We love to make these super simple cookies every year the day before Resurrection Sunday! Not only are they delicious – they help to reorient your family to the real reason we celebrate the day that the Lord rose from the grave!

EMPTY TOMB COOKIES
by Chelsea Dyan @gratefulheartcollective

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole pecans
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 3 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup of sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees – you have to do it at this step

1. Place pecans in a Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin to break them into pieces. Read John 19:1-3. This step represents how Jesus was beaten by the Roman soldiers after He was arrested. Set these aside.
2. Pour 1 tsp of vinegar into a mixing bowl. Read John 19:28-30 and explain that when Jesus was on the cross He asked for a drink and was given something like vinegar on a hyssop branch.
3. Add the 3 egg whites to the mixing bowl. Read John 10: 10-11 and discuss how the egg whites symbolize Jesus’ holy, innocent life.
4. Add a pinch of salt to the bowl. Read Luke 23:27. The salt represents the bitter tears of the women who were mourning and lamenting.
5. Add the 1 cup of sugar to the bowl. Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16. The sugar represents the sweet part of the story – that Jesus died to save us.
6. Mix on high speed for approximately 15 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. While this mixes, read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3
7. Fold the nuts into the egg white mixture that you just mixed. Read Matthew 27:57-60. This symbolizes the rocks in the garden.
8. Drop TBSP sized mounds onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Each of the mounds represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid.
9. Put the cookie sheet(s) in the oven, close the door, and turn the oven OFF.
10. Each person involved can put a piece of tape along the edge of the oven door to symbolize how Jesus’ tomb was sealed and guarded. Read Matthew 27: 65-66
11. Tell everyone its time for bed. Acknowledge that we might feel sad leaving the cookies in the oven overnight but remind them that Jesus’ followers were also sad when the tomb was sealed. Read and consider John 16: 20 & 22 and go to bed.
12. NEXT MORNING: Unseal the oven and take a cookie. Surprise! When you bite into it the cookies are hollow! This represents the empty tomb. Explain that on resurrection morning Jesus’ followers were amazed to find that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty! Jesus is risen! Read Matthew 28: 1-9

Want to download the full printable PDF?

And make sure you check out the full video to see how it’s done!

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Hope you enjoy making these as much as we do!
xoxo Chelsea Dyan