What Is Wine Pie, and Is It Actually Good?

I love wine and pie, and many other people feel similarly about both. But a recently resurfaced viral trend has me wondering if I would love them combined in one dish.

One Instagram user’s version of “wine pie” has racked up eight million views over the past two weeks, and it’s easy to understand why: Content creator @itsmejuliette pours a bottle of wine directly into a prepared pie crust, mixing it with some sugar, a touch of flour, cornstarch, vanilla extract, and cinnamon — before baking it into what looks like a gelatinous, deep-red dessert.

On camera, the resulting "pie" looks similar texture to Chess Pie, a classic Southern dessert with a simple ingredient list. It also appears a lot like water pie, a Great Depression-era concoction that’s filled with a water-based “custard.” So, is it possible that wine pie is another forgotten gem of the dessert world, and does it actually work?

Is wine pie a real thing?

Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that wine pie is a lost tradition or classic recipe (although there is something similar, a chocolate and wine custard pie, that sounds notably more delicious), but the answer to whether or not you could technically make one is a bit more complicated.

Wine will not bake into a solid filling by itself in the oven. But when combined with flour and cornstarch, it could hypothetically set into a custard-like texture. Water pie relies on a similar principle: mixing water with flour, butter, and sugar to create a soft, gelatinous filling. A chocolate and wine pie does the same, although the added chocolate helps it set.

Related: Our 23 Best Pie Recipes From Traditional to Modern

In her video, @itsmejuliette doesn’t give exact measurements but appears to add roughly one cup of flour, one cup of sugar, and a few tablespoons of cornstarch to the wine before baking for 30–40 minutes. These ingredient quantities and bake time would probably be sufficient to create a somewhat solid filling.

However, other viral videos of wine pie (yes, there are multiple), like one from @amandamonger on TikTok that has over 21 million views, often call for just a few tablespoons of flour, no corn starch at all, and claim that you only need to bake the pie for seven minutes. In case it wasn’t already evident that this formula doesn’t work — seven minutes isn't even long enough to bake a pie crust, let alone set a filling — baking expert Gemma Stafford gave it a try, reporting back with the findings on a recent episode of her podcast Knead to Know.

Cooking the pie for only seven minutes didn't come close to sufficiently long enough, and Stafford notes that she had to bake it for two hours to get it to (kind of) set. Her co-hosts Ami Shukla and Tianna Cohen describe the pie as “juicy,” which makes sense considering you can see a slice of it dripping onto a plate in a video clip of the podcast.

But even though the pie can be served on a plate, and not in a glass, the reactions from everyone tasting it are negative. The podcasters declare that “this is not a thing” and that even using a good quality bottle of wine wouldn’t improve the finished flavor. So you have it from the baking experts: don’t make wine pie at home. (Instead, I would recommend whipping up a batch of sweet wine jelly and then serving it with cheese and crackers.)

Does this mean wine pie is fake?

For anyone well versed in food content on social media like myself, you may have noticed other “recipe” videos that feature unrealistic or shocking dishes being made. These don’t have an official name, but it’s easiest to think of them as video clickbait.

The goal here, like a clickbait article, is to get more eyes on the content, without actually providing anything substantive. These types of videos may feature recipes that won’t work, clips that will intentionally incite you to leave a comment, or go on endlessly without ever showing you the end of a video. Just like there’s spam everywhere on the internet, this kind of spam is all over Instagram and TikTok, and it’s mostly harmless — as long as you know not to try these outlandish recipes.

For example, when you watch someone microwave raw ground beef you should recognize that it won’t magically transform into a perfect burger. If it seems like a content creator is deliberately melting a Snickers wrapper into a dessert, it’s probably because they want you to leave a comment. And if an account claims to be able to make five side dishes and cook a chicken all in one pan, it is probably too good to be true. So feel free to stare in amazement at the recipe video that pretends it’s a good idea to boil two canisters of Pringles for a side dish — but don’t recreate it at home.

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