Cheer on your favorite team with these amazing Football Sugar Cookies and you are sure to have a winning time! These soft sugar cookie cutouts are decorated with delicious chocolate and vanilla frosting football for the big game.
These delicious Football Sugar Cookies are super easy to make! Ready in just 30 minutes, they're a great choice for last-minute baking for your Game Day parties or to support your favorite College Football Team!
Topped with chocolate sweet buttercream frosting, they're so fantastic, you'll be making these cookies throughout the football season.
These cute cookies are also perfect for a football-themed party for your favorite football fan and even more fun on Super Bowl Sunday.
I love making themed cookies, and you know I'll use any excuse to do it. From Easter Bird's Nests to Summery Ice Cream Cones and Christmas Ornaments, pretty much anything can give me cookie inspiration!
If you have a football-shaped cookie cutter, you can go ahead and use it and make your cookie design in line with the cut-outs. When I made these easy football cookies though, I just used a circular cookie cutter, but you can even use a cup or jar in a pinch!
For more Game Day cookie recipe inspiration check out these Monster Cookies, my Patriotic Sugar Cookie Bars, and these Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies!
Shopping List
Wet Ingredients. Butter, Vanilla Extract, Egg, Milk
Dry Ingredients. All Purpose Flour, White Granulated Sugar, Baking Powder, Cocoa Powder Dutch Process, Salt
How to Make Football Sugar Cookies
Make the Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F. Line two ungreased cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Cream Butter and Sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy using an electric mixer or a stand mixer. Mixture will turn pale yellow in color filled with lots of air and will take 2-3 minutes of creaming to achieve.
Add eggs and extract and continue to cream the mixture together. It's important to cream mixture until fully combined. The eggs will add more volume and texture to the cookie dough
In a separate bowl combine All Purpose Flour and Baking Soda together. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
Cover cookie dough with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes. This allows the cookie dough to rest.
Flour the work surface and roll out chilled cookie dough to ¼ inch.
Using a round cookie cutter, a biscuit cutter, or anything with a circle shape and a sharp edge, cut the cookie dough into circles.
Place each cookie dough circle on the baking sheet allowing at least 2 inches between cookies.
Cookie dough shapes can now be placed in the refrigerator before baking if cookie dough is too warm and soft. The more you handle the cookie dough, the warmer and greasier it will be. Chill for up to 2 hours before baking if you like.
I find if you work quickly there is no need for additional time to chill cookie dough.
Bake cookies at in a preheated 375 Degrees F oven for 7-9 minutes. The edges of the cookies will be lightly golden when they are done.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack.
Make Frosting
In a mixing bowl using a hand mixer cream butter until light and fluffy. This can take up to 5 minutes creaming just the butter. Scrape sides of bowl as needed to include all the butter. It will turn light in color and be very fluffy.
On low spread combine creamed butter with powdered sugar and cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined.
Slowly add milk one tablespoon at a time allowing to fully combine before adding more milk until desired consistency is reached. I typically add about 3 tablespoons.
Frost the Cookies
Frost the cookies once they have reached room temperature. If the cookies are still warm, the frosting will melt. I have used a piping bag with a Wilton Tip #12 for the footballs.
This is a round tip, you can also use a star tip or snip the edge of a ZipLoc Bag works okay too.
Chocolate Frosting: Place frosting in a piping bag using a star tip or round tip. You can also snip off the corner of the bag too. In a zigzag motion start small gradually increasing in size in the middle of the cookie and gradually getting smaller forming a football shape on the cookie.
Vanilla Frosting: Place frosting in a piping bag and use a small round Tip #3, or snip a tiny hole in the bag. Pipe white lines for laces on the football. Make one longer stripe with 3 hash lines over the top.
Storage & Freezing
Store: These cookies should be stored in an airtight container or Ziploc bag in the refrigerator, and will last for up to a week. Cookies are best enjoyed within 2-4 days of being freshly baked.
Freezer: Put the cookies into an airtight container with a piece of parchment paper between each one, or wrap them separately in plastic wrap, then store them in an airtight container or in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Plan Ahead
Make cookies in advance and freeze cookies placing parchment paper between layers to prevent sticking together.
When it's time for Game Day, frost cookies and serve. So much less fuss and so easy to have themed cookies to celebrate your favorite team.
Substitutions & Variations
- Transfers. Instead of using two types of frosting to make the football decorations on the cookies, you could use pre-printed football-themed royal icing transfers.
- Chill dough. Cookie dough shapes can be placed in the refrigerator before baking if the cookie dough is too warm and soft.
- Extract. Use Almond Extract or a different extract flavor to give your cookies and your frosting a different flavor.
- Team colors. Decorate the sugar cookie with a layer of royal icing colored in the team colors of your favorite team before you add the frosted football.
- Frosting. You don't have to use chocolate or vanilla flavors for the frosting. You just need some brown icing and some white icing which you can make with a simple Powdered Sugar and water mix with brown gel food coloring for the brown icing for the football.
- Cookies. Use this frosting technique on any round type of cookie once it has completely cooled. For example, you can make Peanut Butter Football Cookies by using my Peanut Butter Cookies as a base.
Pro Tips
What makes a good cookie? Does it have a soft center and crispy edges, and is it chewy? Each of these makes a great quality cookie. To make perfect cookies every time here are some pro tips.
To find out more, check out my Pro Tips Guide for making the best cookies every time!
Weighing Ingredients.
Baking is a science and adding too much or too little of any of the ingredients will alter the recipe. Weighing and measuring dry ingredients properly makes a world of difference. Investing in a kitchen scale is ideal.
When a kitchen scale is not available, make sure to stir and lift ingredients before scooping them into a measuring cup.
| Volume | Ounces | Grams | |
| All Purpose Flour | 1 Cup | 4½ Ounces | 120 Grams |
| Bread Flour | 1 Cup | 4½ Ounces | 120 Grams |
| Granulated Sugar | 1 Cup | 7 Ounces | 200 Grams |
| Brown Sugar | 1 Cup | 7½ Ounces | 213 Grams |
| Confectionary Sugar | 1 Cup | 4 Ounces | 113 Grams |
Sieve or Sifter.
Sifting your dry ingredients like flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in particular will ensure that there aren't any lumps in it.
Baking Sheets.
You can use an ungreased cookie sheet if you prefer. I like to use Parchment Paper to line baking sheets or a Silicone Mat for easy cleanup.
Baking Time.
Every oven heats a little differently. I recommend doing a test batch of 1-3 cookies to test the baking time for a perfectly baked cookie before baking the remaining dough.
Cookies.
Cookies are perfectly baked when the edges are set and the centers are no longer glossy.
Cooling Rack.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Kitchen Scale. I use this for accuracy in measuring and it's a lifesaver when it comes to consistent baking
- Wire Rack for cooling cookies. I like to have at least 2 cooling racks
- Mixing Bowls. A Large Mixing Bowl for mixing ingredients and small and medium mixing bowls for other ingredients
- Cookie Sheet. Most recipes will take 2 batches to bake. It's great to have multiple baking sheets available
- Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mat. Line the Cookie Sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup and to prevent sticking.
- Cookie Scoop. A small #60 Cookie Scoop or a Medium Cookie Scoop #50 are great choices for uniform drops of cookie dough.
- Storage Container. An Airtight Container to store cookies or a Ziploc Bag works great too.
- Additional supplies. Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons along with a silicone spatula are all helpful.
Have you tried these Football Sugar Cookies?
Let me know what you thought of this recipe! Tag @bestcookierecipes on social media so I can see how great your cookies turned out! I would also love to read your comments below. Let me know what you think of these cookies. It really does help!
More Fun Cookie Recipes
- Classic Funfetti Cookies
- Red Hots Cookies
- Love Bug Sugar Cookies
- Grinch Sugar Cookies
- Swig Sugar Cookies
- Leftover Candy Cookies
- Peanut Butter S'mores Cookies
- Firecracker 4th July Cookies
- Chocolate Swig Sugar Cookies
Football Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup Butter Softened
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar 200g
- 2 Eggs Large
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour 360g
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Chocolate Frosting
- ½ cup Butter Softened
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar 390g
- ¼ cup Cocoa Powder 30g Dutch Process
- 3-4 tablespoon Milk
Vanilla Frosting
- ¼ cup Butter
- 1½ cups Powdered Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2-3 tablespoons Milk
Instructions
Make the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 375 F Degrees. Line 2 Cookie Sheets with Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mat.
- Cream Butter and Sugar together until light and fluffy using an electric mixer or a stand mixer.
- Add eggs and extract and continue to cream the mixture together.
- In a separate bowl combine All Purpose Flour and Baking Soda together. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Cover cookie dough with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Flour the work surface and roll out chilled cookie dough to ¼ inch.
- Using a round cookie cutter or even a biscuit cutter, cut cookie dough into circles and carefully place on the baking sheet allowing at least 2 inches between cookies.
- Optional - Cookie dough shapes can be placed in the refrigerator before baking if cookie dough is too warm and soft.
- Bake at 375 F Degrees for 7-9 minutes. Edges of cookies will be lightly golden.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack.
Make the Frosting
- In a mixing bowl using a hand mixer cream butter until light and fluffy. This can take up to 5 minutes creaming just the butter. Scrape sides of bowl as needed to include all the butter. It will turn light in color and be very fluffy.
- On low spread combine creamed butter with powdered sugar and cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined.
- TIP: I recommend sifting cocoa powder to remove any lumps.
- Slowly add milk one tablespoon at a time allowing to fully combine before adding more milk until desired consistency is reached. I typically add about 3 tablespoons.
How to Frost
- Chocolate Frosting: Place frosting in a piping bag using a star tip or round tip. You can also snip off the corner of the bag too. In a zigzag motion start small gradually increasing in size in the middle of the cookie and gradually getting smaller forming a football shape on the cookie.
- Vanilla Frosting: Place frosting in a piping bag and use a small round tip #3 or snip a tiny hole in the bag use vanilla frosting to pipe laces on the football. One longer stripe with 3 hash lines over the top.
Notes
- Store: These cookies should be stored in an airtight container or Ziploc bag in the refrigerator, and will last for up to a week. Cookies are best enjoyed within 2-4 days of being freshly baked.
- Freezer: Put the cookies into an airtight container with a piece of parchment paper between each one or wrap them separately in plastic wrap, then store them in an airtight container or in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Disclaimer
All nutrition values are approximate and calculated by a plugin and are provided as a courtesy. Adding or subtracting ingredients will change the nutritional value.
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