Beer Bacon Cheese Dip Footballs for the Big Game

Are you looking for some fun Game Time Grub? These Beer Bacon Cheese Dip Footballs served with Alexia Roasted Crinkle Cut Fries with Sea Salt that I made as part of a post sponsored for #CollectiveBias will make your hungry fans happy no matter the outcome of the game. #GameTimeGrub

Whenever I make food for the sports fans in my life, I can't go wrong if I include bacon, cheese, and beer in the recipe. Last year, I served some Bacon Cheddar Beer Bread Footballs, and they were a huge hit, so I thought it would be fun to play around with some other recipes using the same flavor combination and came up with this Beer Bacon Cheese Dip.

Of course, you know I can't just throw a dip in a bowl and serve it. I just can't. I have to make it look festive.

I found a really cool serving vessel that has three small football shaped bowls attached together with a goal post in the middle. It is the absolute perfect size for my cheese dip. One batch was divided in thirds. I served one bowl of the plain dip, another was spiced with hot sauce and the final one was spiced with jalapenos. I topped each bowl with crisp bacon and decorated each with slices of white cheddar cheese to resemble the stripes and laces on the footballs.

Of course I needed something to serve with the dip and chose fries, but not just any fries, Alexia Fries. I always have them in my freezer. I love the Sweet Potato Fries, my husband prefers the Crinkle Cuts which tasted great covered in the cheese dip. I baked the fries along with some Alexia Onion Rings, and served them in football shaped bowls too.

I found a great selection of frozen Alexia products in the side dish freezer section at Walmart. I had never tried their onion rings before and really enjoyed the crisp exterior and nice fresh onion flavor. The sweet potato fries will always be my favorite, but I enjoyed trying some new varieties.

To set up my game day buffet was super easy. I simply used a plastic game day tablecloth and football shaped or themed serving dishes. If you have all this stuff on hand, and your friends decide at the last minute to stop by and watch the game, you can make a super impressive looking party buffet in no time.

If you'd like to decorate your table for the big game, you can find some of the items I used to create my tablescape at Amazon.com (commission earned for sales.)

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked Applewood smoked bacon (or any bacon you like)
butter, if needed (about 1 tablespoon)
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup Amber Ale (or your choice of beer)
¼ cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
16 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
pinch of salt
optional: hot sauce, cayenne pepper, jalapenos, Tabasco sauce, black pepper

2-3 slices of white cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Chop bacon into small pieces. Cook bacon in two batches in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Remove bacon and measure the bacon fat. You need 3 tablespoons. If you have too much, remove some, if not enough add butter to make up the difference.

Place bacon fat back in saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add flour and stir for one minute, scraping up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

Slowly pour in beer whisking until thickened. Add heavy whipping cream, then mustard and stir to combine.

Reduce the heat to low and add one handful of cheese at a time, stirring until completely melted. This took me about 15 minutes. Don't rush it or your dip can curdle. You want it nice and smooth.

Season with salt and optionally any hot sauce, or pepper.

Pour the cheese sauce into a football shaped bowl or in my case, a football dipping dish with three individual plastic football shaped bowls. I love this set of bowls, not only does it look cool, but I was able to fill each bowl with a different flavored beer bacon cheese dip. One was plain, one had hot sauce and another jalapenos.

Finely chop the bacon and sprinkle it over the cheese dip.

Cut white cheddar cheese slices into strips and laces to turn each dip into a football. Set the cheese pieces over the bacon.

This dip is good hot or cold and can be made up to a few days before your party and simply re-heated when you are ready to serve. If you use the Football Dipping Dish, it is plastic and can't be heated. I serve my dip cold and ...

with a variety of Alexia Fries and Onion Rings. We have a small toaster oven, and we filled plates with the baked fries, scooped some of the Beer Bacon Cheese Dip on top and heated them through before digging in.

VIDEO RECIPE TUTORIAL:

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. I am a huge fan of Alexia products and keep them in my freezer all the time, so I am very happy to share this idea with you.  #GameTimeGrub #CollectiveBias. Follow Alexia on Facebook or Pinterest.What do your hungry fans like on game day? What are some of your favorite recipes?

More fun Game Day Recipes

from Hungry Happenings

Footballs Shaped Hamburgers Served on Football Shaped Buns 

with a side of Alexia Sweet Potato Fries

Football Fritters for Super Bowl

Madeira Mushroom Football Tart

Chocolate Chalkboards featuring Football Plays

Super Bowl Prosciutto and Asiago Rice Cake Footballs

If you want more tailgating or homegating party ideas for the college football season,
be sure to check out my Football Party Food ideas.

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Beth

Hi, I'm Beth Jackson Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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