HOW TO MAKE POTENT CANNABUTTER?

When you infuse butter with cannabis, you get cannabutter. We use this as an ingredient for making edibles. Yes, cannabutter is an ingredient that you can substitute for butter in any recipe that requires it. 

If you want to learn how to make potent cannabutter for marijuana edibles, keep reading for our delicious potent cannabutter recipe.

Stage 0: Prepare Your Materials

Before we get into the best way to make potent cannabutter, you must gather all supplies that go into making the ingredient.

You can adjust the amount of weed and butter you use for this recipe, depending on how much cannabutter you intend to make. We suggest a ratio of 50g of dried weed per pound of butter.

You may also use any cannabis strain that you prefer. If you’re after a good head high, we suggest going for a nice sativa strain. If you’re looking for pain relief or relaxation without the high, consider indica or strains that produce more CBD than THC. We use White Widow for this recipe for balanced sativa and indica strain.

Ingredients

  • 50g high-quality cannabis bud
  • 1lb (4 sticks) unsalted butter
  • Clean water for boiling and cooking

Equipment

  • Oven
  • Stove
  • Oven-safe baking tray
  • Double boiler
  • Cheesecloth
  • Hemp twine
  • Fine mesh strainer
  • Rubber spatula
  • Tongs
  • Gloves
  • Glass bowl or container for the final cannabutter product

Stage 1: Decarboxylate Your Weed

Decarboxylation involves turning THCa and CBDa into their active forms: THC and CBD. Activating these cannabinoids makes them bioavailable, meaning our bodies can absorb them easily. Absorbing these compounds allows us to experience the psychoactive effects and purported health benefits that cannabinoids offer. Here are the steps to decarboxylate your weed:

  1. Preheat your oven to 250°F: Oven thermometers can help you gauge temperature if you do not own a digital oven.
  2. Grind your flowers: Be sure to remove any stems and seeds that you find while grinding your weed. You want to grind it just finely enough that it bakes evenly in the oven and will not go through the cheesecloth and mesh strainer later in the process.
  3. Spread out your crushed bud evenly over your oven-safe baking tray.
  4. Place the tray into your oven.
  5. Bake for 45 minutes: Be sure to keep the oven closed during the decarboxylation process. Check on your weed as often as you can. We suggest checking every five or ten minutes to make sure nothing burns.
  6. Remove the tray from your oven: You will notice that the bud will be very dry and have a light brownish-green color. Remember to wear gloves when handling hot materials.
  7. Allow the decarboxylated bud to cool for 20 minutes.

Stage 2: Extract Your Butter Fat

This step is all about infusing your butter with the activated THC and CBD. When you transfer the cannabinoids from the plant to the butter, you can use the butter for edibles to get the effects that you would normally experience when smoking weed.

Once your weed is fully cooled, we can begin cooking. Here are the steps for fat extraction:

  1. Fill the bottom of your double boiler with a moderate amount of water.
  2. Place the bottom part on the stove.
  3. Attach the top part of the double boiler.
  4. Boil the water.
  5. Separate the baked weed into two equal parts.
  6. Wrap each part of the weed in cheesecloth the way you would a burrito.
  7. Secure each weed burrito with hemp twine.
  8. Cube each stick of butter: Cubing your butter will help it melt down faster.
  9. Melt the cubed butter in the top part of the double boiler once the water is boiling.
  10. Add both weed pouches to the melted butter: Use a rubber spatula or tongs to mix the pouches around the melted butter.
  11. Add one cup of water to the butter.
  12. Close your double boiler’s lid.
  13. Simmer the butter on low for two hours: Be sure to lift the lid every ten minutes or so to stir and flip your pouches. Remember to add more water to the bottom part as needed.
  14. Remove your double boiler from the heat: Allow your mixture to cool for 40 minutes or until cool enough to handle.

Stage 3: Strain and Cool Your Potent Cannabutter

The final stage in making potent cannabutter is about removing excess plant material and water and solidifying the cannabutter. Here are the steps to get your final product:

Prepare a mesh strainer over the glass bowl or container for the cannabutter.

Drain the cannabutter into the bowl through the strainer.

  1. Squeeze out any cannabutter from the pouches: You can use tongs or other kitchen utensils with holes to squeeze the remaining butter.
  2. Run the pressed-out cannabutter through your strain once more: You can run the cannabutter through a finer sieve to make sure that you remove any remaining plant matter.
  3. Cover the container. You will notice a cloudy substance in your cannabutter. We will remove these impurities in the next step.
  4. Freeze your cannabutter for two hours: You may opt for refrigerating your cannabutter for three hours to set it instead of freezing. Freezing your cannabutter allows the cannabinoids to combine with the butter much better than simply cooling it down in the refrigerator.
  5. Remove your container from the freezer.
  6. Allow your cannabutter to thaw out at room temperature: Do not microwave the butter to avoid breaking your dish and destroying the cannabinoids you bound to the butter. Your cannabutter will be at the top of the dish while the impure, leftover liquid should be at the bottom.
  7. Submerge the container in warm water to soften the cannabutter’s edges: You may use a warm towel to wipe the container from the outside instead of submerging it. What we want to do here is to make it easier to remove the cannabutter at the top.
  8. Drain the excess water from the container to leave the cannabutter: You may tilt the container to drain the water or carefully invert it to make sure all excess liquid is gone.
  9. Transfer your cannabutter to another container.
  10. Store your cannabutter in the fridge or freezer and then use it when needed.

Cannabutter Recipes

You can substitute your cannabutter with regular butter or oil whenever a recipe calls for it. Most cannabis recipes for edibles involve desserts, but you may still drizzle melted cannabutter over lobster or your favorite pasta dishes. When you’re ready to use your potent cannabutter, try any of the following recipes that would normally use regular butter.

Cannabis Brownies

Any brownie recipe that involves butter will suffice. Here is our favorite:

Ingredients

  • ½ cup cannabutter (room temperature)
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs

Equipment

  • Oven
  • Baking pan
  • Mixing bowls
  • Hand mixer

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
  2. Grease your baking pan (we use an 8-by-8-inch pan).
  3. Sift and mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
  4. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl until incorporated.
  5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
  6. Transfer the batter into your greased pan.
  7. Bake in the oven for half an hour.
  8. Take the pan out of the oven, cool for half an hour, and then serve.

Cannabis Cookies

If you have a homemade cookie recipe that you already use, simply substitute butter and oil with cannabutter for a better experience. Here is our cannabis chocolate chip cookie recipe for guidance.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup cannabutter (room temperature)
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ cup light-brown sugar
  • 1 large egg (beaten)
  • 1 cup chocolate chunks or shards

Equipment

  • Oven
  • Baking pan
  • Baking sheets
  • Mixing bowl
  • Hand mixer
  • Spatula
  • Whisk

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375°F.
  2. Prepare baking pans with baking sheets.
  3. Whisk dry ingredients together.
  4. Cream cannabutter and sugar with a hand mixer.
  5. Add beaten egg and vanilla to creamed cannabutter and mix well.
  6. Gradually add dry ingredients into wet ingredients until dough is formed.
  7. Fold in chocolate chunks or shards (you may use chocolate chips instead).
  8. Roll a spoonful of cookie dough into a ball.
  9. Arrange dough balls on the baking sheets. Leave two inches between each ball.
  10. Flatten the cookie dough slightly with the back of a spoon.
  11. Bake in the oven for 9 minutes.
  12. Remove the tray from the oven.
  13. Allow cookies to cool for 3 minutes.
  14. Transfer cooled cookies to a cooling rack.
  15. Serve with milk.

Cannabis Caramels

Caramels are all sugar and butter, so they could be the perfect edible for cannabutter. Here is our favorite simple caramel recipe that we substituted with cannabutter.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cannabutter
  • 2 cups light corn syrup
  • 4 cups white sugar
  • 24 ounces evaporated milk
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt (for topping)

Equipment

  • Heavy-bottomed saucepan
  • Baking pan (we use an 8-by-8-inch pan)
  • Candy thermometer
  • Parchment paper

Instructions

  1. Line your baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Add cannabutter, corn syrup, and sugar to a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
  3. Place the pan over medium heat and stir well until the mixture boils.
  4. Gradually add evaporated milk into the boiling mixture.
  5. Place the candy thermometer to the side of the pan.
  6. Stir the mixture until it reaches 245°F.
  7. Remove the pan from the heat.
  8. Add vanilla extract
  9. Pour caramel into the baking pan.
  10. Top caramel with sea salt or kosher salt.
  11. Refrigerate the caramel overnight.
  12. Take the caramel out of the fridge.
  13. Cut caramel into bite-sized pieces.
  14. Serve or wrap in wax paper.

Best Strains for making POTENT CANNABUTTER

We used White Widow strain for this recipe but you can use your favorite strain. We’ve prepared an overview of some of the best strains to use when making cannabutter. Consider these strains when you intend to make your own batch of cannabutter.

White Widow

The strain we used in this recipe is a hybrid strain that combines Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica, suggesting that it offers balanced effects. You get equal amounts of head high from its sativa side and tranquil effects from its indica side. People have noted that this strain tastes like pine.

When you use this strain for your batch of cannabutter, you can expect the motivating and calming effects that you would get from smoking this strain. Its pine flavor may even add an extra dimension to your final product.

OG Kush

This famous cannabis strain comes from Pakistani Kush, Chemdawg, and Lemon Thai parent strains. This strain is a hybrid yet leans more toward Cannabis indica. As an indica-dominant strain, it usually offers more of a relaxing high. Its flavors include hints of pine, citrus, and fruit.

Using this strain for your cannabutter may load the final product with OG Kush’s natural flavors. Add OG Kush cannabutter to your dishes and you may experience the blissful states that this strain offers when you smoke it.

Bubba Kush

This cannabis strain is a standard indica that offers a sedative high while leaving you alert and functional. Its name comes from being a combination of OG Kush and Bubble Gum marijuana strains. Bubba Kush offers sweet and earthy flavors on top of its indica-dominant euphoric effects.

Add this strain into your butter to make cannabutter that is ideal for sweet dessert recipes like cakes and brownies. Your marijuana edibles will have hints of earthy and sweet flavors that Bubba Kush naturally comes with.

Solomatic CBD

This strain contains more CBD than THC. Both cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are naturally occurring cannabinoids in cannabis plants. CBD is non-psychoactive while THC is psychoactive, meaning THC is what gets you high.

This strain has a CBD to THC ratio of 21:1. If you use this strain to create cannabutter, you would be infusing your butter with CBD’s alleged therapeutic benefits without the psychoactive effects that you might get from consuming marijuana edibles.

Sherbet Queen

This strain offers forest fruit flavors and therapeutic highs. Sherbet Queen is an indica-dominant strain that can turn your cannabutter into a rich, fruit-flavored source of relaxing effects. It has more THC than CBD, so you may want to proceed with caution if you are not keen on marijuana’s psychoactive effects.

Cannabutter FAQs

Can I use cannabutter for anything?

You can substitute cannabutter for regular butter or oil. You have the freedom to spread it on toast, add it to mashed potatoes, drizzle it over pasta, or use it for baking brownies.

Does freezing cannabutter make it more potent?

The freezing process in making cannabutter helps the cannabinoids bind with the butter much better than cooling in the fridge. Freezing finished cannabutter also helps it last longer. Just be sure to avoid microwaving frozen cannabutter if you want to thaw it out. Microwaving cannabutter may destroy the cannabinoids.

What is decarboxylation?

Decarboxylation is an essential process in making potent cannabutter. The decarb process involves turning THCa and CBDa, which have low bioavailability, into THC and CBD, which have high bioavailability. When something is bioavailable, our bodies can absorb it. So, with decarboxylated weed, we can absorb THC and CBD to experience their purported health benefits.

Can I clarify my butter before infusing it with cannabis?

You can make cannabutter with clarified or unclarified butter. This is a matter of preference. Clarifying butter involves boiling the butter and removing visible milk solids that appear. You may want to clarify your butter before making cannabutter if you want to avoid having milk solids or white particles in your cannabutter.

Can I use salted butter instead?

Salted butter and unsalted butter work for this recipe. We only use unsalted butter because we prefer to have fewer impurities in the final product. With fewer impurities to remove during the process, we give the butter more opportunities to infuse the cannabinoids during the second stage of making potent cannabutter.

MAKing POTENT CANNABUTTER from weed

Making potent cannabutter is a simple process that only requires patience on top of the standard ingredients. The idea behind cannabutter is that we infuse butter with the cannabinoids from weed. By transferring the cannabinoids from the plant to the butter, we can experience cannabis’ psychoactive effects and purported medicinal benefits without having to smoke weed.

If this is your first time making cannabutter, be sure to follow each step correctly to get the best results. Enjoy your first batch of cannabutter!

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