Homemade Resurrection Rolls recipe from scratch (2024)

Celebrate the true meaning of Easter by making these Homemade Resurrection Rolls (Empty Tomb Rolls) from scratch! They really look like empty tombs and taste amazing!

Easter is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it. Getting dressed up, going to church, and celebrating the most significant event in human history, the death and resurrection of Jesus!

If you didn’t know, my husband is a pastor. In 2013 we moved from Chicago to Salt Lake City to plant a church. It hasbeen a challenging yet beautiful adventure for our family. If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, then you know that our faith is a huge part of our lives. It informs all of our decisions, including the waywe celebrate Easter (i.e. no egg-laying bunnies come to our house).

One of the ways we celebrate is bymaking homemade resurrection rolls (or “empty tomb rolls)”. Sometimes I take the easy route and make this “recipe,” but when we have time I love making them from scratch because I think they look SO much more like actual tombs, and they don’t have any artificial ingredients.

In this post I’m going to walk you through the process of howwe make theseHomemade Resurrection Rollswith our kids, and the way we use each step as a teaching moment about the truemeaning of Easter!

How to make Resurrection Rolls

I’ll walk you through the process of how to make resurrection rolls.

Make the dough and prep the ingredients.

This job used to fall mostly to mommy (minus some help kneading and mixing of course) because my kids are so little. But now Bethany loves to bake and often will make the dough herself.

Each ingredient in these Homemade Resurrection Rolls represents an important part of the resurrection story. The marshmallow represents Jesus’s body. We discuss how Jesus died (Matthew 27:45-57) and why (John 3:16-17).

So start by making the dough and letting it rise! Then roll it out and cut it into eight triangles.

To make ahead

The way I make this resurrection rolls recipe ahead of time is as follows:

1. Make the dough.
2. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a damp tea towel.
3. Put dough in the refrigerator to rise overnight.
4. In the morning, remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out into 8 triangles.
5. Proceed with recipe as written.

Jesus’s Body Prepared for Burial

Next, we explain that Jesus’ body was prepared for burial according to the Jewish customs of the time. The butter and cinnamon sugar mixture represent the oils and spicesused to do this. The kids dip their marshmallows in butter and then roll them in cinnamon sugar. This is probably their favorite part (besides eating them) because they get messy! (John 19:38-42).

Explain the significance of Jesus’ death.

Then we discuss why Jesus needed to die. We explainthat we’re all sinners (Romans 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). In order for our sins to be forgiven a perfectsacrifice had to be made, and that was only possible in the death of Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Sealing theTomb

Nextwe explain that the rolls (dough) represent the tomb. The kids put the marshmallow on the doughand then roll it up very tight.NOTE:Youwant to make sure there are no cracks or holes in your rolls, otherwise the marshmallow will ooze out. So I let the kids have some fun rolling and then double check to be sure they’re good to go!

We use this opportunity to teach them that the tomb washeavily guarded and secure (Matthew 27:62-66). The Romans put an enormousrock in front of the entrance to the tomb and assigned armed guards to keep watch outside. We emphasize how it would be impossible for a mere man to get in or out of the tomb.

Bake the empty tomb rolls!

We put the Homemade Resurrection Rolls in the oven and explain that Jesus was in the tomb for 3 days (Matthew 12:40).I turn on the lights in the oven and let the kids watch them bake.

While the resurrection rolls are baking we explain that God loved us so much that He sent His one and only son, Jesus, to come to earth and enter into our messy sinful lives. But He didn’t sin, He lived perfectly(John 3:16). We tell them that Jesus tradesplaces with us. He was innocent and didn’t deserve any punishment, but Hetook our punishment of death. We explain thatwe are guilty and should be the ones who are “in the oven,” but Jesus took our place.

It’s fun to use a real life example with the kids here. If Bethany took a toy fromNaomi and was supposed to get a time out, but Gabe said he would go to time out instead of her. Gabe took Bethany’spunishment, even though he did nothing wrong…in the same way that Jesus didn’t do anything wrong but took our punishment!

Step 6: He is risen

Whenwe remove the empty tomb rolls from the oven wediscuss the resurrection! (Matthew 28:1-20)! The kids open the Homemade Resurrection Rolls to see that the marshmallow is GONE….just like Jesus’s body was no longer in the tomb when the women came to see him on Sunday. We discuss the importance of the resurrection in our lives and that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9)!

Then weexplain that thiswhole story is called The Gospel, or “good news” and ask them to explain tous how Jesus’s death and resurrection is good news for them!

Celebrating the meaning of Easter

Making theseHomemade Resurrection Rolls is really a fun and delicious way to celebrate the true meaning of Easter with your family!We do this little activity after we’ve already spent two weeks in homeschool learning about Easter. One of my favorite tools to teach the kids are these Resurrection Eggs or find them here: resurrection eggs! For whatever reason theyadore them and ask me to tell the Easter story using the eggsmultiple times every day!

On Easter we hide larger versions of the items found in the resurrection eggs around the house and have the kids find them. Then we ask them to put the items in order and they take turns explaining the significance of each item to Easter!

Homemade Resurrection Rolls: Substitutions

I recommend making these resurrection rolls exactly as written, however, here are some potential substitutions.

• All-purpose flour. You can substitute up to half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. Bread flour can also be used.
• Large marshmallows.I usually use the standard sized marshmallows, but this year I tried the jumbo mallows and they worked really well (see photo below). They leave more of a gooey mess and ooze out more than just melt, but the size of the “tomb” is significantly larger.
• Butter.vegan butter can be used as a dairy-free substitution.
• Milk.coconut milk is a great dairy-free alternative that works well in this resurrection roll recipe.

If you make and love our recipes, it would mean so much to me if you would leave a comment and rating! And don’t forget to follow along with us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Youtube – be sure to tag @joyfoodsunshine and use the hashtag #joyfoodsunshine so we can your creations!

More easter recipes

Check out some of our favorite easter recipes.

• The best carrot cake, made from scratch – also try these carrot cake cupcakes.
• These mini egg cookies and healthy nest cookies are go-to’s every year for our family.
• You have to make these mini egg brownies!
• The best mashed potatoes and homemade dinner rolls are our go-to side dishes.
• Make our favorite egg salad recipe or the best deviled eggs recipe to use up leftover hard-boiled eggs.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase a product through a link you clicked on here, I receive a portion of the sale. Thank you for supporting JoyFoodSunshine!