes, then reduce the temperature to 300°F and bake the cake for another 10 to 20 minutes. Keep the “Baking” function.

The cake is ready when the edges of the filling just begin to take on color and the center begins to wobble slightly. Let the cake cool on a wire rack. Enjoy warm at room temperature or chill in the fridge if you prefer it cold.

When baking your pumpkin pie, keep in mind that timing may vary depending on your air fryer. That’s why the latest time frame is quite wide. Air fryer models differ in their speed, cake recipes have more The and less Theand consider whether your cake is a deep dish or not. Check your cake after it is done at 325°F for the first five minutes, then move it to 300°F for 10 minutes. Depending on how firm the filling is at this point, you may need to bake it even longer.