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.
I can remember this discussed years ago and grandma saying in those days she never knew anyone who could afforded to put a cup of sugar in a pie as they often had only a pinch for the yeast making bread. Anyway, I can’t take all the sugar. Any idea if this can be made with substitute, and how?
Hi Edd,
I have used Swerve in the past instead of the sugar. It doesn’t taste exactly the same but it was still work the effort.
Thanks, will give it a try.
Hey Ladies
I made the water pie 2x now and turned out great but so sweet. This is a beautiful pie for a ladies luncheon so much to discuss about its origin. I hope you all try it. From Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada
Hi Joyce, thanks so much for the comments and the rating. Really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts 🙂 Happy Holidays 🙂
Im 17 and will make this for my choir class. Not for a project, just to instill fear! :)))
LOL, I hope your class loves it!!
Made this and was shocked at how good it was! Unique flavor, like butterscotch. I’ll make again , try vanilla alts eg bourbon
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.
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.)
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?!