The Great Depression Gave Us Some Interesting Recipes: Have You Tried Water Pie?

I’ll admit, it’s a strange recipe. I became obsessed with watching people on TikTok make and then eat a Great Depression water pie. It is so simple to make that I knew I had to give it a try.

Before I embarked on baking my water pie, one thing seemed clear. The success of the recipe depends on the waiting.

You must wait for it to cool. Then you have to wait longer for it to chill in the refrigerator. TikTok that ate the pie straight out of the oven found themselves eating gloopy-looking mush in a pie crust. And they didn’t look pleased.

But the ones that waited. Well, they had a custardy-looking piece of pie that someone described as “butter-sugar,” and another said was like eating a “sugar cookie in a pie.”

Why is it called water pie?

The main ingredient is water. The women that lived through the Great Depression were amazingly innovative. They knew how to make something out of nothing.

In the early days during the lockdown, I tried a Depression-era recipe for a chocolate cake made without eggs or dairy, and it was pretty fantastic. So I had high hopes for this one.

Why are people baking historical recipes today?

We’re living in a world filled with uncertainty. Baking provides comfort. The ritual of putting ingredients together and having something tasty and nourishing come out of your work is rewarding.

And traditional recipes, especially from the Great Depression, are simple to make without fancy ingredients that cost a lot.

What is in water pie?

There are several different versions, but they are all similar and consist of five ingredients in addition to pie crust. I chose one from a cooking blog called Southern Plate.

Original recipes tend to leave out the vanilla extract. It was probably hard to come by in the 1920s. But it’s not hard to get now, and it adds critical flavor to your pie.

Ingredients:

• 9" deep pie crust, unbaked (homemade or store-bought)
• 1–1/2 cups of water
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 5 tablespoons butter (cut into 5 pieces)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Put your unbaked pie pastry into a pie dish.
3. Mix flour and sugar in a small bowl.
4. Pour the water into the pie crust. (This will seem weird. Just do it.)
5. Sprinkle the flour and sugar mixture over the water in the pie crust. Don’t mix; just sprinkle.
6. Drizzle the vanilla over the water in the pie crust. Again, don’t mix.
7. Place the 5 pats of butter on top.
8. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Reduce temp to 375, and bake another 30 minutes. (You will want to cover the sides of the crust with foil to prevent burning.)
9. Carefully remove it from the oven. It will be very watery.
10. Do not eat it yet! Let it cool completely at room temperature, and then chill it in the refrigerator.

How did it taste?

It was good! My daughter was especially enthusiastic about it. My husband refused to try it. His loss was our gain as we were able to eat it all ourselves.

You just can’t go wrong with butter, sugar, and vanilla. And somehow, it all turned into something that seemed like custard, although it contained no eggs.

Once again, I had found a Depression-era recipe that makes me admire the women that found a way to bring a special treat to their families, even when they had very little to work with.

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Note: a previous version of this article was originally published on Medium.

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