Eat Your Weed – The Latest in Cannabis Edibles & Top Recipes to DIY

There’s very little doubt on why cannabis edibles are growing in popularity. They’re highly potent, offer an alternative to inhaling cannabis, and are easy to DIY. If you’re a beginner to edibles, or have yet to try making themselves – cannabis edibles can be intimidating to say the least.

Keep reading to learn the most simple recipes for cannabis edibles, you can feel confident in serving up this summer or all-year round.

Edible Basics You Need to Know

With legalization, we’re far beyond the days where homemade pot brownies are considered the best cannabis edibles. Advancements in manufacturing, and DIY exploration has opened the floodgates to all sorts of cannabis edibles. In fact, in 2020, edibles were the #1 product category for online purchases through the delivery service Eaze, rising to 22% of all sales.

What cannabis consumers have also caught on to, is the ease of crafting your own recipes for cannabis edibles. Once you get the basics down of decarbing cannabis flower, you can transform minimal amounts into highly potent treats by just substituting canna-infused bases in any recipe.

Decarboxylation is the process of activating cannabis’ beneficial compounds by slowly heating it, on low heats. This acts like a lighter, torch or vape pen would, when ‘heating’ up flower in a bowl, concentrates for dabs, or oil for vaping.

Before we get into the hottest recipes for the upcoming summer months – let’s review the basics of decarbing, and calculating potency to get you started off right.

How to Decarb Flower

One tip to keep in mind when decarbing your own flower for edibles is the cultivar you use, which determines the type of effects you’ll experience.

While some home-growers use their trim or popcorn buds to concoct bulk batches, you can also customize your edible recipes with strains you benefit from most. Either way, follow the simple steps below to prepare your flower to use in recipes for cannabis edibles.

1. Preheat your oven at a low temperature – 225℉ – 250℉ is most recommended.
2. Gather your cannabis flower, with a minimum of 7 grams to every 1 cup of oil/butter base for infusion.
3. Lightly break up or grind the buds, and place on a baking sheet.
4. Place the bud into the oven and ‘bake’ for at least 30 minutes, depending on your oven’s temperature setting. You’ll know the weed is successfully decarbed when the green buds are a light golden brown.

Once your flower is decarbed, there’s a variety of ways to infuse the buds into common cooking bases. Which include butter, coconut oil, olive oil, etc. You can combine the decarbed flower and oil/butter in a crockpot and simmer on the lowest setting for 3+ hours. Or, you can simmer on the stove on low heat for 2-6 hours, without letting it boil and adding water when necessary.

With either method – keep in mind, your kitchen or space is about to get fragrant. If you’re attempting to be discrete, you may want to implement odor reducing techniques like carbon filters or odor absorbing agents.

After infusing your oil or butter base, strain the mixture with a mesh strainer and cheese cloth and voila! You’re ready to take on recipes for cannabis edibles.

How to Calculate Potency

Knowing how much THC you can expect to consume is basic cannabis edibles knowledge. While some DIY edible makers may live by the saying, ‘the more the merrier’ others may desire more calculated and accurate potency levels. Especially when tracking dosages, or serving to a party or guests.

To calculate the potency of your DIY recipes, keep the following equation handy to determine strength for individual servings or batches.

To calculate potency, you’ll need to know the exact weight in grams of flower you used. And, the THC content of the cultivar if available. Otherwise, you can search for the average percentage or use 10% as a low baseline. We’ll use 7 grams of flower with 10% THC as an example, where you can plug in your own numbers for future calculations.

1. First, you need to reduce the grams to milligrams. By multiplying the number of grams used x 1,000.
   a. 7 x 1,000 = 7,000 MG
2. Then, you’ll times that amount by the potency of the flower.
   a. 7,000 x .1 (10%) = 700 MG of THC in 1 cup of oil/butter base
3. While 700 MG is the full amount per 1 cup of base, you can use that number to further calculate per serving size. Let’s say you use the full cup in one recipe that makes 12 cookies. The per cookie calculation would be:
   a. 700 MG / 12 = 58.3 MG of THC per cookie
   b. Allowing you to customize doses by cutting batches into smaller servings or portions, or increasing the number of grams you begin with or the potency of the flower you use.

DIY Recipes To Try

You don’t have to be a chef, expert baker or even a kitchen aficionado to whip up elevated THC infused treats. In fact – you can use your cannabutter or cannaoil in any way you’d use the regular ingredients, and in common recipes you already make.

As a tip to dilute potency you can always use less of the infused version and supplement with the regular version. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, using ½ cup cannabutter with ½ cup normal butter.

Without further ado – here are 4 of the easiest DIY recipes for cannabis edibles that are sure to be a hit this summer, and amongst a crowd. Each is customizable to add your own flavor or flair, so have fun mixing and infusing to your own personal taste.

Crowd-pleasing cannabis edible recipes

Cannabis Infused Snack Mix

1. Preheat your oven to 250℉.
2. Choose your choice of snack mix ingredients (5-6 cups total). Commonly used items include:
   a. Chex cereals, pretzels, cheese crackers, sesame sticks, bagel chips, roasted peanuts etc.
   i. Or, make it sweet ‘n’ salty with pretzels, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate pieces or candy (add after baking to avoid melting) etc.
3. Spread the mix onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or foil.
4. Add 1 cup of cannabutter to a saucepan and heat on low. Once melted add 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, ¼ tsp cayenne powder (more to taste) and 1 tsp of salt.
   a. For sweet versions, try adding vanilla syrup or extract, brown sugar or cinnamon.
5. Pour butter over the mix, and toss to stir. Bake for 50 minutes, tossing the mixture every 10-15 minutes.
6. Once cooled, store in airtight containers.

Cannabis Infused Garlic Parmesan Popcorn

1. Use 1 cup of popcorn kernels to pop popcorn yourself, or use any microwave popcorn of your choice.
2. Melt 3-5 tablespoons of canna-butter on the stove on low-medium heat. Once warm, add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and let simmer.
3. When melted, pour over popcorn in a sealable container for shaking. Add ½ cup of grated parmesan, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Toss to coat, and enjoy!

Summertime recipes for cannabis edibles

Cannabis Infused Ice Cream

1. In a saucepan on medium heat, melt 16oz or 500 ml of heavy cream.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of cannabutter and stir until combined.
3. Stir in 75 g or ⅔ cup sugar, with a pinch of salt.
4. Add in any desired fillings (fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, candy, etc) and stir.
5. Pour mixture into a sealable container and freeze overnight.

Cannabis Pina-colada

1. For one 16 oz serving, combine the following ingredients into a blender:
   a. 1 oz dark run
   b. 2 oz white rum
   c. ¼ cup diced pineapple.
   d. ½ cup cannabis infused coconut oil
   e. 2 oz pineapple juice
   f. 4 oz coconut cream
   g. 1 ½ cup ice
2. Blend, and enjoy!

Eat to Elevate

Once you master just how to make cannabis edibles, you can enjoy the act of eating to elevate. Have fun with your own recipes, consider hosting a cannabis dinner party, or begin customizing each edible to your own desires for potency, or taste.

Bookmark this handy guide now, to save the best cannabis edibles recipes and to inspire future creations you can craft on your own.