If you’re a fan of cannabis, but also have a sweet tooth, cannabis edibles are the best of both worlds. Using cannabis in baking is a great idea for a relaxing evening with a movie and a bunch of your friends, but it’s also a good way to get your medical marijuana dose.
For all of you cannabis aficionados out there who’d like to start cooking with cannabis, this article will give you all the necessary steps – from decarboxylating the weed to making your weed edibles – so prepare to make delicious treats from the comfort of your own kitchen.
How To Bake With Cannabis?
Cooking with cannabis is really not much more difficult than cooking or baking without the cannabis flower, all you need is to go through two extra steps, and you’ll have some delicious treats by the end of your baking session. To bake with weed, you’ll first need to:
- Decarboxylate your cannabis;
- Make your cannabutter or cannabis oil.
After you’re done with these two steps, the fun part can begin, and that is making your cannabis edibles. Let’s start from the beginning.
Step 1:The Cannabis Decarboxylation Process
Before you start making your cannabis butter or cannabis oil, you must first decarb your weed. The decarboxylation process removes a carboxyl group from the cannabinoid acids tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and activates the cannabinoids THC and CBD in weed which give the psychoactive and sedative effects to users.
- To decarb your weed, you should first grind it in a weed grinder, coffee grinder, or a food processor, but not too much (don’t turn it into powder).
- Next, you should preheat your oven at 220-240 °F.
- Place the ground up plant material on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on your oven.
- Stir the weed every 5 to 10 minutes to make sure you get and even decarb.
- Take your decarbed weed out of the oven, and you’re ready to make your canna oil or cannabutter.
You can also decarboxylate your cannabis flower directly in cooking oil or butter. For this method, you’ll need your favorite cooking oil (olive oil, coconut oil, or any other oil), a saucepan, and your favorite Sativa or Indica strain.
- Place your cannabis along with your oil in a saucepan over low heat.
- Keep the temperature between 160°F and 200°F.
- Simmer for about 3 hours.
- Strain the plant matter using a cheesecloth or a mesh strainer.
- Place your oil in an airtight container and refrigerate it after it has cooled down to room temperature.
Step 2: Making Your Cannabis Oil or Cannabutter
If you decarb your weed in the oven, you can then proceed to making your cannabutter or cannabis oil on the stovetop, but also in a slow cooker, or a bain marie (water bath). In this article, we’ll show you how to make cannabutter or cannabis oil on the stovetop.
Cannabis Cooking Oil Recipe
After decarbing your weed, you can proceed to making your cannabinoid-rich oil. The kitchen equipment and ingredients you’ll need to make your cannabis oil are:
- Ground cannabis flower – 1 cup or more if you’d like your cannabis oil to be more potent;
- Cooking oil – 1 cup;
- Cheesecloth;
- Double boiler;
- Airtight container;
- Recommended: a probe thermometer to check the cooking temperature.
The Method
- Get your double boiler, add water to the bottom part and your oil of choice to the top part, and wait for it to melt.
- Add the decarbed cannabis to the oil and infuse the oil over low heat for around 30 to 60 minutes.
- Stir the cannabis and oil often, and use the thermometer to check whether the temperature is about 200°F.
- After you’ve infused the oil, strain the plant matter through a cheesecloth but be careful not to press on the cheesecloth since you’ll get oil with a greener color (because of the chlorophyll in the weed).
- Place the final product in an airtight container and use it in baking.
Cannabutter Recipe
Cannabutter can also be made on the stovetop, similar to cannabis oil. To make your own cannabutter, you’ll need:
- ½ ounce cannabis or more, depending on how potent you want your cannabutter to be;
- 2 sticks unsalted butter;
- 2 cups water;
- Saucepan;
- Cheesecloth;
- Airtight container;
- You can also add sugar leaves, fan leaves, or any other trims of the cannabis plant to make use of all the leftovers.
The Method
- Add the water to the saucepan and bring it to a boil on medium heat.
- After it starts boiling, turn down the heat to low, and add the butter.
- Once the butter melts, add the decarboxylated cannabis and stir.
- Let the mixture simmer for about an hour, stir often and be careful not to burn the butter.
- Strain the plant matter through a cheesecloth.
- Place your butter in an airtight container.
- After it cools down at room temperature, place it in the refrigerator.
Step 3: Baking With Cannabis
Baking recipes require either butter or oil, so you can use whichever you prefer. Oil is mostly used for savory recipes like pasta, soups, and salads with infused oil, while butter is mostly used for baking and making sweet treats like weed brownies. However, there’s no reason why you can’t use your infused oil in sweet treats as well. All you need to do is adjust the ratio of dry to wet ingredients and your weed edibles will turn out great.
In this article, we’ll give you a classic weed brownies recipe, although you can use your cannabis butter to make cookies, cakes, and any other sweet treats. Just take any baking recipe online and swap the regular butter or oil with cannabis butter or oil.
Cooking With Cannabis Butter: Cannabis Edibles Recipe
One of the most popular cannabis edibles is definitely cannabis brownies. To make them, you can use a brownie mix and follow our previous guide, or make them from scratch. The necessary ingredients and kitchen equipment include:
- ½ cup cannabis oil or cannabutter;
- ¾ cup flour;
- 1 cup white sugar;
- ¼ cup brown sugar;
- ½ cup cocoa powder or cacao powder;
- ½ teaspoon sea salt;
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder;
- 2 large eggs;
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract;
- Optional toppings such as chocolate chips, nuts, seeds, coconut flakes;
- Parchment paper;
- Baking pan.
After you have all the necessary ingredients and kitchen equipment, your brownies will be done in a few easy steps.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and place parchment paper on your baking pan.
- Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl.
- In another bowl, mix the cannabis oil or cannabutter and sugar with an electric mixer.
- Add the eggs and vanilla to the sugar and mix.
- If you want, you can add some melted chocolate to the egg mixture (make sure it’s not very hot because it can start cooking the eggs).
- Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and pour the batter in the baking pan.
- Add your toppings.
- Bake the brownies for about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool for an additional 30 minutes before cutting the pieces and placing them in an airtight container.
- Store the brownies on the countertop, the fridge, or the freezer, depending on how long it takes for you to eat them.
Final Thoughts and Dosing Your Cannabis Edibles
If you’re used to smoking cannabis, now you can enjoy it in another form. However, we need to mention that cannabis edibles take a longer time to kick in compared to smoking weed in a joint, vape, or bong. In fact, some users feel the effects after more than an hour because weed needs to pass through the digestive system before it gets to the bloodstream.
As a result, dosing your cannabis edibles adequately is essential. If you’ve made strong edibles, maybe start with half a brownie, and then wait an hour or so before you go for more (to make sure you don’t consume more than you can tolerate).
In the end, it doesn’t matter how many edibles you can eat, all that matters is having a good experience, and that definitely requires consuming them in moderation.
