How to Make THC Syrup and Easily Elevate Drinks and Desserts
by Lo Oliver
Cookies are one of the best baked goods. They are easy to hold in one hand. They’re individual-sized, so you don’t have to share. Most importantly, cookies are full of delicious, creamy butter fat, making them an excellent vehicle for cannabis infusion. It’s also very easy to add additional flavors and mixins to cookies in order to cover up the “green” flavor many associate with cannabis edibles and infused foods.
Junk food cookies are a fun take on traditional cannabis chocolate chip cookies. Before we jump into our marijuana cookie recipe, let’s go over how to prepare these gooey edibles’ most important ingredient: cannabis.
The first step to making cannabis cookies is preparing your cannabis for infusion. This includes picking a strain, decarboxylating your flower, and calculating your dosage.
Deciding which strain to use can feel like an overwhelming process when it comes to making infused desserts and other foods. The best course of action as a newbie is to choose a strain that makes you feel good when you’ve consumed it in other ways. If the flower you want to use is also new to you, make sure to first give your flower an old-fashioned try (either rolled or packed into the smoking apparatus of your choice).
If you have a little more experience with cannabis, focus more heavily on terpene profiles rather than strain type (indica, sativa, or hybrid) when shopping for the perfect strain for your cookies. While indica and sativa are quickly becoming outdated identifiers, terpenes are gaining attention for their role in a strain’s flavor and bodily effects. If you’re anxiety-prone, look for strains high in terpenes like linalool. If you’re looking for a sleep aid, seek out strains with myrcene.
Decarboxylation is a simple process that activates cannabinoids in cannabis flower and concentrates. Using heat, typically in an oven, you can transform the inactive THCA molecules into THC. With more time and/or more heat, you can also convert it to the milder, sedating cannabinoid CBN.
It’s super important to decarb cannabis flower for edibles because it activates the compounds that you want to infuse, maximizes the infusion potential, and will cut down on your infusion time. Additionally, decarbing cannabis flower means that it can be used as is without the need for any other processes or tools, expanding your culinary possibilities.
To decarb your flower, preheat your oven to 240 F and bake your cannabis on a covered baking sheet for about 40 minutes. To preserve the terpenes, it is important to cover the baking sheet with tin foil and leave it covered until the sheet cools down completely. For tips and more information on this process, check out this guide to decarboxylation.
One important step in making great cannabis-infused cookies is figuring out your dose. You can use a calculator, like this one. You can also use a home potency testing device, like one of these. Or you can do the math yourself.
To do the math, you will first need to know your cannabis’ THC or CBD percentage (this information is generally provided on dispensary packaging). If you’re unsure, you can estimate. Medium-grade flower will usually have around 12%-16% THC, while premium flower will be more in the 17% to 30% range.
As an example, let’s say your flower has 15% THC. Multiply 15 by 10 and you get 150. That means in every gram of flower, there are about 150 milligrams of THC. You most likely won’t get the full 150 milligrams infused into the fat, but it gives you a good starting point.
Once you’ve figured out that much, just multiply that number by the total grams you plan to use in your infusion and divide that by the number of servings in your final recipe. In the cannabis cookie recipe below, you’ll make about 13 large cookies—if you want to make 10-milligram cookies, you will only need 1 gram of flower. To make 100-milligram cookies, you will need 10 grams of flower.
One more note on dosing: If you don’t know the THC content of your flower and you have less experience with edibles, estimate it to be on the higher end of the scale. You can always eat more as you go for a stronger high, but there’s no going back if you eat too much.
Once you’ve activated your cannabis via decarboxylation and measured out your desired dosage, it’s time to infuse one of the recipe’s ingredients. Infusing the butter is the most popular and effective method for packing your cookies with cannabinoids, but there is a variety of options to choose from.
One reason to choose butter, or another fat like coconut oil, for your infusion base is that butter and cannabis are both hydrophobic. That means they repel water, but it also means that the two can combine and be emulsified together.
While there are multiple ways to infuse your cookies with cannabis, infusing the fat of your recipe should be your first choice. And for the best tasting ones, you should use European style, or cultured, butter. The fat content is high and the flavor is phenomenal. To make cannabutter, follow this recipe. Keep in mind that the cannabutter can take 3-4 hours to prepare, so you may want to get it ready the day before you make your cookies.
For a dairy-free alternative, consider replacing the butter with vegetable shortening or vegan ghee. Whatever you choose, you want a replacement that is as structurally close to butter as possible. While the obvious benefit is that THC is fat-soluble and butter is high in fat, butter also plays an integral role in creating the most irresistibly chewy and delicious cookies.
Infused butter is ideal for this recipe, but you can also prepare the following infused ingredients. For stronger edibles, you can even prepare multiple infused ingredients—just be mindful of THC content.
Before diving into this recipe, make sure to have your cannabis-infused ingredient(s) ready to go. It’s ideal to prepare your infused ingredients at least a day in advance to ensure that the cannabutter has cooled and resolidified or the alcohol has completely evaporated from the cannasugar. Cannaflour, however, can be used immediately after creation.
This recipe makes about 13 large cookies. The serving size is one cookie.
As long as your infused ingredients have already been prepared, this recipe should take about 4 hours from start to finish. This includes 30 minutes to prepare the dough, 3 hours of chill time in the fridge, and 10 to 15 minutes to bake. While it’s not crucial to chill the dough, doing so will lead to much better cookies.
*It is best to use a mix of cannabis butter and regular butter when making baked goods. Infusing butter often includes a loss of some milk solids and water from the butter, both of which are needed for moisture and flavor in the final cookie. No matter what ratio of cannabutter to butter you choose to incorporate, make sure you use a total of 2 sticks of butter (or 225 grams).
**The milk is to compensate for the moisture loss in the cannabutter. You should add the full 2 tablespoons (30 grams) if you’re only using cannabutter (or if you live in a dry climate). Add 1 tablespoon (15 grams) if using a mix of regular butter and cannabutter.
To make infused cookie dough that you can eat without baking, you’ll follow the same recipe with some omitted ingredients and one additional step.
First, you’ll want to heat treat the flour in your microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until the internal temperature hits 165 F. Then you’ll follow the recipe above mostly as written, omitting the egg and adding a little more milk until the consistency is right. You can chill the dough in smaller, bite-sized pieces that are perfect for smaller or daytime doses.
To store your cookies, keep them in an airtight container away from light and excess heat. They will keep well for about a week. If this is a personal batch of cookies, it’s best to only bake what you might eat in a day or two and keep the rest of the dough wrapped tightly in your freezer. They only take a few minutes to bake, so you might as well eat them fresh, right? Right.
Making cannabis-infused cookies is a fun way to ingest your favorite plant either medicinally or recreationally, and the recipe possibilities are endless. Whether you infuse the flour, sugar, or butter, you’re sure to find a method that works for you.
Remember to start slowly when consuming cannabis edibles and work your way up to higher doses. If you do ingest too much, don’t panic—check out these 12 methods to counteract the effects of THC. Most importantly, enjoy the edible-making experience and make sure to celebrate when you take that first bite. Happy baking!
Overall recipe rating: 5 out of 5 based on 2 reviews
Thanks for recipe.I bake a peanutbutter cookies with cannabis butter
Thanks for the info and recipe!! Love to have more edible recipes!!
I’ve been looking for something like this! I’ve been shy about edibles because of the flavor. Def gonna try this out. Thanks!
I like weed, too!
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