Cannabis edibles are one of the best inventions in the known world of cannabis. While you can find all sorts of treats at your local dispensary, you can also make edibles at home by learning to bake with cannabis. Anyone can learn how to simmer cannabis into butter and then make all sorts of delicious recipes infused with THC, CBD, and all the natural terpenes in your chosen cannabis strain.
Baking with cannabis is particularly delightful because it allows you to bust out all your favorite dessert recipes and results in truly delicious treats for the whole adult household. You can bake cannabis for special events or just for the weekend. Once you get the hang of pot brownies and canna-cookies, you can start branching out into more creative recipes and even savory dinner dishes.
But first, let’s start with the basics. This is your guide to baking with cannabis.
Start with the cannabis you will be cooking with. You can make your own cannabutter or buy infused ingredients from the dispensary to help you get started. OF course, the first choice is your favorite cannabis strain to bake with.
Choosing a cannabis strain for homemade edibles is a fun exploration. Are you trying to help yourself get to sleep at night? If so, ask your budtender for a relaxing Indica. Looking to fuel a party with a little extra buzz? Try a playful Sativa strain. For a more holistic approach, ask for a warm and rewarding Hybrid.
Take note of the THC & CBD percentages in each strain you choose, this will effect how much canna-butter to use and how strong your edibles will be later on.
Making your own cannabutter is a right of passage for cannabis cooks. Everyone should try it at least once because it’s a lot of fun and results in delicious treats. But you will need one item that very few people own: A cheesecloth. It also helps to have parchment paper.
If you aren’t up for cannabutter yet or you’re in a rush to start your recipe, you can also find pre-infused cannabis cooking oil and sometimes pots of premade cannabutter in the edibles section of your dispensary. In fact, the available products for cannabis-infused ingredients only keep growing.
Let’s start by making your own canna-butter. Most cannabis baking recipes will start with a quick canna-butter guide as this is your key ingredient.
The first step is to prep your leaf. Decarboxylation is a big word, but it basically means gently heating the leaf to activate the THC. THC is actually THC-A in leaf form and is activated into THC by heat when vaped or smoked. When baking, however, you need to gently activate the THC.
THC is heat sensitive, so too high of temps can cause it to evaporate.
The next step is to combine the cannabis and butter. Set 1-2 cups of real butter in a saucepan. Melt it gently and bring it to a simmer. Add the decarboxylated cannabis and let it simmer for 2-3 hours as the cannabis infuses into the butter.
When it’s done, place a strainer over the top of a jar or glass container and place the cheesecloth over the strainer. Pour your leafy liquid butter through the cheesecloth into the container and let it catch the leafy bits. Gather the edges, then lift and bounce the cheesecloth to get more butter through. You can press gently, but do not force the last of the butter out or you’ll get green bits forced through.
At this point you can start baking with liquid butter or set it in the fridge to chill and reset back to a now-infused solid.
When baking with cannabis, you’re not adding cannabis as a new ingredient. Instead, you’re substituting some normal butter (or cooking oil) for your cannabis infused ingredient. But you probably don’t want to substitute the whole amount.
Instead, estimate the mg of cannabis you are putting into the recipe and how strong you want each serving to be. Then work out your replacement ratio from there.
For example, most leaves today are 17%-20% THC by dry weight. This means one gram of 20% leaf has 0.2 grams (200 mg) of THC. 10 grams infused into 1 cup of butter would be 2,000 mg THC per cup of butter.
If your recipe calls for a half-cup of butter and makes 12 brownies, each brownie will have about 84 mg of THC. Adjust your ratios to taste and preference.
Which recipes are the best to bake with cannabis? There are tons of great ideas and recipes out there to try, but we have one piece of sage advice before you start: Seek low-temp recipes. Many people don’t realize that THC can be damaged and reduced in effectiveness if the baking temp is higher than 300. 350 F should be your max baking temp, and recipes that require little to no baking are often the best. Here are three of our favorites:
You can make no-bake cannabis treats by turning your cannabutter into icing instead. Bake your heart out with all the cookies, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, and scones you love, then ice them with cannabis to add your “secret” ingredient. Icing is never baked, so you stick with the perfect decarboxylated THC effect.
No-bake brownies are pretty awesome, but so are gooey, delicious, melty brownies. Making a batch of brownies designed to be gooey is a great way to keep your baking temperatures low and bake a treat that will disappear instantly from the snack table with friends reaching for seconds.
Cookies make a great cannabis recipe because it’s easy to make low-temp cookies and even no-bake cookies. Peanut Butter cookies are especially delicious when paired with cannabis because the peanut butter helps hold the cookie together along with oil compatibility in the peanut butter’s ingredients.
Inyo Las Vegas Dispensary is here to support all your cannabis ventures, and we love to talk to new canna-chefs discovering the delights of baking with cannabis. Looking for a new strain to bake with or curious about edible cannabis ingredients? Ask our friendly budtenders. They’ll be glad to help you find the perfect strain for your next batch of canna-butter or give you a tour of edibles you can cook with.
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