By January 2026. New year. The house is settling deeper into itself — the creaks and groans of a hundred-year-old Craftsman becoming familiar, like a language I'm learning by immersion. The furnace hums at 3 AM. The second stair from the top squeaks. The kitchen window fogs when I cook soup. These are the sounds and textures of home. Our home. A year in and it still feels new. I hope it always feels new.
At the brewery, January is planning season. The spring lineup, the sour program, new collaborations. I presented my plan for the year: four new sour releases, two collaborations (one with a local coffee roaster, one with a meadery), and a limited-edition barrel blend. The head brewer listened and said, "Ambitious." I said, "Always." He approved everything. Eleven years at this brewery. Eleven years from loading kegs to running the sour program and influencing the spring lineup. The trajectory still surprises me.
The Helen's notebook has twenty pages now. Business plan, menu, cost estimates, Megan's financial projections. I read through it at night while she reads baby name books — we haven't stopped looking at names, even though the trying is still quiet, still hopeful, still ongoing. The two notebooks sit side by side on the nightstand: the dream of a shop and the dream of a child. Both are real. Both are waiting.
Made a pot of Babcia's zurek — the sour rye soup — because January demands the heaviest, warmest, most Polish soup in the repertoire. The rye starter has been fermenting on the counter for a week. The soup is tangy, thick, deep. It tastes like survival. It tastes like January in Milwaukee. It tastes like everything Babcia taught me about endurance.
The zurek takes days — the rye starter needs its week on the counter, the broth needs time to go deep and tangy — and that patience is its own kind of meditation. But some January mornings, especially the ones where the kitchen window is already fogging before 8 AM and Megan’s still curled up reading, I want something that comes together fast and fills the whole house with warmth in under an hour. These no-yeast cinnamon rolls have become that thing for us: no planning, no proofing, just flour and butter and the smell of cinnamon cutting through a Milwaukee winter like it means it.
No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 42 min | Servings: 9
Ingredients
- Dough:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- Filling:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat — prepare the pan. Heat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9x9-inch baking dish with butter or nonstick spray and set aside.
- Make the dough. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold butter cubes and work them in with your fingertips or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse, pea-sized crumbs. Pour in the milk and stir with a fork just until a soft dough comes together — do not overwork it.
- Roll it out. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll it into a rectangle roughly 12 inches by 9 inches, about 1/4-inch thick.
- Add the filling. Spread the softened butter evenly over the entire surface of the dough, going close to the edges. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle the mixture evenly over the buttered dough.
- Roll and slice. Starting from one of the long sides, roll the dough into a tight log. Use a sharp knife or unflavored dental floss to cut the log into 9 equal rounds, each about 1 1/4 inches thick. Arrange the rolls cut-side up in the prepared baking dish.
- Bake. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the tops are golden and the centers are cooked through. A toothpick inserted in the center roll should come out clean.
- Glaze and serve. While the rolls are baking, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the rolls while they’re still warm. Serve straight from the pan.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 285 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 47g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 220mg