Cream Cheese Clouds -- Light as a Book Cover, Sweet as a Kevin Abernathy Nod

The cookbook cover arrived. It's beautiful — a kitchen table with food, golden light, the same warm aesthetic as the second book but more intimate. More home. Title: 'Dinner at 1800: 100 Recipes from Nine Kitchens.' Dinner at 1800. The title is perfect because it IS perfect — it's the whole thesis, the whole life, the whole promise in three words and a number. Mom saw the cover and cried for twenty minutes. 'DINNER AT 1800. Rachel, that's ME. That's our whole family.' 'I know, Mom. That's why I picked it.' 'Your father is going to cry.' Dad did not cry. Dad looked at the cover, nodded once (the Kevin Abernathy nod of maximum emotion), and said 'Good title.' Which, from Kevin Abernathy, is a four-Kleenex reaction compressed into two words. Sarah is planning a book tour for the fall. A REAL tour this time — not just Zoom. Bookstores in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and — if the publisher agrees — Norfolk. NORFOLK. A reading in the city where it all started. 'Norfolk,' I said. 'I want to read in Norfolk.' 'In your mother's kitchen?' 'In a bookstore. Near my mother's kitchen. And then we go to my mother's kitchen and she makes fried chicken.' 'That's not a standard book tour stop.' 'Make it one.' Made Mom's lemon bars tonight — the recipe she left on the counter during her visit. Tart, sweet, buttery. The recipe card in her handwriting, now in my box. Dinner at 1800. The title. The cover. The everything. Fall 2025.

Mom’s lemon bars were on the counter, but after I watched Dad compress four Kleenex worth of emotion into two words and saw Mom cry over a book title for twenty minutes, I needed something else — something lighter, something that felt like exhaling. Cream Cheese Clouds are exactly that: soft, pillowy, just sweet enough, the kind of thing you make when the day has been enormous and you need your hands to do something gentle. They’re in Mom’s rotation too, and now they’re in the box right next to the lemon bar card — because dinner at 1800 was never just one recipe.

Cream Cheese Clouds

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 29 min | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream the base. In a large bowl, beat softened cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until completely smooth and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add granulated sugar and continue beating until pale and light, another 2 minutes.
3. Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract (if using) until fully incorporated.
4. Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the cream cheese mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop and space. Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop, drop rounded balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. The dough will be soft — that’s what gives these their cloud-like texture.
6. Bake. Bake for 12–14 minutes, until the edges are just set and the bottoms are very lightly golden. The tops should remain pale and soft. Do not overbake.
7. Cool and finish. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Once fully cooled, dust generously with powdered sugar.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 118 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 55mg