Football Shaped Gingerbread Cookies
Football Shaped Gingerbread Cookies are large football cookies with the flavors of everyone’s favorite Christmas cookie. They’re even gluten free!
If you want to make regular gingerbread cookie footballs (instead of gluten free), try my recipe for Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Cookies. It was the number one most popular recipe on my site last year!
Football fans love these cookies!
Football season is here! Are you a football fan? What’s your favorite team? Do you love watching college ball or the NFL games?
I love making themed treats and thought it would be fun to make football cookies. We had a BBQ last weekend and one of our special guests was our sweet cousin, Matteo, who is a big fan of football and is also celebrating his 9th birthday soon. I made these Football Shaped Gingerbread Cookies just for him! He and his family recently moved from Arizona. We’re so excited to have them here! Welcome to Georgia, Bill, Jenny, Gabi, Sammy and Matteo!
The story behind my Gingerbread Football Cookies
I actually got the idea from a movie. Have you seen Ace Ventura: Pet Detective from 1994 with Jim Carrey? It’s a funny movie and in one of the scenes, he is served these extra large football cookies by a nice, elderly lady. They looked to me to be gingerbread cookies and I thought they were so unique!
I served them at our BBQ and my niece said, “these cookies remind me of a movie!” Ha! She went on to say they looked like the cookies from Ace Ventura. How funny is that?! Good call, Ashley! She and her family also just moved here from South Florida, so our Georgia relatives are really growing in number. So glad to have y’all here, Ashley, Matt, Spencer and Sammy!
Make these Gingerbred Cookies gluten free or regular
I made them gluten free because my daughter can’t have gluten, but you would NEVER know that they are gluten free. They are so tasty! Don’t want gluten free cookies? Then you can totally make football shaped gingerbread using my traditional recipe for Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Cookies.
Make a cardboard football to cut out cookies
I made a homemade cookie cutter out of cardboard that was about 3″x5″ and it worked great. If you have time, and you want to by a football shaped cookie cutter, you could order one on Amazon here (affliliate link).
Make gingerbread footballs for game day!
Total comfort food and the kitchen smells SO good when you bake these Football Shaped Gingerbread Cookies. I just love all the spices that go into the recipe – cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Such a heavenly aroma will fill your kitchen when you bake these goodies!
Here are the sheet pans I used if you wanted to order them on Amazon:
Double the recipe if you’re serving a crowd
My only complaint is that the recipe makes exactly 20 cookies, so when you have a big group like we did, everyone only gets ONE cookie which is DEFINITELY not enough. I had to make more the next day because my kids loved them so much! And my husband as well. (Me too.)
Happy Birthday, Matteo! I hope you liked your cookies!
I hope you (lovely readers) will try my Football Shaped Gingerbread Cookies! They’re perfect for football season and sharing with friends at your game day parties! Now you don’t have to wait for the holidays to make yummy gingerbread cookies and that’s definitely a good thing!
TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Parchment Paper Rectangles for Sheet Pan (200)
3-inch Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter
Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons
Note: The above items are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Football Shaped Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup arrowroot flour
- 1/4 cup corn starch, plus extra for dusting counter
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
For the icing
- 8 ounces powdered sugar, about 2 cups
- 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons meringue powder
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
For the cookies
- Place all dry ingredients (except sugar) in a medium bowl and mix. Set aside.
- Place butter, sugar, molasses and eggs in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium until completely combined. With mixer on low, gradually add dry ingredients. Mix just until combined.
- Split dough in halves and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 375°F. Dust clean counter with corn starch. Knead dough for a minute or so on the dusted surface. Roll out to between 1/8" to 1/4" thickness, adding a little more corn starch as needed. Cut into footballs using a cookie cutter or a homemade cutter made of cardboard about 3"x5". Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I used 13"x18" half sheet pans and was able to fit 5 cookies per pan. Recipe makes 18-20 cookies. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool, then frost with royal icing. Let the icing harden before serving (about 30-40 minutes).
For the icing
- Place all of the icing ingredients in a large bowl. Mix on low for 6 minutes. Pour into a container with sealed lid until ready to use. Icing will be thick. Add a few drops of water to thin it out a bit. It should be the consistency of toothpaste. Note: This icing dries out quickly, so you always want to keep it covered. Place frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip such as a #6. Pipe the lines and laces onto the cookies to make them look like footballs. Let the icing dry before serving. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. Store leftover icing in an airtight container for a few weeks.
Did you make this recipe?
Please let us know by leaving a star rating and review!You might also like these Football Cupcakes…
Or maybe you would like these Game Day Pretzel Footballs…
All text and images © Lise Ode for Mom Loves Baking. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate. This post may contain affiliate links.
I love this. Super bowl ideas!