While there are a lot of options when it comes to ingesting cannabis, like smoking, vaping, tinctures and topicals, there is one that might be the best for any aspiring gourmands out there. Edibles have an advantage over smoked or vaporized marijuana, and that is that the effects often take longer to come on, but they last much longer. While you should definitely keep your dry herb vaporizer handy, because vaping might be better than smoking, it couldn’t hurt to learn how to prepare your cannabis to be baked into yummy treats.

Even if you’re not the world’s best cook, these recipes are simple to follow and guaranteed to be delicious and satisfying.

 

Figuring Out THC Percentage Figuring out the THC percentage of your cannabis is important so your final product has the right dosage per bite.If you have the THC percentage, Jeff the Chef has a lovely calculator that will help you figure out the THC dosage per edible. However, if you are growing your own cannabis then you’ll have to do it by trial and error for your particular plants.

Don’t Hate – Decarboxylate The most common mistake that newbies to the edible scene make is thinking that they can just grind up some dried cannabis, toss it into cookie mix, and voila, they have cannabis edibles. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work this way. First, the cannabis needs to have its compounds activated through heat. This is called decarboxylation.This means that after you’ve picked your choice strain, you’re going to put it on a baking sheet and pop it into the oven at 240 degrees for 25 minutes to an hour. The more cannabis you’re using, the more time it takes. Failing to do this won’t activate the THC and CBD in the plant. No one wants that!

Delicious Homemade Edibles The good thing about cooking with cannabis is that you can do just about anything with it. From cookies to brownies to homemade gummy candies, there’s just so much that can be made using cannabis, and the key to baking with cannabis is learning how to make and cook with cannabutter.
Cooking with Cannabis Butter Cannabis butter, also called cannabutter, is easily made. All you need is your decarboxylated cannabis, one pound of unsalted butter, and some water. A crock pot is great for this, but not essential. Combine the butter, cannabis, and a little water and heat on a low simmer for 3 to 6 hours, making sure that your butter doesn’t burn. Let it get cool enough to handle, then strain out the plant material. Stow it away in the fridge overnight to harden, and your cannabutter is ready for use!

Basic Bud Brownies By far the most popular cannabis edible, brownies are relatively easy to make and tasty to boot. While you can follow just about any brownie recipe out there, substituting your cannabutter for the butter in the recipe, you can also buy store-bought brownie mix and use the cannabutter in it. The second option will often last longer without spoiling because there are fewer ingredients like eggs or milk.

Pot Cookies There are a lot of recipes out there for pot cookies. Dosing can be a bit of a pain, but as long as you remember how much THC is in the cannabis you used for your cannabutter and the weight used, it’s pretty simple. Aim for each cookie to be about the equivalent of a bowl of smoked cannabis. When making pot cookies from a recipe found online or from store-bought mix, substitute the cannabutter wherever the recipe calls for cannabis oil or butter.

Homemade cannabis edibles can be easy to make, once you’ve figured out your optimal dose, which can take some experimentation. Once you’ve mastered that, it’s all in what you want to make.

Author Michael is a marketing and creative content specialist at GotVape.com with a primary focus on customer satisfaction. Technology and fitness combined with healthy lifestyle obsession are his main talking points