During the summer months, I love any recipe that doesn’t require our oven! It has been scorching hot here in Iowa this year (as it has in so many areas of the country). Whew!

Along with my goal to keep our kitchen and myself cool, I developed a no bake recipe for Flip Flop Cookies.  You’ll find the recipe below, and it is super easy. I guess sometimes the simpler the better. Because, I’ve taken these cookies to summer gatherings and they seem to be a “hit”.

The coating is made by melting chocolate chips and a little vegetable shortening in the microwave. Then, you dip one side of the purchased peanut-shaped cookies in the melted chocolate and gently shake off the excess.

To create the straps for the sandals, I used bits of licorice connected with a mini candy-coated chocolate pieces. If you can’t find peel ‘n pull licorice, simply use your kitchen shears to cut regular licorice into thin strips.

It’s fun to coordinate the colors for the season. During patriotic holidays I like to use a red, white and blue color scheme. Since it is mid-summer, I used orange, green and yellow for my latest batch.

To serve them, I sprinkle my serving platter with a layer of raw sugar, and it makes it look like the flip flops are sitting in sand at the beach. If you haven’t purchased raw sugar before, you can often find it in the baking ingredient aisle next to the brown sugar.

I hope you enjoy making and sharing these with family and friends!

– Karen Davis, Culinary Specialist, Taste of Home Cooking School

Flip Flop Cookies

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 30 peanut-shaped sandwich cookies (such as Nutter Butter)
• 60 (1 1/4-inch) thin pieces of licorice OR pull ‘n peel licorice
• 30 mini M&M’s

In small microwave-safe bowl, place chocolate chips and shortening.  Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir. Continue at 10 to 15 second intervals until melted.

Dip “face” of each cookie into melted chocolate so that the top half is coated.  Remove and shake off excess chocolate.  Place on cooling rack with chocolate side facing up.  Before chocolate sets, decorate the top of each cookie with flip flop straps (using 2 licorice strings).  Place a mini M&M where the two straps meet in the center of the flip flop.

Makes 30 cookies