Hattie McDaniel's Pumpkin Pie

Karie Bible
Nov 8, 2025
4 min read

Donald Bogle joined me for this special tribute to a trailblazing legend!

Hattie McDaniel made history as the first African-American to win an Academy Award. She was honored as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Gone with the Wind. McDaniel co-starred opposite the biggest names in Hollywood including Mae West, Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Clark Gable, Will Rogers, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn. While McDaniel appeared in over 300 films, she often didn't receive screen credit. In addition to her screen roles, she worked as a singer, comedian and was a pioneer in the field of radio. She also fought against the segregated housing laws in Los Angeles and took her fight to the Supreme Court and won. The Hattie McDaniel house still stands today in the West Adams part of Los Angeles. When Hattie was dying, her final wish was to be at what was then Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery (now Hollywood Forever). The owner at the time was racist and denied her request. Instead she was interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. In 1998 the new owner at Hollywood Forever spoke with her family and they put a marker by the pond to honor her last wish.

Recipe

I found this recipe on the online magazine "5280" from the Denver area. The article was written by soul food scholar Adrian Miller. Click HERE to read it and see all of Hattie's Thanksgiving recipes. This is also courtesy of the David O. Selznick Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

A few years ago on my annual Oscar Cook Along, I made Hattie's recipe for cornbread.

It was excellent! She's never let me down and I don't think she ever will.

PUMPKIN PIE

Ingredients

11/2 cups steamed and strained pumpkin

2 tablespoons of flour

1 cup brown sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 ½ cups of milk

Grated rind of ½ lemon

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs slightly beaten

Directions

Mix in order given. Turn in pie pan lined with pastry. Bake in a hot oven first 5 minutes to set pastry; then reduce heat and bake slowly 25 minutes.

*The original recipe didn't contain specific instructions, but we suggest baking the pie at 425 degrees for the first 15 minutes and then at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.

CORN BREAD

Ingredients

¾ cup of meal yellow or white

1 ½ cups of flour

2 Tablespoons of sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 egg well beaten

2 Tablespoons fat or butter

4 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 Cup of milk.

Directions

Mix dry ingredients, add milk, beaten egg and your favorite shortening. Beat thoroughly, bake in well-greased pan in hot oven 25 minutes. You will find this recipe very good.

For lighter corn bread use 5 teaspoons baking powder.

SWEET CORN

Ingredients

Chop 1 can of corn or 2 cups of green corn fine.

Add 3 eggs slightly beaten

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

Pinch of pepper

Piece of melted butter the size of a walnut

About 1½ cups of scalded milk.

Directions

Turn into casserole and bake until custard like.

Special Guests

Donald Bogle is an American film historian and author of six books concerning black history in film and on television including the definitive biography of Dorothy Dandridge. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania. He was honored with the Robert Osborne Award at the 2023 Turner Classic Movies Film Festival.

Danny Miller is a journalist, editor and film history expert. He also co-authored the book "About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel: Make-up Artist to the Stars" with Meredith Ponedel.

Ruth Mundsack really loves being a part of the TCM community and she's a co-creator of a Classic Film Club in Long Beach, CA. She has been to several TCM Film Festivals and it gives her absolute joy to meet friends and be part of the classic film community or #MyTribe. If you want to follow her on Social Media she's @Cary_Grant_Girl on the Twitter, GirlattheBch on Instagram and Silver Screen LBC on Facebook.

Video

Final Result

Hattie did not disappoint! The food was outstanding. Last year I did a test bake on Hattie's pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. It was great, but I used canned pumpkin. Ruth chose to steam a pumpkin and scrape out the insides. The texture was creamy, silky and delicious!

The sweet corn pudding and corn bread were also excellent! You can easily customize the sweet corn pudding and add all sorts of other items to it including spices, bell pepper, onions and cilantro. The possibilities are endless.