Learning to Make Rugeluch

I promised to bring rugeluch to my friend's break fast meal. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, followed by stuffing yourself silly when it's all over. It's almost always a dairy meal--no meat but plenty of fish. Last night we had eight kinds of fish, along with cheeses, tomatoes, onions, scallion cream cheese and bagels. I'm not a smoked fish eater, but there was plenty of food for me to enjoy.

I have never baked rugeluch before. The dough is made with cream cheese, butter, sugar and flour. All the recipes I read said you have to chill the dough before using it, which I did. I was making chocolate and jam rugeluch, preferring chocolate myself.

I rolled out one piece of the dough into a 4X12 rectangle and filled it with the chocolate mix. I'd already made my first mistake in that I didn't chop the chocolate finely enough. Oy, what a mess. When I went to roll it and cut into pieces, very few retained the filling or the correct shape. When I bake them, most burned.

Why does someone in a tiny NYC kitchen attempt this? The truth is, I did it for the compliments. The second batch was better, and the third and fourth, made with jam, were the best, although by then I saw where wax paper came in. Sweating and cursing, I finally produced two dozen imperfectly shaped rugeluch.

When dessert was served, I was showered with an embarrassment of compliments. I said thank you and grabbed a slice of babka.