My grandmother (I'm 61 at this writing in 2009) also made coogans and they were absolutely wonderful! To all of those people who want to convert "coogan" into "kuchen", I must stress that while both are delicious, there is a difference between them.

My grandmother almost always used canned plums and made the coogans as individual pastries. They looked very much like a traditional sweet roll that we see in bakeries today.

When my grandmother died in 1961, she took all of the know-how of her recipe to heaven with her. Even my grandfather, bless his heart, tried to make them without success.

So, if anyone has any ideas about how the German ladies made this wonderful traditional dessert, my entire family would be most grateful.