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Yields:
1 dz.
Prep Time:
15 mins
Total Time:
2 hrs
Appetizers usually take center stage when it comes to Super Bowl snacking, but if you need a sweet treat to balance out the savory, then these football cookies are the answer. Plus, these football-shaped treats couldn’t be easier to make: sugar cookies are coated in icing and decorated to resemble the pigskin. They’re so easy to design, even the kids can get in on it—turn it into a game day activity the whole fam can do together! Here’s everything you need to know to create these simple sweet treats:
How to create the football shape:
We created these adorable football cookies with a football-shaped cookie cutter. While you can try and free-hand it, cookie cutters will ensure that your cookies are as uniform as possible—we highly recommend it.
Tip: Freeze your cut-out cookie dough for 10 minutes before baking to ensure they hold their shapes.
The icing:
We used our best-ever sugar cookie icing for this recipe. It's easy to make, even easier to work with, and creates a beautifully designed cookie. Because we’re creating designs on these cookies, we highly recommend using it.
How to decorate your football cookies:
— Add your food coloring a bit at a time so you control the color—add until you get your desired shade.
— Thin out your icing by adding a teaspoon of milk at a time until the icing is the desired consistency to flood.
— Let your icing set before piping your detail on top. Keep your design as defined as possible—no messy footballs here.
Storage:
Once made, these cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for around 3 days.
Made these? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
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Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 3 cups
(360 g.) all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
- 1 tsp.
baking powder
- 1/2 tsp.
kosher salt
- 1 cup
(2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup
(200 g.) granulated sugar
- 1
large egg
- 1 Tbsp.
whole milk
- 1 tsp.
pure vanilla extract
Icing
- 3 cups
(345 g.) (or more) confectioners' sugar
- 1/4 cup
light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup
whole milk
- 1/4 tsp.
pure vanilla extract
Brown food coloring
Brown sanding sugar
Equipment Needed
A 3" to 3 1/2" football-shaped cookie cutter, 3 piping bags, a small round tip
Directions
Cookie Dough
- Step 1In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until combined, then gradually add dry ingredients and beat on medium-low speed until combined.
- Step 2Shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
- Step 3On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough until 1/8” thick. Cut out shapes with a football cookie cutter and transfer to 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Freeze 10 minutes (so your shapes hold while baking!).
- Step 4Arrange a rack in center of oven; preheat to 350º. Bake cookies until edges are lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely.
Icing
- Step 1In a medium bowl, stir powdered sugar, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla. Measure out 1/4 cup white icing and set aside.
- Step 2To remaining icing, add food coloring and stir until desired color is reached. Transfer about one-third of brown icing to piping bag fitted with small round tip and outline cookies with icing.
- Step 3To remaining brown icing in bowl, add more confectioners' sugar if needed until icing is a good consistency to flood. Transfer icing to another piping bag fitted with small round tip. Fill in cookies with thinner icing. Sprinkle cookies with sanding sugar while still wet.
- Step 4Transfer reserved white icing to piping bag fitted with small round tip and pipe laces onto footballs. If cookies are still too wet to pipe laces on, freeze 15 minutes.
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