Cinnamon Balls - a soft sort of biscuit

Cinnamon balls are a typical Yiddish sweet biscuit with a soft crumbly texture and a soft outside coating. As kids growing up in 50's Whitechapel, London we were never far from a Jewish bakery. Sometimes the balls would be soft and sometimes they were hard and dry. Somewhere midway was my choice. A rare treat worth the expense. They're made of almonds and not much air: 

Prices

Recipe cost £4.40 for 16 balls at £0.28p each. Cooked weight 360g or £11.00 per kilogram. These prices are from Tesco in 2010 when a pint of milk was £0.45 and fillet steak was £25 a kilo. 

Recipe 2 egg whites £0.50 plus a pinch of salt
4oz or 100g caster sugar £0.15 (cut or swop it with soft dark brown sugar £0.25p)
8oz or 200g ground almonds £2.50
1 level tablespoon of ground cinnamon £0.15

Cook covered for 15-25 minutes at 160'C (more options below**) £0.50

Dust with icing sugar £0.10

• Warm the oven - see ** below. Oil a tray or line it with oiled aluminium foil.
• Beat Get two egg whites and add a pinch of salt until stiff. Note: I no longer beat the whites. 
• Mix ground almonds; sugar and cinnamon. 
• Add a quarter of the dry mix to the egg whites; fold until mixed and repeat until it's all mixed.
• Take a rounded desertspoonful of mixture; use damp hands to form the mixture into 2.5cm balls and place on the foil. There's no need to roll them smooth - a rough surface adds interest. 
• ** Various sources suggested oven cooking for 15 minutes at 180'C or 25 mins at 150'C or in-between as I used, 20 mins at 160'C. I reckon you could cook this in a microwave.
• Tip: the cooking just needs to set the egg white which would happen at 60'C. You really don't need the balls to go brown or hard so you may undercook them. I covered mine with foil to reduce drying out
• Tip: place the cooked balls in a closed plastic sandwich box to trap evaporating moisture and soften the outside. When cool, roll the balls in icing sugar. Stored for a couple of days like this seemed to make them more crumbly.
  

Recipe variations

A second variation uses 3 egg whites not 2; and 1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon not 1. I was happy with the above. The metric recipe is an approx. equivalent - handy because almonds are sold in 200g bags.