Refrigerated pie pastry for 2 pie bottomsno tops needed
15ounces(425g)pumpkin puree
12ounces(340ml)evaporated milk
½cup(110g)brown sugar
¼cup(50g)white sugar
2Tablespoonsall-purpose flour
1teaspoonground cinnamon
½teaspoonground nutmeg
½teaspoonground ginger
½teaspoonkosher salt
¼teaspoonground cloves
3eggs
Instructions
Preheat the air fryer to 300 °F (149 °C) for about 5 minutes.
Place the pastry into a 7 or 8-inch pie pan. Cut off any excess pastry (there should only be about 1 inch of pastry over the edge of the pie plate. Fold the edges of the pastry under itself to create a thicker crust along the edge. Then press into a scalloped pattern by pinching and crimping the pastry all the way around.
Press a sheet of tin foil over the pastry - the tin foil should be pressed into every nook of the crust and make sure it is larger than the crust so it can easily be removed later. Fill the tin foil with dry beans, pie weights, or rice. (This is to make sure the pastry retains its shape while baking.)
Blind bake the crust (this means there is no filling in it yet) for 10 minutes at 300 °F (149 °C)
Then remove the tin foil containing the beans, weights, or rice. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork about 10 times (this keeps it from puffing up too much) and bake at 300 °F (149 °C) for another 5 minutes.
While the crust is baking, use a hand mixer to combine the pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, white sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, cloves. Once your batter is combined, mix in eggs.
Transfer the batter into a smaller container that allows you to easily pour it, like a liquid measuring cup. Leave the crust in the air fryer while you carefully pour the pumpkin batter into the pie plate. (It will be too hot and difficult to move in and out of the air fryer.) You will use no more than half of the mixture in each pie. Do not overfill the crust. It should come about ¼ of an inch from the top of the crust.
If you have a rack that allows you to cook both pies at the same time, you may get both of the pies ready to bake, otherwise bake them one at a time.
Set the temperature to 350 °F (177 °C) and bake the pie for 20 minutes. The middle should be just set, not jiggly. If it is jiggly, bake at 5 minute intervals until done.
Cool the pies at room temperature for an hour, maximum 2 hours. (Just remove the basket from the air fryer and do not remove the pie(s) from the basket - it is too hot and difficult to move.)
Then cool the pies in the fridge for at least 2 hours to firm up.
Notes
Although some recipes say you didn’t need to blind bake the crust, it does not work at all. The bottom of the crust does not cook that way. It was much better when we double blind baked the crust.