Easter Resurrection Cookies

Making Easter Resurrection Cookies is one of our family's favorite traditions on the Saturday evening before Easter morning. 

As you make these cookies with your children, you'll read specific Scriptures which will reveal the next ingredient to add to the bowl. At the end, put the cookies in the oven, turn the oven off, and open it on Easter morning to find hollow pockets in each cookie, representing Jesus' empty tomb. This is a powerful illustration for children of all ages!

Printable Recipe: Easter Resurrection Cookies

Easter Resurrection Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup whole pecans

1 teaspoon vinegar

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

 Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Prepare 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
• Place 1 cup of pecans in a plastic zipper bag and let the children break them into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Say: Jesus was crushed for our iniquities.
• Read Isaiah 53:5: But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
• Let the children smell the vinegar, then put 1 teaspoon of vinegar into the mixing bowl. When Jesus was thirsty on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink.
• Read John 19:28-30: After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
• Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life. Jesus, our good shepherd, laid down his life for us.
• Read John 10:10-11: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
• Sprinkle a small pinch of salt into each child's hand. Let them taste the salt, then add a pinch of salt to the bowl. Jesus' friends were sad and mourned with salty tears when he died.

• Read Luke 23:27: And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.
•  Add 1 cup of sugar to the bowl. The sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us. His death paid the penalty for our sin, and that is good news!
• Read Psalm 34:8: Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
• Read John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
• Beat with a mixer on high speed until stiff, white peaks form, approximately 10 minutes. The color white represents purity. Jesus' death has cleansed the sins of all who believe and made them white as snow.
• Read Isaiah 1:18: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
• Gently fold in the pecan pieces, then drop mixture by large tablespoonful onto the lined cookie sheet. Each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.
• Read Matthew 27:57-60: When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.
• Place the cookies in the preheated oven. Give each child a piece of tape and let them seal the oven door shut, as Jesus' tomb was sealed. Then turn the oven off.
• Before going to bed, explain that Jesus' followers were very sad when the tomb was sealed, and many wondered if Jesus' story was over. We know the best was yet to come!
• On Easter Morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow. The tomb is empty! He is risen!