Our 16 Best Super Bowl Desserts

By Maria Yagoda and Food & Wine
Updated January 26, 2021
Credit: © Marcus Nilsson

Super Bowl food is all about salty snacks, sweet treats, and plenty of beer. To make your menu as low-fuss as possible, stick with easy desserts that everyone will love—we're thinking apple crisp, easy cookies, and no-bake treats. Read on for even more desserts to make for the Super Bowl.

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S'mores Brownies

Credit: © SARAH BOLLA
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These fudgy, gluten-free brownies are baked in a graham-cracker crust, then topped with marshmallows and broiled.

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Bars

Credit: © Tina Rupp
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Break-and-bake cookie dough, which comes packaged in eight-inch squares, is the secret to these incredible ice cream sandwich bars. Simply roll out all the dough to create one giant cookie, then bake, slice and layer it with store-bought ice cream and hot fudge sauce. The best part: dipping the ice cream bars into crushed chocolate toffee candy to form a super-crunchy shell.

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Pear-and-Cranberry Slab Pie

Credit: Con Poulos
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Instead of making a traditional two-crust pie in a pie plate, Food & Wine's Justin Chapple makes this free-form, fruit-filled, ginger-laced pie on a baking sheet.

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Dulce de Leche, Coconut and Chocolate Chip Magic Bars

Credit: © Fredrika Stjärne
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This is Grace Parisi's version of magic bars, that chocolate-coconut bake-sale favorite. Browning the butter gives the crust a nutty flavor; cooking it in a metal baking dish makes it extra crisp. Bacon also adds a nice salty touch.

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Icebox Chocolate Cheesecake

Credit: © CON POULOS
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Grace Parisi brilliantly layers chocolate cookies with a quick mix of cream cheese, chocolate syrup and a little water. The cookies soften as the cake chills overnight for a perfectly moist, chocolaty "cheater's" cheesecake.

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Salty-Sweet Chocolate Pretzel Bars

Credit: © Marcus Nilsson
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There are only a handful of ingredients in these simple but outrageously rich and fun dessert bars from Food & Wine's Justin Chapple. If hard pretzels aren't your thing, feel free to swap in thinner pretzels.

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Chocolate-Chip-Pecan Cookie Bars

Credit: © Con Poulos
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Feel free to swap walnuts or almonds for the pecans, or use half nuts and half dried cranberries for tart, chewy bars.

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Banana Snacking Cake

Credit: Jen Causey
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A snacking cake—a simple dessert meant to be eaten unadorned—may seem like an odd between-meals treat, but this version, perfectly balanced between sweet and savory, fits in just right. Add a scoop of ice cream for the perfect dessert. 

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Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies take less than half an hour, start to finish.

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Birdseed Rice Crispy Treats

Credit: Photo by Johnny Autry / Food and Prop Styling by Charlotte Autry
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Kim Alter’s original recipe featured a “birdseed” mixture of puffed grain and brown rice; we riffed on her idea and added some toasted and raw seeds and flaky sea salt to add even more layers of flavor to these updated classic treats.

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Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Credit: © Jonny Valiant
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This delicious whipped-cream-topped peanut butter pie offers the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors.

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Fluffernutter Cupcakes

Credit: © Matt Armendariz
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The made-from-scratch icing for these cupcakes gets swirled with peanut butter and chocolate-covered peanuts for the ultimate topping. 

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Toffee-Apricot Oat Cookies

Credit: Photo by Johnny Autry / Food and Prop Styling by Charlotte Autry
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These lacy cookies are studded with tart dried apricot, salty-sweet chunks of toffee, and sweet milk chocolate for the perfect combination of flavors and textures. Be sure to rotate the pans during baking to ensure evenly baked, perfectly crisp-chewy cookies.

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Banana and Chocolate Cream Pie Parfaits

Credit: © Con Poulos
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To make her outstanding deconstructed banana cream pie, pastry chef Michelle Karr-Ueoka, of Honolulu’s MW Restaurant, layers eggless chocolate pudding with cinnamon-flavored graham cracker crumbs, ice cream, bananas, and banana whipped cream.

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Brandied Apple Crisp with Hazelnuts

Credit: Caitlin Bensel
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Hazelnuts dress up the classic oat topping for an extra fragrant twist; a dollop of tangy crème fraîche provides the perfect counterpoint to all the sugary, toasty goodness.

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Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Credit: Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
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Layers of delicate flavors from lemon, honey, and extra-virgin olive oi­l—which helps keep the cake moist and imparts mild fruitiness—come together in this one-bowl batter. Stacked with a fluffy and rich lemon–cream cheese frosting, this easy layer cake is a keeper. Be sure the butter and cream cheese are softened for the smoothest frosting.

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By Maria Yagoda and Food & Wine