How To Blind Bake With The Air Fryer
Have you ever wondered if you can blind bake your pie crust using the air fryer? Well, let me show you the how and the why, whilst demonstrating with two of my favourite air fryer savoury bakes. I will also be showing you the difference if you don’t weigh down the pastry, and with both homemade shortcrust pastry and shop bought puff pastry.
Baking Pies, Quiches, Tarts & More In The Air Fryer
It’s been such a long, long time, that I honestly can’t remember what I baked first with pastry in the air fryer. It would probably have been a quiche, but it could also have been some homemade pasties.
But the big drawback of baking in the air fryer, is that with a lot of brands of air fryers, they cook from the top and getting the bottom of your pastry just cooked can be hard work.
That is when the Plan B of blind baking happens, because you can give the bottom of your pie crust a head start before adding your filling and finishing the recipe.
Of course, even though this adds to the cooking time I do recommend blind baking and baking in the air fryer. Plus, you can be making your filling, whilst your air fryer is working its magic on the blind bake.
Not baked in the air fryer before? you get such a beautiful golden colour on your bakes and how moist a cake is in the air fryer will change your life forever. In fact, we have baked every cake in our air fryer since our eldest son’s 12th birthday back in 2013.
FURTHER READING >>> Air Fryer Chocolate Cake
FURTHER WATCHING >>> Which Air Fryer Setting Makes The Best Cake
What Does Blind Baking A Pie Crust Mean?
I often get asked what does blind baking a pie crust mean, if you should do it and what is the point.
Well, it is to prevent the bottom of your pastry being undercooked when the rest of your pie (or your quiche) is perfectly cooked. This particularly applies to the air fryer as I have noticed sometimes you have raw pastry patches underneath the bottom of the pie pastry.
Blind baking is almost cooking the base of your pie i.e. your pie crust and then later adding your filling and a pie top if you are making a traditional pie.
Do you cook the pie crust before filling it? Yes, you do. So for example if you are making a quiche you would blind bake the pastry, whilst you are making your quiche filling.
How many days in advance can I make the pie crust? You could make it a week ahead if you wanted to. But of course, the fresher it is the better it will taste. I would recommend if you needed to make it in advance that it’s made for using within the next 2 days.
Can You Cook Pastry In An Air Fryer?
Yes, you can cook pastry in the air fryer and it is so, so good! Think of the most golden pastry and also think about how much quicker it is overall compared to the oven.
We love pasties, pies, quiches, tarts, sausage rolls and all the other pastry greats in the air fryer. Though my personal favourite has to be the air fryer sausage rolls – they are so good.
You can also go frozen with the air fryer and cook all your favourite frozen pastry favourites too. Such as the kid’s favourite air fryer frozen pain au chocolat.
Can you cook a pie in a ninja air fryer? Yes, you can. Any brand or type of air fryer can cook a pie. Though note, that the size of your air fryer or how hot your air fryer gets will need to be considered and you may have to adjust the temperature, cooking time and what you cook it in.
Can you cook a pie in a ninja foodi? Yes, you can. We recommend for the best results to use the ninja foodi rack and then you can position it onto the rack and then use the rack to get it in and out. We are using the ninja foodi as an air fryer in our demonstration below so you can see exactly how we do this.
Can I use my Ninja Foodi as an oven? Yes, you can. Anything you can cook in an oven you can cook in the Ninja Foodi using any mixture you like of bake, roast, air fry. You can also use many of the other settings too. Check out our multicooker cookbook which is perfect for if you have a Ninja Foodi.
Can I Blind Bake In An Air Fryer?
Yes, you can blind bake using the air fryer and this is exactly what we do when we make a quiche or a pie in the air fryer.
If you have a Ninja air fryer or Ninja Foodi you can use the bake setting if not opt for air fry.
Because the air fryer can be used like an oven (it just works like a smaller one) the way you blind bake air fryer style is very similar to the oven.
How to use the bake mode on an air fryer? To use bake, its just like setting the air fryer. You simply press BAKE instead of air fry and then set the cooking temperature and cooking time.
Why not watch us make a pie and a quiche using the blind bake method?
- FURTHER WATCHING >> Air Fryer Egg & Bacon Pie
- FURTHER WATCHING >> Air Fryer Quiche Lorraine
Sam & Dom Says…
“Master the time and temperature and you will be cooking pastry in the air fryer like a pro. All air fryers run slightly differently to one another, and you will find the pastry is much quicker compared to the average oven.”
The Kitchen Gadget Pie Tin
I often get asked which pie tin, or quiche tin works best for the kitchen gadgets.
Its this one we use in this recipe and in a lot of our recipes. It’s by Masterclass and it is 20cm/8 inch. It’s the perfect size for your pies, quiches and tarts and it also has the perforated bottom making it perfect for getting the bottom of your pie cooked perfectly.
Here it is making our ninja foodi quiche lorraine.
You can see the latest price and find out more about our pie tin here.
Why Poke Holes In Pie Crust?
Poking holes is a common practice when baking with pastry. The reason for this is so the steam can escape and you can have a better pastry that is less soggy.
We haven’t poked holes in this pastry recipe and there are 2 reasons why:
- It is a perforated pie dish (get it here) anyway so you we find it cooks well without it.
- Because we have blind baked first, we have essentially cooked the pie twice so this has created the best of both worlds.
Blind Baking With Pie Weights
It’s common to use pie weights when blind baking. This is because you need to add a protection layer to stop the pastry from cooking too fast. This protection layer is usually parchment paper/baking paper. Because it can fly about, you then add weights over the baking paper.
You can buy some baking beans (such as these ones) and they can be used on a lot of your blind bakes. They are added to the pie, cook with the pie, then cooled down and saved for next time. We got our pack from Lakeland here in the UK, but most baking style shops sell them.
Its often referred to as blind baking beans. As they look like white beans that have been dried out and because of how dry they are they don’t affect the pie.
How many pie weights for one pie? We didn’t weigh how many pie weights we used. What we did instead was create a full layer of the pie weights and then added some more on top for extra force so that the pastry wouldn’t move about.
How to blind bake without beans? I know many households don’t have weights for their blind bake and use savvy beans and rice swaps. Those dried chickpeas in the pantry have a similar size. Though I don’t like blind baking pie crust with rice as its much smaller and more of an effort!
Do you need to cover pie edges with foil? If you have covered your pastry well with your parchment/baking paper, then you wont need to cover the edges of the pie crust with foil.
What Happens If You Blind Bake Without Baking Paper?
Whilst making our steak and kidney pie and our blind baking process we didn’t add the baking paper. We just went straight in with the blind bake beans. We did this because we wanted to show you the difference for this how to guide.
Here is a picture of the difference after baking:
As you can see what happens is that it creates a deep pattern from the baking beans because they are being baked into the pastry.
What You Need To Bake Blind
It starts with your pastry plan. Are you blind baking shortcrust pastry that you have made yourself or are you using shop bought puff pastry or shortcrust.
Then of course you need your ingredients for the recipe. Below is what we needed to make our air fryer egg and bacon pie.
The Shortcrust Pastry – We followed our own shortcrust pastry recipe and got a bowl ready first with the flour and the butter.
The Filling – Then for the egg and bacon pie we had eggs, milk, seasoning and of course the bacon.
The Blind Bake – Then for the blind bake we used our baking beans and some baking paper.
Though in our printable recipe card which includes step by step photographs and full measurements you can see a full breakdown of every ingredient featured in this recipe.
How To Bake A Pie Using The Ninja Foodi?
To bake a pie using the ninja foodi you need to make and roll out your pastry. Then cover it with the baking paper/parchment paper, followed by the baking beans.
Then use either AIR FRY or BAKE and bake until you have a golden crust. Remove the beans and the paper. You then add your fillings, a top layer of pie crust and finish the bake.
Which rack to bake pie? We used the rack that comes with the Ninja Foodi because the easiest way is to add the pie to the rack, then add the rack into the ninja foodi. You then reverse this to remove the pie from the Ninja Foodi such as grabbing the rack out first and then removing the pie from the rack.
Blind Bake Recipe Examples
Here are some examples of recipes we have made in our air fryer/ninja foodi using blind bake:
How To Blind Bake With The Air Fryer
Equipment
Ingredients
Choose just one option below
- Shop Bought Puff Pastry
- 1 320 g /11.25oz Pack Ready Rolled Puff Pastry
Homemade Shortcrust Pastry For Pie
- 250 g /2 Cups Plain/All Purpose Flour
- 125 g /0.5 Cup Salted Butter softened
Homemade Shortcrust Pastry For Quiche
- 180 g /1.3 Cups Plain/All Purpose Flour
- 90 g /6 Tbsp Salted Butter softened
Instructions
- Place the flour and the butter into a bowl. If making sweetened pastry such as if you are making an apple pie, then add this now too.
- Then rub the fat into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add just enough cold water to be able to bring it together to make a shortcrust pastry.
- Then flour your worktop and your rolling pin and roll out to make a pie crust.
- I then recommend using the pie tin as a guide for how much you need to roll it out.
- Then add the pastry the bottom and sides of your pie tin and then trim off the excess. A good chef tip is to roll over the edges of the pie tin with a rolling pin and then the excess will come off easily without having to trim it with a knife.
- Then if you have followed our measurements above for a pie you will have enough left for the top of the pie.
- Then add a layer of parchment paper or baking paper to the pastry. Then cover well with baking beans. You want a full layer of them so that they wont move about and you will get an even bake on your pie crust. Then add the pie tin to the rack.
- Lower the rack into your cooking pot. Then add the lid and set it to bake for 30 minutes at 160c/320f.
- Then remove the paper layer with the beans on it and put to one side. You can then reuse the paper and return the beans to your tub once cool. You will now have a golden blind baked pie crust that is ready for its filling.
- Top with the remaining pastry (if making a pie), you may need to roll again and you can use your finger and some cold water on your finger to create a wet bit around the edge of the pie. This will help it stick. Use scissors to the centre of the pie to create a hole for your steam to escape.
Notes
Nutrition
How Long To Blind Bake A Pie Crust?
To blind bake shortcrust pastry (or puff pastry) takes just 30 minutes. There is no preheat required with the air fryer, so its really quick. This then gives you half an hour to get your filling ready.
How Long To Blind Bake Shortcrust Pastry?
For a blind bake shortcrust pastry the cooking time is just 30 minutes and then another 25-30 minutes for finishing your recipe such as transforming it into a pie or a quiche.
What Temp To Blind Bake A Pie Crust?
We found that the perfect temperature to blind bake a pie crust using the Ninja Foodi or the air fryer is 160c/320f. This gives it a slow blind bake and stops it from getting too brown.
Ask Sam & Dom
Do you have more questions about making blind baking using the ninja foodi? Then ask away as we would love to help you.
Your Next Step: Get Your Copy Of The Complete Pressure Cooker Cookbook
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