Cinnamon Cream Cheese Squares

The book launched. March 15th, 2025. "From Brenda's Kitchen: Soul Food for the Long Haul." Published. On shelves. In the world. Mama's recipes, bound in paper and ink, walking out of a bookstore in Athens, Georgia, in the hands of strangers who will take them home and cook them and maybe — maybe — feel what I feel when I open the Folgers can. The possibility of that. The terrifying, wonderful possibility that someone in their kitchen will make Mama's cornbread and taste, for the first time, what love tastes like when it's made without sugar and with everything else.

The launch event: sixty people in a bookstore that was built to hold forty. Andre flew in from LA and told jokes in the audience that made everyone laugh and made me want to kill him in equal measure. Darnell drove from Clarksville and sat in the back row and nodded, which is Darnell's full emotional range and which was perfect. Marcus and Keisha drove from Tuscaloosa. Jasmine flew from Howard. Isaiah drove from Charlotte. Zoe sat in the front row with her portfolio of illustrations and the pride of a seventeen-year-old whose art is in a published book and the world can see it.

I read the introduction. Standing at a podium with a portable burner beside me and Mama's skillet heating up. I read: "My mother taught me that love is not a feeling. Love is a meal." And I stopped. And I breathed. And I looked at the audience — my family in the front rows, strangers behind them — and I said, "I'm going to make cornbread now. While I talk. Because that's how I do everything — cooking and talking at the same time. My mama taught me that, too."

I made the cornbread. No sugar. Cast iron. Mama's recipe. I measured and stirred and poured and I talked about Mama and the kitchen and the Folgers can and the years since Easter Sunday 2017 and the audience was quiet the way church is quiet during communion and the cornbread sizzled in the skillet the way Mama's cornbread sizzled and when it came out golden I held it up and I said, "This is her. This is the whole book. A piece of bread made with love and without sugar. That's all Mama ever was. That's all any of us ever are."

I signed books for an hour. A woman in line told me she lost her mother last year and the book title made her cry in the store. I signed her copy: "For your mama's kitchen, wherever it is." She hugged me. A stranger hugged me in a bookstore because my mother's cornbread reached through paper and ink and touched a wound she hadn't finished healing. That's the book. That's the whole thing.

After the signing ended and the sixty people spilled out into the Athens evening and Zoe finally let herself exhale, we went back to my cousin’s house and someone had laid out a spread — and in the middle of it, these cinnamon cream cheese squares, warm from the oven, golden and layered and sweet in a way Mama’s cornbread never was and wasn’t supposed to be. Mama’s kitchen was love without sugar. But that night, in that house, with the book in the world and a stranger’s hug still warm on my shoulders, I let myself have the sugar. I let myself have every crumb of it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 16 squares

Ingredients

2 cans (8 oz each) refrigerated crescent roll dough
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat & prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or nonstick spray.
Layer the first dough sheet. Unroll one can of crescent roll dough without separating the triangles. Press it evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking dish, sealing any seams with your fingers.
Make the cream cheese filling. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar, and the vanilla extract together until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Spread the filling. Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the dough layer and spread it evenly to the edges.
Top with second dough sheet. Unroll the second can of crescent roll dough and lay it carefully over the cream cheese layer, pressing gently and sealing the seams.
Add the cinnamon topping. Pour the melted butter evenly over the top layer of dough. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon, then sprinkle the mixture evenly over the buttered dough.
Bake. Bake for 28–32 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the edges are set. The center may look slightly soft — it will firm as it cools.
Cool & slice. Allow the dish to cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Squares — The Sweetness We Let Ourselves Have