Super Bowl Sweets

One of my favorite memories as a kid was the almost yearly Super Bowl party my parents had. Even though my hometown team, the Cleveland Browns, never made it to the big game (although they did have some close calls), there was always something exciting about watching the Super Bowl. My dad would invite his fantasy football league over and my brother and I would try and make decorations for the festivities (okay, I did and he begrudgingly helped). We contentedly watched the game in surround sound, eating my dad's famous meatball sandwiches.

Since moving to New York and marrying a huge baseball fan, it seems as if I've become a little less excited about football. But there is always still something exciting about watching the Super Bowl. Even if you don't care about the teams playing, the commercials are fun and there's usually a great half-time show (I'm really excited about Madonna's performance this year!).

This year, the Super Bowl is a bit more exciting because the New York Giants are playing the New England Patriots. Not only are the Giants my adopted hometown team, but they're playing their northern rivals. It's almost as good as the Yankees vs. the Red Sox.

We're heading down to my brother-in-law's house to watch the game and I thought some treats were in order. I decided to make some Ghirardelli chocolate brownies and cut them into the shape of a football.

I used the recipe found on the back of the Ghirardelli cocoa and added some Guittard chocolate chips for an extra chocolate kick.

Here's the recipe, from Ghirardelli:

Ghirardelli Award-Wining Brownies
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter (melted)
3/4 cup Ghriardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa
2/3 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1/4 t.sp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup walnuts (optional - I omitted)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with butter and flour. Stir eggs, butter and vanilla together until well mixed. Add melted butter and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the egg mixture. When well blended (but not over-beat), add nuts and/or chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes.

I decided to use a brownie pan I had that was 9x13, so I made a batch and a half. That seemed to fit the pan perfectly, without making the brownies too thick.

When done, set pan on top of a cooling rack and cool until room temperature. Then, use a football shaped cookie cutter (this can be done with any shaped cookie cutter), and cut out footballs.

The brownies hold their shape well, so there was little cracking of the tops or sides. I was able to get about 10 footballs cut out of the 9x13 pan, since the shape was a bit large.

I then, melted some white chocolate in a pastry bag and piped the laces on the footballs.

I think the kids (and the adults!) will enjoy them. Since it is Super Bowl Sunday, I also wanted to use up some cute cupcake liners and topers I picked up on clearance at Michael's awhile ago, thinking they would make cute treats for my husband's Young Men's Club. He'll be taking them the extras tomorrow!

These cupcakes are nothing fancy: Devil's Food cake mix and vanilla icing (from a container). The liners and toothpick toppers are cute though.

Hope you all have a great Super Bowl Sunday! Go Giants!
P.S. - And as for the Cleveland Browns, as my Dad says, "There's always next year!"