Super Bowl brittle for the football food friends

The spread feels more American than the game itself.

I love the Super Bowl. I don’t particularly care which teams are playing. I’m not bothered that the Chiefs are playing the Eagles again, as some groan. It does bother me that the president will be in attendance at the appropriately named Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, and oh, just coincidentally, the NFL has toned down the message in the end zone from “End Racism” to the more anodyne “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us.”

But I digress. On Sunday, my focus will not be on the end zone but on the food. A Super Bowl spread feels more American than football itself, with its fried wings, 6-foot submarine/hoagie/grinder sandwiches, bowls of Chex Mix, seven-layer dips, French onion dip, Ro-tel dip—all the dips, dammit!—and all the chips to go with it. Anything/everything with melted cheese on it, please. The closest I get to salad are the celery and carrots sticks that accompany the Buffalo wings. Foods I might not eat from one end of the year to the next are suddenly must-haves for me.

And I say this with little embarrassment, because I know I’m not alone. Go on, raise your hands: Who only attends Super Bowl parties for the snacks? And maybe to watch the ads, so you can feel culturally à la page the next day at work.

Tasked with coming up with the perfect Super Bowl Sunday cookie, it should come as no surprise I went a little over the top.

Behold! Super Bowl Cookie Brittle.

It starts with an elegant, buttery and crisp cornmeal shortbread base, which then gets topped with all the Super Bowl snack favorites: potato chips, pretzels, M&Ms, Heath bar chips, and chocolate chips. And Fritos. Before you run away in horror, consider how nicely sweet and salty play together (for sure more nicely than Tom Brady with a football), and remember, this is once a year. And this week has been r-o-u-g-h rough.

The nice part of this recipe is its flexibility. You can just make the cookie brittle base, scatter some mini chocolate chips across the top and call it a day.

Do it your way. Throw on whatever toppings please you. A drizzle of melted chocolate or peanut butter chips over the top wouldn’t go amiss either. If you’re an actual Chiefs or Eagles fan, you could use only red or green M&Ms to show you’re a real football fan and not just some fair-weather football food friend.

Super Bowl Cookie Brittle

Makes one 12-inch x 17-inch pan

What You’ll Need:

14 tablespoons (1 ¾ sticks; 200 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 14 pieces

¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

¼ cup (53 grams) light brown sugar

1 tablespoon (15 grams) vanilla extract

1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt

2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (30 grams) cornmeal

Toppings I used: mini pretzels, crushed Ruffles potato chips, crushed Fritos corn chips, Heath bar toffee bits, plain M&Ms, peanut butter M&Ms, mini semisweet chocolate chips. Also consider: use only a mix of chocolate chips (milk, white, semisweet and dark)

What You’ll Do:

1. Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, white and brown sugar over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is butterscotch in color and the sugar has begun to melt. Pay attention to the heat under the pan: Do not let the mixture boil. If you feel more secure cooking it over low heat, do so! I don’t want you to worry. We are making cookies. Cookies should make you happy. Set aside the mixture to cool for 10 minutes.

3. When cool, add the vanilla and salt to the butter-sugar mixture and whisk until smooth. Stir in the flour and cornmeal. The mixture might look a tad greasy. Don’t worry.

4. Drop the dough by large spoonfuls onto an ungreased 12 x 17-inch (32 x 44-cm) pan. Pat-a-pat the dough evenly across the pan. The more evenly you can spread it, the better. Sprinkle over your desired toppings. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan back to front during baking to ensure it cooks evenly. The brittle is ready when light golden brown in color and just firm to the touch. It will continue to cook and darken in color somewhat once it’s out of the oven. Rest the pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Cut or break the brittle into pieces. Store in an air-tight container to maintain crispness.

Welcome to all my new followers at The Contrarian. It’s an honor to be part of this group. For those who don’t already know me, I am a journalist but also a trained chef and podcaster. I host The Secret Life of Cookies podcast, where I interview notable people (from Senator Barbara Boxer to E. Jean Carroll to The Contrarian’s own Joyce White Vance), and we talk about what’s going on in politics, culture, and the world—all, yes, while baking. And, of course, I have a Substack.

Let me know in the comments below who you’d like to see interviewed on The Secret Life of Cookies podcast and/or what recipes you’re interested in (sweet or savory). You can find an archive to my past recipes here.

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