If you enjoy entertaining for the holidays, you’ll probably love serving some home-made cannabis cookies for your guests. It’s easy to bake your own cannabis cookies. All you need is to prepare some canna butter which can be created with any cannabis flower. Baking your own means you can control the dosage, flavor, size, and type of cannabis strain effects in the cookies. Best of all, it’s all in the name of good cheer and having fun!
We’re breaking down the basics to setting up the main ingredient you need to bake cannabis cookies: canna butter. And once you have the canna butter prepared, it literally opens up a whole new world of baking (and cooking) possibilities so let’s dive right in.
Decarboxylate Your Flower
Come again? Do I need to set up a science lab to make these cannabis cookies or? If you don’t know what “decarboxylate” means, don’t worry, it’s not as complex as it sounds! But it does make for some fun conversations with guests when you tell them what’s in their cookies.
To prepare canna butter, start by cutting up or grinding your weed to crumbles and evenly spread it into an oven safe bakeware pan. Preheat the oven to 200°F — not a higher temperature please! You’ll char your weed and need to start over, no thank you. Once the oven is heated to 200 degrees, and place your baking pan and cannabis in on a rack near the center of the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, then let the flower cool down for at least 20 minutes after taking it out.
While you don’t have to decarboxylate your flower, the high won’t be nearly as strong if you don’t. If you prefer a more mild effect when consuming cannabis, you could try avoiding the decarboxylation process for your first batch. Evaluate the effects and how you feel. If you don’t get the desired effect or prefer something different or stronger, switch up your process next time. Just like trying different cannabis strains, the fun part is discovering what you like and what makes you feel the best.
Determine the Dosage in Cannabis Cookies
Measuring the correct dose for your cannabis cookies comes down to your desired effect, and pretty much will be determined by how strong your flower is. Just remember, it’s better to be on the safe side and use a smaller dose. Start low and go slow. It’s easy to eat more cookies if they aren’t as strong as you want them to be. But taking down a cookie that takes you or your guests into wonderland for the night may be tougher to remedy if you’re tight on couch space.
How to Make Canna Butter
At the center of creating cannabis edibles is canna butter. That’s because you can use it in any recipe that calls for butter, providing a lot of flexibility in how you end up using it. There are several ways to make canna butter, depending on which kitchen equipment you have and your personal preference. Here are some of the most common methods:
- Crockpot
- Stovetop
- Slow Cooker
Slowly heating the butter to melt it is best. Then drop in the desired amount of flower to “infuse” the butter with THC and all those wonderful cannabis terpene effects. Let the butter warm with the cannabis flower in it for at least 20-30 minutes. Take care to keep the butter on a super low heat. If you heat butter too quickly it will burn and you’ll need to start over, something no one has time for during the holidays.
After infusing the butter with your flower by heating it at a steady, low temperature it’s time to strain out the cannabis flower and let the finished product set. You will notice a change in color over time as the flower mixes into the butter. This is nothing to be alarmed about, it’s just all the wonderful plant terpenes being dispersed by the that may make it feel crunchy instead of smooth.
If your recipe calls for melted butter or liquid fat, you’re ready to go. If you want to store your cannabis infused butter, mix your butter with a little sugar until well blended, and store it in the fridge. Sugar is a natural preservative and will allow you to store canna butter for a couple of months without spoiling. Pretty nice if you’re getting baking your own cannabis edibles.
Choose a Banging Cookie Recipe
Once you’re prepared with the main ingredient, the real fun begins. Choose a favorite holiday recipe that’s been passed down for generations or pull out the toll house morsel package and back some banging chocolate chip cookies. It really doesn’t matter what type of cookies you bake, just substitute the butter in the recipe with your newly prepared canna butter and you’re on your way to a new kind of cookie experience.
By simply using your canna butter instead of regular butter when baking you’ll be opening up a whole new way to entertain your family and friends this holiday season. If you’re worried your canna butter may be too strong, you can cut it with regular butter and calm it down. Really only depends on how strong you want your edibles to be.
Pro Tip: Make sure when you’re preparing your cookie batter, you mix thoroughly! You definitely want to prevent having a batch with a few cannabis cookies with super-powers and others that are duds. Evenly distribute the canna butter throughout the dough so the dosage of cannabis per cookie is as consistent as possible.
Have Fun!
Cooking with cannabis is not difficult at all. Cannabis flower is an herb and like other herbs, makes for great flavor and adapts to all kinds of cooking well. It can be fun to bake with cannabis and to try using different types of cannabis flower strains to make canna butter with different effects. A visit to a cannabis dispensary near by is all that’s needed to find the right ingredients.
A Vibe by California Cannabis Dispensary near you is super-stocked with holiday bud, both indica and sativa strains, that can be used for making canna butter. Make holiday entertaining more fun with home-made holiday edibles. It’s always fun to entertain with cannabis and who knows, it may start a whole new family and friends holiday tradition you’ll be known for.
