Water Pie – The Ultimate Make-Do Dessert
Water Pie is a depression era recipe that turns the simplest of ingredients into a delicious buttery pie! 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. This legendary pie has been making waves on social media recently, leaving people stunned that something so simple could taste so good. The water, flour and butter melted together in the over, transforming those humble ingredients into a sweet, buttery, custard-like dessert.
You might think this sounds like a cruel joke, but water pie is an example of how just a few simple ingredients can become something delicious. The magic happens during baking when the sugar melts, the butter emulsifies, and the flour leaches just enough starch to bind the whole mixture. The result? It has a creamy buttery taste, similar to a custard pie or warm vanilla cookie once it’s chilled and sliced.
Mock Apple Pie – When Crackers Become Fruit
Mock Apple Pie is an amazing depression era recipe that tastes amazingly like Apple pie, but requires NO fruit of any kind! Mock apple pie is surprisingly dead-on in the apple pie flavor department. This ingenious creation fooled countless families during the thirties. My mother made this mock apple pie often during the Depression, and our guests were always astounded that soda crackers could be such convincing apples!
The secret lies in the preparation: Mock apple pie is a fruitless pie made from a base of sugar, spices, crackers, and lemon juice that mysteriously replicates the flavor of real apple pie. This recipe originally appeared on a box of Ritz crackers back in the early 1930’s. This recipe originally appeared on a box of Ritz crackers back in the early 1930’s. The cream of tartar and lemon juice create the perfect tangy bite that mimics fresh apples.
Buttermilk Pie – Southern Comfort in a Crust
During the Depression era, buttermilk was for many families a means of survival. For those who churned their own butter, it was a natural by-product. For those unable to churn at home, buttermilk was available from the local creamery where, more times than not, it was given out free. This tangy treasure became the star of one of the most beloved depression-era desserts.
Buttermilk Pie is believed to have originated during the depression. This was during a time when some ingredients were either scarce or too expensive, leaving home cooks to make do with whatever they had in their pantry. Home cooks found a way to make a pie with few ingredients out of desperation, hence the name, desperation pies. The result is custard-y texture and taste is repeatedly compared to that of crème brulee. Many families still treasure their grandmother’s buttermilk pie recipes today.
Chess Pie – The Mystery Name Champion
Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine. The name’s origin remains a delicious mystery. One of the most popular theories is that it is an eggcorn of “It’s just pie” due to a misinterpretation of the pronunciation “It’s jes’ pie” in Southern American English. The pie was thought to be so simple any home cook with eggs, butter and sugar would know what to do.
Today there are any number of chess pie recipes, including coconut, chocolate, lemon, and nut, but the basic recipe only calls for flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and milk or condensed milk, Items available to most housewives, even during the Great Depression. While chess pie’s rich, custard-like filling may not have the tanginess of its buttermilk pie cousin, what it does bring to the table is pure, simple sweetness. Its popularity has endured for good reason.
Vinegar Pie – The Surprisingly Sweet Substitute
While sometimes associated with the Great Depression, vinegar pie was not a symbol of scrappy, desperate baking, but is instead traceable to the mid-1800s, when it was often made with a double crust (today, you’re more likely to find it with a single crust). Recipes for vinegar pies showed up in cookbooks and similar publications all through the following decades, before finally seeming to fall out of favor in the mid-20th century.
For example, if a craving for lemon pie hit when lemons were not in season, “desperate” bakers made vinegar pie, which substitutes vinegar for lemon juice. Much to my surprise, this pie was SO delicious, and the tiny bit of tartness that shines through from the cider vinegar makes this pie a winner in my book! The acidity creates that perfect pucker that transforms simple ingredients into something extraordinary.
Shoofly Pie – The Molasses Marvel
Shoofly pie can still be found at Amish markets throughout Pennsylvania Dutch country, but you may struggle to find it elsewhere. If you’re not familiar, shoofly pie, which first came on the scene more than a century ago, is really part-pie, part-cake, with one layer of a sticky molasses filling and another layer that’s reminiscent of a crumb cake. However, how these layers come together will depend on if you’re eating a wet bottom or dry bottom shoofly pie.
The name has quite the tale behind it. Probably the most cited folk lore concerning shoofly pie’s unusual name is the one about how the little pools of sweet molasses that formed on the pies cooling on the kitchen windowsill attracted so many flies that the baker’s children were tasked with shooing them away until cool enough to put into the pie cabinet. Actually, the pie got its name from Shoofly the Boxing Mule who was part of a circus traveling throughout southeastern Pennsylvania.
Sugar Cream Pie – Indiana’s Official Treasure
Named the official state pie of Indiana in 2009, sugar cream pie (also called Hoosier sugar cream pie, Quebec sugar cream pie, and Tartes au sucre) is a simple but delicious pie. This creamy delight emerged from Sugar Cream Pie Likely originating with Shaker communities in Indiana or Pennsylvania, Sugar Cream Pie usually consists of sugar, cream, vanilla and flour all set in a pie shell. And, it’s even Indiana’s official state pie.
The beauty of sugar cream pie lies in its simplicity – it requires no exotic ingredients or complex techniques. Following right along with the sugar, egg and cream theme with these pies, this sugar cream pie is another great depression era that makes life a little bit sweeter with every single bite! Jenni from Pastry Chef Online makes this simple slice look absolutely divine! It’s proof that sometimes the most basic ingredients create the most memorable flavors.
Mock Pecan Pie – The Oat Imposter
This desperation pie, also known as “Oatmeal Pie,” is said to have been created in the 1860s in the Civil War South when pecans were in short supply. This desperation pie, also known as “Oatmeal Pie,” is said to have been created in the 1860s in the Civil War South when pecans were in short supply. Its popularity rebounded during the 1930s depression when resourceful homemakers were forced to make-do with what they had on hand or could easily and economically obtain.
Containing whole peanuts, corn syrup, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and butter, it’s best compared to a pecan pie. In fact, at one point, peanut pies were simply known as the poor man’s pecan pie. Today, Using oats instead of pecans, this “mock” pie is still frequently cooked today by people who have nut allergies but still want a slice of that golden brown goodness.
Egg Custard Pie – The Silky Simple Classic
A close cousin of chess and buttermilk pies, egg pie (also known as egg custard pie) is a custard-based confection made with eggs, sugar, and milk or cream baked in a flaky crust. This pie represented the epitome of making do with what you had. This humble dessert, like other so-called desperation pies, was created to utilize ingredients that a housewife usually had on hand or that were easy to come by. A close cousin of chess and buttermilk pies, egg pie (also known as egg custard pie) is a custard-based confection made with eggs, sugar, and milk or cream baked in a flaky crust. The addition of nutmeg gives this pie a luscious, silky, sweet filling, as well as a warm homey fragrance.
The technique was crucial – too much heat would scramble the eggs, too little wouldn’t set the custard. Grandmothers passed down the secret of gentle baking and patient timing. The reward was a pie so smooth and comforting that it became a church supper staple across the American South.
Chocolate Fudge Pie – The Morale Booster
My husband and I recently watched a documentary on Milton Hershey and the profound impact his company and chocolate in general had during The Great Depression. While rations were going out to the troops, he created “meal” replacement bars made with chocolate to feed the people here in the states, and chocolate remained fairly readily available and affordable despite many other foods soaring in price. Chocolate was a food that united our nation during such a difficult time, and chocolate fudge pie was a true treat that triumphed from the difficulties of the 1930’s!
This rich, decadent pie offered more than sweetness – it provided hope. Straight out of a reprint copy of My Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, the first edition published in the Great Depression is this recipe for Chocolate Pie. Just because times were very tough, you still needed a little comfort food to make the years better. The deep chocolate flavor could lift spirits even during the darkest economic times.
Peanut Pie – The Poor Man’s Pecan Alternative
Instead, we’re looking at the peanut butter pie’s vintage and long-lost cousin, the sweet and crunchy peanut pie. Recipes for the peanut pie popped up as early as the late 1800s, and the peanut pie enjoyed continued popularity through the mid-20th century. When pecans became too expensive or unavailable, creative bakers turned to peanuts as an affordable substitute.
The texture and flavor profile closely matched its more expensive cousin. Today, you’ll find peanut pie in limited areas of the country (parts of Virginia, mostly) and modern peanut pie, just like pecan pie, has become more varied, with creative cooks adding extra ingredients, such as chocolate or whiskey, for richer flavors. So, if you want a unique and unexpected alternative to a pecan pie, you’ve found it. These humble peanuts proved that luxury desserts didn’t require luxury ingredients.
