These fun football brownies make the perfect addition to any football or Super Bowl party with their delicious flavor and festive design! Made with either homemade brownies or store-bought brownies then iced with football lacings, these make a delicious sweet finish to your next game day party!
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Fun Football Dessert
Our family hosts a Super Bowl party every year (we are part of Chiefs Kingdom after all) full of delicious Super Bowl snacks but one of the things we realized this year was that our desserts were just not up to par with the rest of the game day spread.
Instead of creating brand new football desserts, we decided to use some of our tried and true recipes to make football party desserts. These football brownies are made with our heavily tested and loved homemade brownies (or you can always use boxed brownie mix but our brownies are super easy!) with a little vanilla frosting iced into football laces on top.
They’re festive, fun, and fudgy brownies that everyone will love!
Why people love these football brownies
- Fan favorite – everyone loves a good brownie, and these are better than good, they are the best.
- Straight forward lineup – you likely have all of the ingredients already in your pantry.
- Game day ready – these can be made ahead to ensure you have plenty of time to complete your game day rituals without worrying about the food. Save your time to make the buffalo chicken dip and meatballs, not the desserts!
Ingredients in football brownies
I’ve written this post using homemade brownies. If you’re planning to use a box mix instead, you can skip all of these ingredients and just get icing to put on your brownies!
In addition to the ingredients needed above (for the brownies), you’ll also need some sort of white frosting to make the football decorations across the top of the football brownies. You can make your own, melt white chocolate, or just use something like this white cooking icing.
Just make sure that whatever you choose to use for the laces will at least harden some so that it doesn’t just wipe off.
Additional Tools
In addition to the ingredients shown above, you’ll also need a football shaped cookie cutter. the size of your cookie cutter will determine how many footballs you can make, so I recommend getting something smaller since these are a rich brownie. Also, you want it to be able to cut deep into the brownie so avoid cookie cutters with imprints on the top and make sure the cookie cutter is fairly tall.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
You should have most ingredients in your pantry to make these football brownies. This recipe has been tested specifically with the ingredients written out but there a few things you could substitute and still get great results, we’ve outlined those below:
- Powdered sugar – this makes all the differences in giving it the chewy thick texture. You need both powdered sugar and white sugar to get the thick fudgy brownie flavor.
- Cocoa Powder – both Dutch-processed and regular cocoa powder will work just fine for the brownies
- Vanilla – If you want to add an additional flavor such as almond extract, add 1/2 a teaspoon (or more to taste) in addition to the vanilla but don’t jus switch it out.
- Oil – these were developed with vegetable oil but any flavorless oil will work. You can also use melted salted or unsalted butter for the same results.
- Semi-sweet chocolate – There is no substitution for this, it’s what makes it gooey and gives it the rich chocolate flavor. Baking chocolate is always my first choice because it melts the easiest. However, semisweet chocolate chips will work as well. You can use a darker chocolate but during our testing, we found that the milk chocolate was too sweet.
How to make football-shaped brownies
1 – Make Your Brownies
Make your brownies according to the package instructions (or the recipe card instructions below), making sure to bake them in a parchment paper lined baking dish so that you can easily pop them out of the pan after they bake.
If you don’t have parchment paper, make sure to spray the pan bottom and sides well with cooking spray. Then while the brownies are still warm, run a sharp knife around the edges to help release them from the bottom of the pan.
2 – Cut out the football brownies
Once the brownies have been baked, let them cool completely. This will help keep them together when you’re cutting out the football shapes!
Once the brownies are completely cooled, slide them out gently onto a flat surface using the parchment paper.
Use your football-shaped cookie cutters to cut out as many football shapes as you can. Roughly map it out before you start cutting so you can get the most out of it then start cutting one at a time.
Once you cut the football brownies out, place them onto the piece of parchment paper to get ready to decorate.
3 – Decorate the Footballs
Pipe the laces (two half circles, one line, and stripes across the line) on the brownie as shown in the picture using either melted white chocolate or cookie icing if you’d prefer. Allow them to cool on the pan until the chocolate has hardened.
Once set, transfer to a serving dish and enjoy! If you use white chocolate, you should be able to stack these on top of each other. If not, I recommend serving them on a larger serving platter in one single layer so you don’t smudge the laces (I know this from experience).
Tips for Perfect Brownies
If using a nonstick spray, run a knife around the edges of the pan as soon as it comes out to help prevent sticking. I highly recommend using parchment paper on the bottom at a minimum
Any flavorless oil will work for this such as avocado.
For a richer flavor brownie, you can use darker chocolate. I recommend using baking chocolate for smoother results, but chocolate chips will also work. Just take care to not over-melt them.
For smooth lines when cutting, use a disposable plastic knife.
Store at room temperature for up to a week as long as they are covered tightly in an airtight container or with plastic wrap.
Recipe FAQs
Can I add chocolate chips or nuts into the recipe?
Of course, I recommend adding just a cup of chocolate chips or nuts. I will warn you these are really fudgy brownies to begin with so maybe try the recipe once before you add in more chocolate. Nuts are great!
Can I make these ahead of time?
These football brownies are perfect for make ahead of time since you need to let the brownies cool before you cut them anyway! Make them the day before then just store in an airtight container until it’s time for your football party!
What do I do with the scraps?
If you can resist eating them all, you can turn them into these delicious brownie balls.
More Easy Football Desserts
If you need more football desserts to go along with these football brownies, try one of these next!
- Snickers poke cake – make this cake in a football cake pan and add laces on top for the most delicious and festive football cake ever!
- Brownie batter – add white chocolate laces on top right before you serve for a sweet Super Bowl dip!
- Chocolate truffles – shape these into footballs and add laces (are you sensing a theme?).
- Football stadium cookies – these sugar cookies get a football spin with cute decorations that look like football stadiums!
- Football rice krispy treats – use that cookie cutter to make these football shaped treats too!
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Football Brownies
Ingredients
- 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 eggs
- ⅔ cups oil
- ½ cup water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 8 oz white chocolate melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper.
- Using a microwave-safe bowl, melt ounces of chocolate. Microwave for 30 seconds then stir. Return to the microwave and heat for 15 seconds. Remove and stir. Continue to heat in 15-second increments until it is fully melted and silky. Set aside to cool slightly, not all the way.8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- Mix powdered sugar, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until fully combined and there are no lumps.3 cups powdered sugar, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons salt
- In a small bowl mix eggs, oil, water, and vanilla.4 eggs, 2/3 cups oil, 1/2 cup water, 2 teaspoons vanilla
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until you see no dry patches.
- Fold in the melted chocolate until just combined.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly throughout the pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted with just a few crumbs sticking to it. Start checking it at 45 minutes.
- Allow to cool for twenty minutes until just slightly warm to the touch to set. Remove from pan then serve.
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in a safe bowl for thirty second increments until smooth. Allow to cool slightly while you cut the footballs.8 oz white chocolate
- Once the brownies are completely cooled, slide them out gently onto a flat surface using the parchment paper.
- Using your cookie cutter, cut out as many football shapes as you can. Once you make your cut place them on a baking sheet for final touches.
- Transfer your melted white chocolate into a pipping bag with a small tip.
- Draw the laces on the brownie as shown in the picture using the white chocolate.
- Allow them to cool on the pan at room temperature (or in the fridge to speed up the process) until the chocolate has hardened.
- Once set, transfer to a serving dish and enjoy!
Tips & Notes:
- If using a nonstick spray, run a knife around the edges of the pan as soon as it comes out to help prevent sticking. I highly recommend using parchment paper on the bottom at a minimum
- Any flavorless oil will work for this such as avocado.
- For a richer flavor brownie, you can use darker chocolate.
- I recommend using baking chocolate for smoother results, but chocolate chips will also work. Just take care to not over-melt them.
- Powdered sugar – this makes all the differences in giving it the chewy thick texture. You need both powdered sugar and white sugar to get the thick fudgy brownie flavor.
- Cocoa Powder – both Dutch-processed and regular cocoa powder will work just fine for the brownies
- Vanilla – If you want to add an additional flavor such as almond extract, add 1/2 a teaspoon (or more to taste) in addition to the vanilla but don’t jus switch it out.
- Oil – these were developed with vegetable oil but any flavorless oil will work. You can also use melted salted or unsalted butter for the same results.
- Semi-sweet chocolate – There is no substitution for this, it’s what makes it gooey and gives it the rich chocolate flavor. Baking chocolate is always my first choice because it melts the easiest. However, semisweet chocolate chips will work as well. You can use a darker chocolate but during our testing, we found that the milk chocolate was too sweet.
Nutrition Info
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