Teachable Moments: Resurrection Cookies and Resurrection Rolls

The kitchen in my house is the center of activity. It has many, many, many uses such as a wrestling arena, an art studio, a music studio, and an office. But we mainly use it for creating yummy foods and teaching our kids. My 13-year-old is a master chef for his age and my 3-year-old is my little helper, they both LOVE to cook. Just the other day my daughter told me she wanted to make an egg, so she got out a little skillet and the eggs. It was really quite cute but in no way safe, so I vetoed the idea to her dismay. However, being the cool mommy I am, I decided to do a couple of fun cooking projects with her.

You may or may not realize this, but Easter is the last Sunday of this month, so my fun projects were two food object lessons to teach children about the resurrection of Christ. I am under no delusion that you have not heard of these object lessons, but I thought what better place and what better time to share them. Originally, I was simply going to do a step-by-step tutorial on the Resurrection Cookie, but then I stumbled upon the Resurrection Rolls and thought, “Yes, I must include these as well, especially since they are more interactive for the younger kids.”

In my opinion, anything that is food related and can be a teaching moment is stellar, especially if the food is yummy, and I can attest to the fact that these rolls and cookies ARE yummy. So let’s dive right in! We are going to start with the Resurrection Cookies because the aspects of this teachable moment relate tremendously to his death on the cross, as well as his resurrection from the tomb. Then we will do the Resurrection Rolls which are a great teachable moment about how Jesus was prepared for his burial and His resurrection.

Resurrection Cookies

Go ahead and grab all of the ingredients you need. You will also need a mixer for this recipe. I would highly recommend a stand mixer if you have one, since there is about 15 minutes of continuous mixing going on.

• 1 tsp. + distilled white vinegar
• Salt, 2 pinches
• 3 egg whites
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. pecan halves

1)      Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2)      Place the nuts in a baggy and give your child a wooden spoon and have them beat the nuts into pieces. As they are doing this let them know that the Roman soldier beat Jesus. Read John 19:1-3. After the nuts are in pieces set them aside.

3)      Now put a small amount of vinegar on your little one’s finger and have them taste it. Pour 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. After they tasted the vinegar ask them what they though? Was it good? Was it bitter? Tell them that as Jesus was on the cross the soldiers gave Jesus vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

 

4)      Add the egg whites to your mixing bowl. Tell your children the egg whites represent life, and Jesus gave his life to give us life abundantly. Read John 10:10-11.

5)      Put a pinch of salt in your child’s palm and have them taste it. Add a pinch of salt to your mixing bowl. Ask your child if they knew tears were salty? Tell them the salt represents the tears that the women shed for Jesus. Read Luke 23:27.

6)      Now give your child a pinch of sugar and have them taste its sweetness. Add 1 c. of sugar to the mixing bowl. Tell your child that up until you added the sugar all of the other ingredients were bitter, which is how the death of Jesus was. However, when the sugar was added it brought a wonderful sweetness to the mixture and that is what Jesus has done for us through His life. He loved us so much; He gave His life for us. Read Psalms 34:8 and John 3:16.

7)      Beat the mixture for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks form. Have your child notice how white the mixture is. This represents the purity and cleansing of our sins because of Jesus’ death. Read Isaiah 1:18.

8)      Fold in the nuts

9)      Drop the mixture by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. The mounds represent the tomb where Jesus was buried.

10)  Now place the cookie sheet into the oven. Turn off the heat. As a fun little something extra construct a paper boulder and tape over the oven window to seal the tomb. Read Matthew 27:59

 

11)  Leave the cookies in the oven over-night. Make sure you turned the oven off. Now your children might be upset they have to leave the cookies overnight, but this is a great time to tell them how sad Jesus’ followers were when the tomb was sealed and they had to leave Jesus. Read John 16:20-22

12)  The next morning, open your oven, pull out your cookies and observe what happened. The cookies should be hollow on the inside. Tell your child that is exactly how Jesus’ tomb was found – Empty! Read Matthew 28:1-9 and enjoy your cookies.

My family loved these cookies and so did the ladies in my Bible study. I didn’t want to leave such goodness lying around, so I shared it just like we do the good news of Christ.

Resurrection Rolls

First off gather your ingredients, it would be no fun to gather your little cuties together to learn a fun lesson and be missing ingredients. I loved that the rolls had very few ingredients and I had most of them on hand.

• 1 pkg. crescent rolls
• 8 large marshmallows
• 4 TBL butter, melted
• 3 TBL sugar
• 1 TBL cinnamon

1)      Preheat oven to 375 degrees. While your oven is pre-heating read John 19 – 20:1-10 to your kids, as a side note make sure that is actually what you read them or you will be scratching your head and wondering how in the world does this pertain to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

2)      Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl large enough to roll a marshmallow around in.

3)      Hold up a marshmallow and tell them “This is Jesus,” and see what they say. Actually tell them it represents the body of Jesus.

4)      Point to the butter and tell them the butter represents the oil that was rubbed on Jesus’ body during his burial preparations. Have them roll a marshmallow around in the butter, cover all areas.

5)      Now explain to them how the cinnamon and sugar represent the spices that were also rubbed on his body. Have them roll the buttered marshmallow around in the cinnamon and sugar to coat.

6)      The crescent roll is representative of the linens that Jesus was wrapped in. Place the oiled and spiced marshmallow in the middle of the large portion of the crescent roll and fold the edges all around the marshmallow. It will NOT look like a crescent roll, but more like a little boulder. (How apropos?)

7)      Place your little marshmallow boulders on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and then slide into the tomb (oven) for about 12 minutes. Don’t let your little ones watch them bake or cool, it needs to be a surprise.

8)      After cooking remove from the oven and let them cool.

9)      Break a cooled roll apart and show your little one.

What do they see? If they are like most little ones they won’t see anything and they will be amazed the marshmallow isn’t there. This is when you liken it to when Jesus rose and the tomb was left empty except for his linen cloth. However, be careful they might be like my little pistol and say “Oh, the marshmallows melted and they aren’t there anymore.” There was absolutely no amazement on her part.

I hope you enjoy these teachable moments. You can do either one or both of them. I think they complement each other nicely. This article was originally posted on Destiny In Bloom. Have a blessed Easter!