“I’ll make them pareve, so he can eat them with coffee and as a dessert after meat.” Having resolved that dilemma, she went on to the next serious hurdle: chocolate, nuts, or cinnamon? Chocolate, while the hands-down favorite in certain circles, was not so good for people with indigestion, which she assumed Rav Alter must have. After all, didn’t most elderly Jews? Cinnamon, the healthier option, was popular, too, but bland as far as she was concerned. After deep reflection, she came up with the following compromise: cinnamon with nuts, with just a trace of chocolate. It was pure genius.

She took out her baking pans, bowls, sifter, and rolling pin. She didn’t own measuring cups and wouldn’t have known what to do with them since all her recipes had come from watching her mother and grandmother and aunts cook, and they measured by seeing how much fit into their hands. As for liquid, you just had to have a feeling for it, she’d been told, and she had certainly developed one.

There were two camps about pareve rugelach: the ones that added yeast and the ones that insisted on cookie dough. She thought yeast made them doughy and little more attractive than soggy bread. A crisp, sweet cookie dough, on the other hand, was irresistible. As for rugelach dough made with cream cheese, she would have been shocked and scandalized. “What is the point of a rugelach that you cannot eat on Shabbos after a heavy meat meal?” she would have scoffed, resisting the very notion.

Still, her mother’s recipe had undergone some variations over the years, the most shocking of which was the addition of a secret ingredient that she guarded zealously even from her friends and relatives. She did not feel guilty or give into pressure as—rugelach in hand—they approached her at a kiddush, Shabbos meals, or festive holiday occasions, swooning over her rugelach and begging, demanding, and finally pleading to know how she got them so … so … indescribably scrumptious. Light, crispy, they melted in your mouth like butter, even though they were nondairy! She smiled to herself. Why should I tell them? Let them remember what I was worth. Let them know I knew some things they didn’t. Let them miss me when I’m gone.