Water Pie Recipe from The Great Depression
A Great Depression-era recipe, this humble Water Pie uses the bare minimum to create a deliciously creamy, buttery dessert that proves resourcefulness can still taste like comfort. With a flaky crust, a rich brown sugar filling, and a crisp, caramelized top, you won’t believe one of the main ingredients is water!
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Water Pie
- Serves: 4
- Main Ingredients: 9-inch deep-dish pie crust, unbaked, water, all-purpose flour, sugar, vanilla extract, butter, cut into 5 pieces
- Why You'll Love It: Water Pie is a depression era recipe that turns bare bones ingredients into a delicious buttery pie!
A Sweet Legacy from the Depression Era
Just like my Chocolate Depression Cake, this water pie is one of those magical recipes born in the Depression era, when cooks with little to nothing figured out how to make delicious dishes for those they love during hard times.
This particular recipe was passed on to me by Kay West, and I published it in my third cookbook, Sweetness. It originally belonged to Kay’s grandmother, a remarkable woman who cooked three meals a day from scratch for her family of ten. During harder times, she created this recipe so her family could still enjoy a little sweetness, no matter how hard their days were. These recipes are such a special treasure to us!
I think you’ll really enjoy how simple this water pie is. It has a creamy, buttery taste, similar to a buttermilk pie or old-fashioned butter cookies. Half the thrill will be telling your family the name and that the main ingredient is water!
Ingredients
You know when a recipe was created to make something out of nothing, it’s going to be simple on the ingredients!
- A deep-dish pie crust (see tips for success at the bottom of this post).
- Water
- Sugar
- Flour
- Butter
- Vanilla extract
Tips for the Best Water Pie
- I use an unbaked Pillsbury all-vegetable frozen deep-dish pie crust for this recipe. I suggest a store-bought deep-dish pie crust because homemade pie crusts vary in depth and may not cook through in the prescribed 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 makes it quick and easy to cover your pie if the edges start to darken, and it helps you keep heat in during baking!
- The 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. Just let the pie cool completely, then cover and refrigerate until chilled before cutting.
How to Make Depression-Era Water Pie
1. Pour Water Into Pie Crust Dish
Begin by pouring water into your unbaked pie crust deep-dish. Tap water is just fine!
2. Add Flour & Sugar
Next, in a small mixing bowl, stir together your flour and sugar.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over your water in the pie shell. 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 evenly that way.
This is our water with flour/sugar sprinkled over. Don’t stir!
3. Add Vanilla & Butter
Drizzle vanilla over this (don’t stir this either!). Then place pats of butter on top.
4. Bake
Place your pie in the oven at 400°F for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 375°F and cover the edges of the flaky crust if needed to prevent burning. Cook for another 30 minutes after you reduce the temp.
5. Cool & Chill
Remove your pie from the oven. The pie will be very watery in the center – don’t worry, that’s what we want! Let it cool completely, then refrigerate for several hours before cutting.
That’s it. Enjoy this creamy, buttery pie recipe! And if you want to try one of our all-time favorite pairings with this dessert, try this Dirty Dr. Pepper – it’s so tasty!
Storage
You can store leftovers of your water pie in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Skip the freezer with this one! The delicate filling separates and loses its texture once thawed.
Water Pie from the Great Depression – FAQs
A Sprite pie is basically a modern-day version of the water pie. It became famous in 2020 when TikTok took the world by storm. They both taste very similar, like a delicious sugar cookie. If you’d prefer to make a Sprite pie instead of a water pie, simply substitute the water for 1 can of Sprite. Follow the same instructions and ingredients in the recipe card, and voila, you have yourself a Sprite pie!
The most common water pie mistakes are rushing the cooling process, not mixing the ingredients properly, and baking at the wrong temperature. I know it sounds simple enough, but trust me, these little slip-ups can turn your filling into a soupy mess! Make sure you give your pie enough time to cool, mix everything together thoroughly, and always double-check that your oven is set to the right temperature before popping it in.
You can’t stir a water pie because doing so messes with the chemistry that makes it work. Those unmixed layers actually create a gorgeous, gelatinous custard filling. Give it a stir, and you’ll end up with a watery disaster instead of the silky-smooth filling we’re going for.
Did you give this Water Pie a try? I’d love to hear what you thought! Drop a star rating and leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out for you.
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch deep-dish pie crust unbaked
- 1 ½ cups water
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoons butter cut into 5 pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and set empty pie crust on a baking sheet.1 9-inch deep-dish pie crust
- Pour 1 ½ cups water into the pie crust.1 ½ cups water
- In a small bowl, stir together the flour and sugar. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the water in the crust. Don't stir.4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar
- Drizzle the vanilla over the water in the pie crust. Place pats of butter on top of this.2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 5 tablespoons butter
- Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°F and cover the sides of the 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.
What a fun and interesting pie. I’ve never heard of it, but it looks fantastic!
Saw this recipe and was intrigued. We tried it and it was surprisingly VERY GOOD! It was brought to work and was gone in no time. It made me think about back in that time when this was probably such a great treat for them. I really liked it! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you for commenting after actually making the pie. Based on your experience, I’m looking forward to trying it.
I actually made it, too 😉 But I appreciate and welcome all of the comments, regardless of whether or not they’ve tried a recipe, just like your comment here. Y’all are what make this a community and a conversation and that makes it all the more worthwhile. <3
My late mother used to make a pie that sounds similar. It was called “Poor Man’s Pie”. Is this the same pie?
It very well could be. Many of the old recipes go by different names. THey were called whatever each family named it.
Love these recipes. I have made the water pie about a year ago & I really liked it. Think I’ll try it with the coconut water & coconut the next time I make it. I’m so glad the lady suggested it. I never thought about that. So many great ideas. I scrolled down to the bottom of the post & saw the address where your business or home is & you are less than five miles from me. Small world. Looking fwd to more delicious recipes.
Wondering like the poster with cocoa powder if cinnamon could be added to the flour sugar mixture.
This looks delicious. Does it come out tasting sort of like a custard?
Going to try this for a luncheon my apartment building is having next week. This is a senior citizens building, so I know there will be many comments about it. I’ll let you know what I hear.
Did you make the pie yet? What did they think?
My mom will be 91 next month. Still drives locally and does her own shopping now that I’m sick. She said grandma (mother of 14!!!) made a similar pie to water pie but used vinegar instead. Only a couple of tablespoons. She said it tasted like lemon pie to them, which they only got at Christmas.
Vinegar pie. My older sister mentioned this to me. She said it was delicious. I found a recipe online, but have not made it yet.
I make a pie with vinegar but call it chess pie. It is very good!
This looks and sounds incredible. I can’t wait to try it. I’m a newbie here and found you while looking for an Alabama white sauce. I lived in Harvest for a couple of years back in the early nineties. There was a restaurant on Hwy. 72 called Thomas’ BBQ that had THE BEST white sauce…to me much better than “the infamous” in Decatur. I don’t think it’s there anymore. I have tried numerous recipes, but can’t find anything I like as much as theirs. I don’t think Thomas’ used horseradish in their white sauce, so I was excited when I ran across your recipe. Excited to grill some chicken this weekend and try yours out! And maybe have some Water Pie for desert. 🙂
OH GIRL!! I LOVE THOMAS’S! We used to live down the road from it and there was nothing at all like it. It did close, was bought out by a local chain, Rick’s. Rick’s struck a deal and on a handshake promise said they’d keep the employees, name, etc. The day after they signed they came in and fired everyone, generations of families had worked there. It was tragic. I have a few Thomas’s recipes on the site, well they are my copycats but they taste just like it! I have Smokehouse Chicken and their Mashed Potato Salad. You and me have the same taste in White Sauce so I think you’ll like it! So excited to meet another kindred spirit!
I love all the love on this site! So many people sharing family stories as well as recipes. Thank you for creating this site.
Oh my gosh, your story about what happened to Thomas’s is heartbreaking, and infuriating. To lose a family business that lent so much to the uniqueness of the local community is tragic. Shame on Rick’s. Glad you’ve been able to preserve some of that heritage through your copycat recipes.
I hope no one ate at Rick’s and they went out of business quickly.
I made this pie and found if you cut the butter into thinner pats it spreads more evenly over the pie. It was very good and a great conversation starter. My family loved it.
I also made it using coconut water and added shredded coconut. Very good!
I saw something like this on another website and the lady made it with a can of Sprite instead of water also she shredded the butter like cheese to spread it better, I had a good time reading the comments on her site because everybody thought it was a hoax or a joke they honestly thought this was fake!
That’s a grate idea. :). See what I did there LOL. Thanks so much for sharing your comment and your rating. Sure do appreciate you Lori.
Oh your making me hungry we’re are these recipes would love to try
WHAT ISBTHE WHITE SAUCE A BBQ SAUCE.? Is it hot?
Hi Christy: OMG water pie! I thought she was kidding however my Mississippi maternal grandmother said ‘in the old days’ she made a H2O pie. occasionally when she had one, she would beat one egg in with the water. From the late 1920s to about 1945 they were tenant farmers; that was a hard life. She managed somehow to have a sewing machine, taught herself how to sew & traded making clothes for eggs, sugar & flour. Wow how times have changed! I have all her recipes along with my Mom’s. I do so cherish those.
Thanks for your stories, humor, wisdom & sharing your recipes.
From one southern gal to another. Kate
You need to get those lost recipes published with the history.