Happy Football Friday. This week we are tackling sweet treats. We all need a little nibble of sweetness after all the savory tailgate treats we have been serving up. Before we get to all the sweetness did you save last week’s Tailgate Treats “BLT Season“? There are so many tasty tailgate treats out there to make and enjoy. I hope you enjoy this week’s batch of sweet treats! Enjoy the games and don’t forget to let us know which recipe is your favorite.
Football Friday Tasty Tailgate Treats: The Sweets
Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
The easiest recipe ever.
Ingredients:
- 1 package (17-1/2 ounces) peanut butter cookie mix
- 36 miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped
Instructions:
Rocky Road Popcorn Balls
To keep the stickiness at bay, wear latex gloves coated with cooking spray as you shape the popcorn balls.
Ingredients:
- ⅓ cup unpopped popcorn
- Cooking spray
- 1 cup sugar
-
½ cup light-colored agave nectar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon butter
-
½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add popcorn; cover and cook for 3 minutes or until kernels pop, shaking the pan frequently. When popping slows down, remove the pan from the heat. Let stand for 1 minute or until popping stops. Pour popcorn into a large bowl coated with cooking spray.
- Combine sugar and the next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a medium, heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until a candy thermometer registers 300°. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Add mini marshmallows and chocolate chips to the popcorn. Immediately pour hot syrup over the popcorn mixture; toss well to coat. Cool slightly (about 1 to 2 minutes). Carefully form the mixture into 8 balls, being careful not to compact too tightly.
Brownie Bourbon Bites
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup bourbon
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons baking cocoa
- 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
Instructions:
- In a small bowl, cream butter, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in bourbon. Combine flour and cocoa; gradually add to creamed mixture, beating until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
- Shape into 1-in. balls; roll in pecans. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° until cookies are set, 8-10 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Cherry Hand Pies
- You can use any kind of pie filling that you like.
- You can double this recipe easily to feed all the people.
- You can also make these with jam if you like, then they would really be more pop-tart
- Unroll your pie crusts onto a cutting board and using a 4″ biscuit cutter cut out circles in your crust.
- Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and top with about 1 Tablespoon of cherry pie filling.
- Fold pie circles in half and crimp endless with a fork to seal, some of the pie filling might come out, but this is okay.
- In a small bowl whisk together your egg and water.
- Brush each hand pie with egg wash until completely coated.
- Sprinkle with your sugar and poke a fork into the center to vent and then bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes until golden brown.
Hand Pies can usually be stored at room temperature covered in Saran Wrap for about 2 days, after that you can move them to the refrigerator where they will keep for about another 2 days.
Yes, they can be frozen! These are best frozen before baking, so if you are wanting to make a bunch at a time and bake some up but have some for later use this would be perfect.
Once you crimp your edges with the fork, place them on a parchment paper line sheet and place them in the freezer, once frozen remove them to a ziptop bag.
When you are ready to bake just let them defrost slightly and then pop them into the oven and bake as directed.
On The Menu
As we head into the cooler temps of fall. It is finally time to break out the perfect soups for tailgating. Easy to make. Easy to feed a crowd. Get that crockpot ready for next week, it is going to be busy keeping all the soups, chilis, and stews ready for your game day crowds.
