Easter Cookies

Start celebrating the true meaning of Easter the night before by making Easter cookies. As you make the cookies, explain how each part of the cookies is part of the Easter story. Here are the ingredients for the cookies and how to make them while telling the story.

Ingredients:

• One cup of pecans, whole
• One teaspoon of vinegar
• Three egg whites
• Salt
• One cup of sugar
• Plastic bag that can seal
• Wooden spoon
• Tape

Directions and How to Tell the Easter Story:

1.) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the pecans in the bag and have your child beat it with a wooden spoon to crush the pecans. Tell the child how Jesus was beaten after He was arrested by the Romans.

2.) Take the vinegar and let the child smell it and have a small taste. Tell your child that when Jesus was placed on the cross, vinegar was all He was allowed to drink. Place the vinegar in a mixing bowl.

3.) Taking the egg whites, explain how eggs represent life and rebirth. Explain that Jesus was placed on the cross to give everyone life. Add the egg whites to the vinegar in the bowl.

4.) Taking the salt let the child taste it. Explain that this is how the tears of Jesus’ followers tasted and it also represents the bitterness of sin.

5.) Next allow the child to taste the sugar. Explain that this is the nicest part of the story because Jesus died for our sins.

6.) Beat the ingredients in the bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the white peaks represent purity and those that have been cleansed by Jesus’ blood.

7.) Fold the nuts into the peaks. Taking a teaspoonful at a time, drop mounds onto a waxed cookie sheet. Tell the child that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus was laid after He died.

8.) Place the cookie sheet in the oven and turn the oven off. Have each child place a piece of tape over the oven door and tell them that Jesus’ tomb was sealed after He was put to rest in there.

9.) Tell the child that it is time to go to bed. They may be sad that the cookies have to be left overnight but explain that those who followed Jesus were sad after He was sealed in the tomb.

10.) The next morning, the cookies will be ready to be eaten. Give a cookie to everyone and after they have taken a bite, they will see that the cookies are hollow. Tell them that this is just like how Jesus’ tomb was empty on the third day.