Because resources were so scarce during the Great Depression, people found clever tricks to make a little seem like a lot. Some of those tricks bordered on magic, like in this Water Pie, where water is the main ingredient and yet somehow you end up with a pie that’s creamy and sweet and totally indulgent. It uses just a few pantry ingredients but still manages to feel like a special treat.

When you saw the name Water Pie, you might have thought that it was cooked in a water bath, or that water was somehow involved in the cooking method, but no, water really is the main ingredient. It gets poured into a pie crust…

… and then a mixture of flour, sugar, and salt gets sprinkled over the top. A little vanilla gets drizzled over that…

… but the final flourish is a few pats of butter, which gives the pie a straightforward sweet and buttery flavor.

Even though you don’t stir anything together, as it bakes the ingredients come together to form a filling that’s creamy and almost custardy in texture. When there wasn’t enough to go around, this pie surely made the hard days seem a little sweeter.