Danielle’s Game Day Dish: Preseason Week 1

I am proud to introduce my wife, Danielle, to the Vikings Territory community! Each week she will be providing the site with the perfect snack or meal to for you to prepare and then devour while you cheer on the Vikings! I’ll let her explain the rest, but here is her debut post for you to enjoy!

– Adam Patrick

When Adam told me Vikings Territory wanted to pair with someone for game day food posts, I knew I wanted and had, to be that person. I have always loved cooking, baking, and eating and have brought that to every football season of our marriage.

Generally, meals that are unique to an opponent’s city are what Adam and I have for dinner on game day. Not only will I highlight some of those famous dishes, I will also make some great game day foods, and of course, a particular legendary meal Minnesota is known for.       

Since the first game is at night, I knew I wanted to make a dessert. I picked simple sugar cookies with buttercream frosting because they are easy to prepare and bake, eat on the couch, and make them team’s colors. 

There are a lot of variations that can be done with the cookies including dying the dough and frosting different colors. The food coloring made by McCormick is amazing and they have a color guide showing how many drops of food coloring you need to produce a team’s colors while baking. I love being able to follow the guide and get the proper colors to really show team spirit.

I opted to leave the cookie dough its natural color and dyed the frosting. I didn’t make as much frosting as the McCormick color guide suggests, so I cut the necessary color drops in half. Remember a little bit a red goes a long way when making the yellow, one too many drops and you will have orange frosting. 

These round cookies are soft and fluffy and the buttercream frosting gives them that something extra like an offensive lineman pushing his running back into the endzone. You can truly taste the vanilla in both the cookies and the frosting but the almond extract in the cookies really gives the flavor that extra push towards cookie bliss.

Since my cookies featured yellow, I wanted to make sure that there was some purple on display. The best way to do that is to line a platter or plate with some tissue paper. I placed the purple tissue paper on a plate and then placed the cookies on top of the paper. Adam and I paired the cookies with a couple of drinks and were game day ready!  

These cookies are just the beginning of what you can look forward to throughout the season and I look forward to providing many more amazing recipes and foods to try and share with your friends.

Be sure to follow Adam on twitter (@Str8_Cash_Homey) in order to get a sneak peak a few days ahead of time of what recipe will be featured for the next game. 

XOXO

Danielle

 Buttercream Frosted Sugar Cookies

 Cookie Ingredients:

•  ¾ Cups unsalted butter, softened
•  ¾ Cups granulated sugar
•  1 Egg
•  1 Egg yolk
•  2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
•  1 Teaspoon almond extract
•  ½ Teaspoon salt
•  2 ¼ Teaspoons baking powder
•  2 ¼ Cups all purpose flour

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

•  2 ½ Cups powdered sugar
•  3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
•  ½ Tablespoon vanilla extract
•  2-4 Tablespoons milk
•  Red and yellow food coloring from McCormick’s assorted food coloring box

 Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar;
2. Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and almond extract to the bowl and mix until the eggs are mixed in.  Do not over mix at this point;
3. Add the salt, baking powder, and flour to the bowl and mix on medium speed until the batter is fully mixed, about 2 minutes;
4. Cover the batter and place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least one hour;
5. Once the one hour is finished, preheat the oven to 350 degrees;
6. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper;
7. Scoop the dough and shape the dough into a ball.  Once you place the ball onto the baking sheet, lightly flatten it down into a circular shape;
8. Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes;
9. Allow the cookies to sit and cool down one to two minutes and then move them over to a cooling rack to completely cool;
10. Once the cookies are completely cool, start the frosting;
11. In a medium bowl mix the powdered sugar and butter until fully mixed;
12. Mix in the vanilla;
13. Add in the milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you desire;
14. Add in the red and yellow food coloring
    • The McCormick chart shows the drops needed for a 16 oz jar of frosting.  Since we are not making that much, cut it in half.  About 50 drops of yellow (1/2 teaspoon) and 1 drop of red will get you the proper color.

15. Frost the cookies and enjoy!