With the holiday season fast approaching, many people are looking forward to heading home to spending time with friends and family, and eating lots of good food. Personally, I love the holidays because of all the tasty treats there are. As an avid cannabis user, I enjoy desserts with a little something special to them. So, whether you need a gift for that special someone, a recipe to bring to your next potluck, or just something to get you through seeing your relatives, these double chocolate cannabis cookies have you covered.
The first step is making cannabis butter. I use the ‘crockpot method’ as it creates, in my opinion, stronger butter and does not make your kitchen smell like cannabis if you put your crockpot in your garage/shed.
Cannabutter
What You’ll Need
1-ounce dried cannabis, ground | 1 lb butter | 1 ¼ cup water | Baking tray | Slow cooker | Cheese cloth
To begin making cannabis butter you will need to decarboxylate your ground cannabis. This means baking your cannabis in order to activate the THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids.
Decarboxylation Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180˚F.
2. Spread ground cannabis evenly on baking tray.
3. Place tray in oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to ensure it does not burn.
4. Remove from oven.
At this point your ground cannabis should be a brownish green colour and is ready to be turned into butter.
Cannabutter Instructions
1. Place decarboxylated cannabis, butter, and water into slow cooker.
2. Cook on ‘low’ setting for 12 to 24 hours. Periodically check on your mixture, stirring to ensure nothing burns. If you feel too much water has evaporated, you can add an additional ¼ to ½ cup of water.
3. Once you have reached your desired cook time, strain mixture through cheese cloth into a container to remove ground cannabis. Warning: mixture will be very hot!
4. Let cool at room temperature or in fridge overnight to allow butter to separate.
5. The bright green butter that has formed at the top of the container is your new cannabutter. Remove from container and use immediately, or store in freezer for up to 1 year.
Double Chocolate Cannabis Cookies
Ingredients
1 ½ cup cannabutter, softened | 1 cup granulated sugar | ¾ cup packed brown sugar | 2 teaspoons vanilla extract | 2 eggs | 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour | 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder | 1 teaspoon baking soda | ½ teaspoon salt | 1 cup white chocolate chips | ¾ cup pecan halves, coarsely chopped
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease or line baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Mix butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl; blend into butter mixture until smooth.
4. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.
5. Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of cookie dough, placing on prepared baking trays, leaving around 3 inches of space between each, pressing each cookie to flatten slightly.
6. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until firm in the center; remove from oven and cool.
Makes around 3 dozen medium cookies.
Author’s Notes
Cannabis butter can be used as a replacement in most baking recipes calling for butter; this could mean cakes, brownies, muffins. However, the taste of cannabutter is quite strong, so I recommend using recipes involving chocolate to mask said taste.
As mentioned, the above recipe makes rather potent cannabis cookies, so I do not recommend consuming an entire cookie all at once, especially if you are not a frequent cannabis consumer. Additionally, when baking you can dilute the potency of your cookies by using some cannabis butter and some regular butter; perhaps a 50/50 mixture.
Lastly, cannabis butter tends to make cookies flatten during baking. If you prefer thicker, chewier cookies try replacing some of the butter with shortening: I use around ¼ cup of shortening to 1 ¼ cup of cannabutter for the above recipe.
Happy baking and happy holi-blaze!
Disclaimer: The following recipe makes potent cannabis edibles. Consuming too much cannabis can lead to paranoia, panic attacks, anxiety, nausea, or vomiting. Potential consumers should try one third to one half of a cookie to judge the effects before increasing the amount consumed. As well, unlike smoking or vaping cannabis, edibles can take between 30 minutes to two hours to kick in. Do not get impatient and take more if you do not feel the effects within the first couple hours.
