The Jewish festival of Passover (Pesach) is coming up in a few days. We can’t eat any grains or anything that rises in memory of the Jews leaving Egypt after 400 years of slavery with only unleavened bread (Matza).

We have some amazing cakes that are traditional to bake in the lead up to Passover so we have enough Kosher for Passover things to eat during the 8 days.

The problem is, all these cakes use a huge amount of refined sugar.

When I was growing up I remember in the lead up to every Jewish festival seeing a recipe book out in my mum’s kitchen. It was Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookbook. It has every recipe for all the traditional foods over all the festivals as well as general traditional Jewish foods. My mum gave me her original copy on my wedding day and it was so special. It has all the cooking stains on the pages she used the most and I love that about it. I’ll keep it forever. This year I decided to try out Florrie’s original recipe, using all the original ingredients, but simply substituting the caster sugar for coconut palm sugar.

With the cinnamon balls they turned out just perfectly and I’m so happy with them. So far I’ve made 3 batches for friends and family! They really go beautifully with a cup of mint tea.

I did use a little bit of icing sugar to decorate as the sugar-free version tastes a bit too tart for my liking. It’s a tiny amount, so we can do it this one time 🙂

Even if you’re not celebrating Passover, give them a go, they’re delish!

Ingredients

3 egg whites
150g coconut palm sugar
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
225g ground almonds
2 tsp desiccated coconut
Icing sugar to decorate (as a one off!)

Method

Preheat oven to 180* and line 2 baking trays with baking paper and grease with coconut oil.

Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

Mix the other ingredients (except the icing sugar) in a bowl then add the egg whites and mix well until incorporated.

Roll into small balls and place on the baking trays.

Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on your oven. They should be starting to harden and go golden on the outside but be soft on the inside.

Love & health & chag sameach,
Lauren