Water Pie is one of those magical recipes that came out of the depression era where cooks with little to nothing figured out how to make delicious dishes for those they love. This recipe was shared with me by Kay West and I published it in my third cookbook, Sweetness: Recipes to Celebrate the Warmth, Love, and Blessings of a Full Life.
This recipe belonged to Kay’s grandmother, who had eight children and made her family of ten three meals from scratch every single day. During leaner times, she developed this recipe so that her family could still enjoy dessert from time to time, no matter how hard their days were. These recipes are such a special treasure to us and I think you’ll really enjoy the simplicity of this pie. It has a creamy buttery taste, similar to a warm vanilla cookie once it’s chilled and sliced. Half the thrill will be telling your family the name and that the main ingredient is water!
You know when a recipe was created to make something out of nothing, it’s going to be simple on the ingredients. You’ll need: A deep dish pie crust*, water, sugar, flour, butter, and some vanilla.
*See tips for success at the bottom of this post.
Begin by pouring water into your deep dish crust. It doesn’t have to be hot or anything, just straight from the tap is fine.
Stir together flour and sugar.
Sprinkle this over your water. The original recipe called for doing this with a spoon so I’m showing you that way but I usually just use my hand to sprinkle it because I feel like I can get it more even that way.
This is our water with flour/sugar sprinkled over. Don’t stir.
Drizzle vanilla over this. Don’t stir.
Place pats of butter on top.
Place this in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, reduce temp to 375 and cover the edges of the crust if need be to prevent burning. Cook for another 30 minutes once you have reduced the temp.
Pie will be very watery in the center when you remove from the oven. Allow to cool completely and then refrigerate several hours before cutting.
Enjoy this creamy buttery pie recipe that came about from good hearted cooks wanting to bake up something sweet for their loved ones during hard times!
Tips for success:
- I use a Pillsbury all vegetable frozen deep dish pie crust, unbaked, for this recipe. I suggest a store bought deep dish pie crust because homemade pie crusts in your own dish are going to vary in terms of depth and may result in the filling not getting fully done in the prescribed amount of time.
- Before you begin making this pie, tear off a piece of foil large enough to cover your pie dish. Cut an X in the center and peel back the X. This will make it quick and easy to cover your pie should the edges begin getting too dark and will keep you from losing valuable heat during the baking process.
- Pie will be bubbly and could be watery in some spots when you pull it out of the oven. It will gel fully as it cools. It is best if you allow this pie to cool completely and then cover and refrigerate until chilled before cutting.
YUM!
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Ingredients
- 1 9 inch deep dish pie crust, unbaked
- 1 1/2 cups water (that is one and a half cups)
- 4 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 5 tablespoons butter, cut into 5 pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 and set empty pie crust on a baking sheet.
- Pour 1 + 1/2 cups water into the pie crust.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over water in crust. Don't stir.
- Drizzle vanilla over water in pie crust. Place pats of butter on top of this.
- Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and cover sides of crust if needed to prevent burning. Continue cooking for an additional 30 minutes.
- Pie will be watery when you pull it out of the oven but will gel as it cools. Allow to cool completely and then cover and place in the fridge until chilled before cutting.
Nutrition
Some other recipes you might enjoy:
- Chocolate Cobbler (doesn’t even need an egg and can accomodate many food allergies)
- Cubed Steak and Milk Gravy – and how my Granny made it
- Homemade Banana Pudding – A Southern Classic
- Waste Not, Want No French Toast – turn hamburger and hot dog buns into this delicious breakfast!
This recipe featured in Meal Plan Monday and Weekend Potluck!
Can you use margarine instead of butter?
If you like, i have moved away from margarine in all my cooking but if that’s what you have you can use it.
Me too. Marg is the new lard now ☹ They don’t sell Blue Bonnet in my city anymore
Do I thaw the pie crust or start with it frozen?
Looks interesting! Reminds me a bit of Vinegar pie… a favorite when I was young. So sweet and tangy- great on a hot summer day. My mother told me it was an old pioneer recipe from her mother’s family.
Well, I’ve heard all kinds of stories about the Great Depression and I am going to try this pie in the near future. My parents are gone now but I still remember them telling us how they lived back then. I still have some of the rationing stamps they had back then and cherish them. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
You are so welcome, thank you for commenting 🙂
Thank you for commenting! Aren’t those things precious. Glad you are holding on to them.
Yum! Made this last night and will definitely make again. Everyone wanted a second helping. I substituted two pressed sheets of puff pastry for pie crust because I was sick of the room they were taking up in my freezer. I also reduced to 3/4 cup of sugar and it was still quite sweet. Finished it with a sprinkle of cinnamon before going in the oven.
I love how cheap and easy going this pie is. Tasted great and had a really unique texture! Tasted reminiscent of a cinnamon donut.
Isn’t it amazing how resourceful our ancestors were with what they had on hand and it still tasted great. So glad you liked it!
So good to hear. Thanks for sharing!
In French Canada, we have also inherited a desert from the Great Depression. It is called Pouding chômeur (literally means Welfare Pudding). It is also made with water instead of cream. It contains brown sugar. It is really interesting to watch because the hot syrup is pourred over the batter and you can watch it start to cook as pieces of the batter start to float up from the bottom. The end result is a cake bathing in a caramel sauce. Delicious! Some recipies have now been modified to contain cream instead of water and maple syrup as well as brown sugar.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing!
I would love to also have the Canadian version. My ancestors were French Canadian. Please consider sharing.
Oh my how yummy that sounds as well! Would you be willing to share a recipe for the Canadian version?
You can make virtually any flavor you can imagine. Substitute a 12 oz can of any soda for the water. Mt.Dew, Dr.Pepper, Pepsi, Coke, Orange, Grape… where will your imagination lead you?!
My grandmother made a brown sugar pie with no eggs or milk, just water. She used a bit of this and that. I could never get it to turn out. Could I substitute brown sugar equally in this recipe? (She was 80 in the mid 1950’s.)
I made this yesterday but with sprite and it’s great! I wonder if you could use graham cracker crust for this? I’ve just never been much of a fan of regular pie crust.
Use sugar cookie dough in place of pie crust. I’d be concerned the water would immediately absorb into the cracker crumbs. Even if you baked it first.