These gluten, dairy, sugar free & vegan Israeli / Moroccan inspired Halva (tahini) and cardamom cookies epitomise the tastes of my upbringing.
There are many benefits to being brought up in an Israeli / Moroccan household. Without a doubt, one of the best ones is the food. I don’t know of many people who don’t love Moroccan food. Both tahini and cardamom are staples in my mum’s house. We used to eat Halva all the time when I was growing up. Halva is a sweet dessert using tahini (made from sesame seeds) and sweetened with honey. Goes without saying we used to mix it into ice cream as a dessert so it definitely wasn’t the healthiest of options!
When we were last in Israel we visited the amazing Sarona food market, where we found Halva Kingdom. Guys, this place was insane! Every halva flavour you could imagine. Our favourites were pistachio, classic and WHISKY 🙂
Anyway, I decided to try and make a cookie that uses these tastes, even though tahini is technically savoury. But if they could make halva out of it, I could make cookies out of it!
It was a real ‘test’ recipe as I had no idea how they’d turn out but they are so delicious, I’m quite happy with myself!
Also happy because sesame seeds are SO high in bioavailable calcium so I try to get as much tahini into Brax as I can. It’s the perfect dairy-free calcium-filled food, and these make the perfect snack to up our calcium intake.
The cookies are really easy to make and go perrrrrrrfectly with a gently infused cup of mint tea, served in Moroccan tea cups of course 🙂
Ingredients
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
About 7 cardamom pods (open them, take out the seeds and crush them using a pestle and mortar)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch Himalayan salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp tahini
4 tbsp maple syrup
Handful sesame seeds
Method
Preheat the oven to 180* and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Mix together the ground almonds, buckwheat flour, spices, salt and baking powder.
Now add the tahini and maple and mix until fully combined.
Roll small balls with your hands, put them on the tray then press them down into cookie shapes and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. They should just start browning around the edges but you don’t want them too dry. Remember, they will continue to cook once they come out the oven.
Serve with a cup of mint tea.
Love & health,
Lauren