Chocolate Footballs

Prepare to party for the Big Game by serving Ritz Cracker Crunch Footballs, Coca-Cola Ganache filled Truffle Footballs, and a Decorated DiGiorno Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza. This post is brought to you by Collective Bias and its advertiser.

#PrepareToParty #CollectiveBias

I've spent the past few weeks creating all sorts of fun food for the Big Game, and this spread of appetizers and desserts is my absolute favorite.

Everything not only tastes great, but the buffet table looks perfect. I got tired of using the same old decorations, so I got some new ones and created two new amazing recipes to share with you for your own celebrations.

First up are my favorite new treats, Ritz Cracker Crunch Footballs.

Each football-shaped treat has a Ritz Cracker peanut butter sandwich hiding inside a chocolate peanut butter and toffee shell. Yum. Seriously YUM!

These treats were not originally going to be made like this. I started by trying, yes, I said, trying to make Ritz Cracker Toffee in the shape of footballs. After three attempts, one batch of burnt sugar and two pans of grease-slicked sugar, I gave up.

I'm so happy I did because when I finally created these peanut butter sandwich cracker-filled chocolates, I wanted to do a touchdown dance. I actually had to make a second batch of the football treats in order to take pictures because we couldn't stop eating them.

It was a good thing I invited some friends over to help me eat all this game-day grub. The Coca-Cola Chocolate Ganache Footballs are pretty darn good too.

This was the first time I've made chocolate ganache filling for truffles using soda. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while. I wondered how well a carbonated soda would work in a ganache, and I'm happy to report that it worked out well.

To make the ganache I boiled down the soda to make a syrup which I added to some heavy whipping cream and semi-sweet chocolate. The syrup gives the ganache a nice hint of cola flavor.

If you have small football-shaped candy molds you can make bite-sized truffles. I only have one football mold, so I used it to make dessert-sized truffles which everyone thought was fantastic. Bigger, is better, right?

Next up, I took a DiGiorno Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizza and rearranged the pepperoni to look like a football helmet. It looked so cool on the pizza before I baked it. I like my pizza baked until the cheese is nice and dark, but I didn't think about how that would affect the finished pizza.

Hey, even though the pepperoni blended into the dark cheese, it was still fun and the pizza was gobbled up quickly.

When my friends walked in and saw this table filled with the game food and decorations, they flipped. I was excited to see how they reacted.

The table came together really quickly and I love how it turned out. I set the table with my football field tablecloth, football plates, napkins, and cups, along with some football-shaped bowls and a few mini foam fingers. I hung a pennant and put out my food and drinks.

Time to party!

Ritz Cracker Crunch Footballs

Ingredients: (makes 12 footballs)

12 Ritz Crackers
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 ounce white confectionery coating
10 ounces light cocoa confectionery coating
½ cup peanut butter chips
3 tablespoon toffee bits

Supplies:

food use only paint brush
1 Wilton silicone football mold

Instructions:

Create 6 peanut butter sandwiches out of the crackers and peanut butter.

Heat white confectionery coating in the microwave on high power for 15 second increments, stirring after each, until melted. Paint the white candy coating into the molds creating the laces and stripes.

Combine the light cocoa confectionery coating with the peanut butter chips. Heat in the microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir, heat 30 more seconds, stir, then heat for 20 seconds. Let sit for 2 minutes, then stir. If it's not all melted, heat for 10 second increments, stirring after each until melted.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of the peanut butter cocoa coating into the bottom of one football shaped cavity. Set a peanut butter cracker sandwich in the center of the football, press it down, allowing the candy coating to ooze up around the edge of the cracker. Sprinkle on a heaping teaspoonful of toffee bits and top with about another tablespoon of peanut butter candy coating. Repeat.

Pop in the freezer for 15 minutes, then un-mold by pressing on the back side of the mold, allowing the footballs to pop out.

Coca-Cola Ganache Filled Football Truffles

Ingredients:

Ganache-

1 ½ cups Coca-Cola
½ cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces very finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate

Shells-

1 ounce white confectionery coating for the decoration
12 ounces light cocoa confectionery coating
6 ounces white confectionery coating

Instructions:

Heat Coca-Cola in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until it turns into a syrup.

When it's ready, you will be able to pull a heat proof spatula across the bottom of the pan, and it will leave a trail.

Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes, then add the heavy whipping cream, and heat it over medium heat, just until it bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Pour over the chopped chocolate. Let sit for 3 minutes.

Then begin stirring in the center of the bowl, working in a circular motion, until the chocolate and cream come together and the ganache is shiny and smooth.

Paint the laces and stripes in each football mold with white confectionery coating. Allow the coating to dry.

Combine the light cocoa confectionery coating with the 6 ounces white confectionery. Heat in the microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir, heat for 30 more seconds, stir, then 20 seconds. Let sit for 2 minutes, then stir. If it's not all melted, heat for 10-second increments, stirring after each until melted.

Spoon some coating into the football cavities. Use the spoon to spread it over the bottom and up the sides of each football. Freeze for 5 minutes.

Pour Coca-Cola chocolate ganache into a pastry bag. Pipe ganache into the football cavities. If still liquid, allow to set at room temperature until the ganache firms up.

Top with the remaining confectionery coating, and scrape off excess.

Freeze for 10 minutes, then un-mold.

DiGiorno Pepperoni Stuffed Crust Pizzas can be decorated by rearranging and cutting the pepperoni. I created a football helmet. You can make a football too.

The directions call for the pizza to be baked directly on your oven rack, which makes for a great crust, but I couldn't move the pizza without messing up my design, so I put the pizza on some tin foil so I could easily lift it and move it to the oven.

After about 10 minutes of baking, you can move it off the tin foil, so the crust gets crispier. It's fun watching the pizza go from a flat cheese and sauce-topped dough to this golden brown pizza with a big puffy mozzarella cheese-filled crust. Man, I love that crust.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PrepareToParty #CollectiveBias

More Super Bowl Dessert Recipes
from Hungry Happenings

White Chocolate Football Field Cupcake Wrappers

Milk Chocolate Football Cupcakes

4 Ingredient Reese's Fudge 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.