Sometimes, you’re sitting on your couch, watching an episode of Superior Donuts, minding your own business, and from across the room, you hear the phrase “Babe, I think I need to bring something to work for our Superbowl Party tomorrow.”

Insert frustration, mixed with a little excitement that there’s another excuse to create something here.

I’m all about themes; I’m not one for a totally blank canvas. The world is just too big for that. But give me a little direction (i.e. Superbowl Party), and I’m ready to roll – literally, cookie dough, pizza crust, whatev.

These are super easy to make, and decorating them is fun, not stressful, like Christmas sugar cookies. Anyone else secretly hate the pressure that comes with royal icing and sprinkles? If you want to skip ahead to the recipe, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page, but if you want some tips, read through, because although these are easy, there’s a few things that you might appreciate knowing before you’re up to your elbows in melted chocolate.

Supplies

You’ll want to make sure you have everything you need ready to go before you get started, because there’s nothing worse than a mid-baking run to the store with powdered sugar on your face and your oldest, dirtiest sweatshirt on. Here’s what you’ll want to have (aside from the recipe ingredients):

• Wax Paper
• Teaspoon
• Microwave safe bowl
• Potholder
• Spatula
• Butter knife and small spoon
• Stand Mixer

The Cookies

You’ll want to line your freezer or a cookie sheet (that will fit in your freezer) with wax paper before you do anything else. Once you’ve mixed your ingredients and portioned out your cookie dough, you’ll be ready to start shaping your cookies. The easiest way to get a football shape is the roll the dough in your hands, forming a ball. Push your thumb into the center of the cookie to flatten it out, while each end begins to form a rounded or pointed edge. Mold each one to your liking and then set it on wax paper in the freezer. Give these enough time; they can’t be rushed! You want them to maintain their shape when you begin decorating, so that means they need to be fully formed. I would suggest letting them sit overnight if possible.

The Chocolate

This was the first time I used Almond Bark chocolate, and I think it’s a lot different than working with melted mini chocolate chips. You’ll want to break off and melt a few pieces at a time versus using the entire bar. I did 2 pieces at a time. Melt in the microwave for 90 seconds, and be sure to grab with a potholder! Mix the chocolate well with a spoon. This stuff hardens quickly, but it also melts quickly, which makes it pretty easy to work with.

The Decorating

Now is when you’ll want to work quickly. Use a spatula to pick up your cookie – don’t use your hands! Remember that you’re working with cream cheese, which softens quickly, so your body temperature will speed up that process even more. Drop the cookie in the bowl of chocolate, and using the spoon flip it over. It should be covered in warm chocolate at this point; again, cream cheese + piping hot chocolate = the need for speed. Using a butter knife and the spoon, remove the cookie from the bowl. You’ll want to end up with the cookie sitting flat on the butter knife. I know this sounds like a crazy amount of detail, but I tried a bunch of different methods, trying to find the most efficient way; this is it. Tilt the butter knife down so that the cookie slides off, onto your wax paper. If you use a spoon, it will create an uneven amount somewhere on the cookie. Allow the chocolate to dry completely before icing.

If you mess up your chocolate, don’t worry! It’s SO easy to fix. Let it harden before fixing, and always use hot chocolate to fix. You can see the really uneven surface on the middle cookie below. I allowed it to cool while I finished the other cookies. Once I was done, I just re-did that cookie (and a few others that didn’t look so good) by putting it back in the chocolate and repeating the process. Since this chocolate melts so fast, the old chocolate on there simply molded with the new warm chocolate in the bowl, and we ended up with a brand new football.

The Icing

Real talk; I hate using store-brought stuff. I always make my own everything. Today’s buttercream icing was mocking me. Something did not work, and off I went, to the store, at 5:30 AM, in my dirtiest sweatshirt with powdered sugar on my face, for packaged icing. Feel free to make your own or use a package; no judgement here, obviously. If you do go with a package, I would strongly suggest getting a decorating icing with a small tip to draw the lines. A frosting will be much too difficult, unless you’re an artistic cookie genius, than go for it girlfriend. Good cake decorating supplies are kind of hard to find at such an early time, so our cookies are shamelessly decorated with the help of Walmart’s Great Value Cookie Icing. Sugar is sugar is sugar, right?

As you can see, we have some different size footballs and different textured stitching, so if your footballs end up with a little variety in their shapes and sizes, don’t worry too much! The Budweiser commercial will still make you cry, the PuppyMonkeyBaby will still be creepily cute, and your cookies will still taste Y U M. Happy Superbowl weekend!