How to Bake with Weed: Infused Cannabis Butter and Oil

If you’re a fan of edibles, chances are you’ve considered cooking or baking with weed. From CBD brownies to delicious, infused chicken wings, there’s an entire world of culinary goodness that can be elevated and enjoyed. Learn how to make cannabis butter and oil, how the infusion process works, and some of our expert tips on getting the best experience out of your next meal. 

How to Decarb Cannabis

Without a heat source, weed on its own is non-psychoactive, so the first and most essential step when cooking with it is to decarboxylate your cannabis. Decarboxylation is a straightforward process in which gentle heat is used to turn the inactive THCA cannabinoids in fresh cannabis into active THC cannabinoids. Once decarbed, you can access THC’s many effects and benefits.   

Materials

• Oven
• Cannabis flower
• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper
• A kitchen thermometer (optional)

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Preheat oven to 230°F. 
2. Use an herb grinder (or your fingers) to break about 3.5 grams of cannabis flower into small, fine pieces
3. Place parchment paper on the cookie sheet and evenly spread the ground flower on top of it
4. Bake the flower between 25 to 30 mins. You’ll know your cannabis is fully decarboxylated after the pieces turn golden brown 
5. Once the color has changed, pull out the flower and allow it to cool 

Tip: Don’t let the temperature get too high, or bake your flower for too long. If you do, you may end up destroying some of that precious THC or fully burn off the cannabis’s terpenes and trichomes.

How to Make Cannabutter and Cannabis Oil: 3 Methods

After your flower has been decarboxylated, you can use it to infuse a carrier fat or oil of your choice. Why oils or fats? Cannabinoids are fat-soluble, so extracting them into butter or some culinary oil is the simplest way to prepare cannabis for use in edibles. The most common are butter, coconut, and olive oil, but any edible oil that can withstand moderate heat can be used for an infusion. 

To achieve a nice, potent product, you’ll gently “cook” the decarboxylated flower in the oil or fat, and while this isn’t difficult, it does demand a bit of patience. 

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Cooktop and saucepan
• 1 cup butter or culinary oil of your choice
• 1 cup water
• 3.5 grams of decarboxylated cannabis
• Cheesecloth
• 8 – 16oz glass jar
• Optional: Instant Pot or crockpot 

How to Make Cannabutter on the Stove

1. On medium-low heat, melt 1 cup of butter in the saucepan
2. Add 1 cup of water and heat through
3. Once the mixture is heated, add the decarboxylated cannabis
4. Simmer gently between 160 – 200°F for about 2 – 3 hours, never letting it come to a full boil. The water will evaporate off throughout the cooking process.
5. Strain the newly infused oil through a cheesecloth and into the glass jar. Resist the urge to squeeze the ground flower, as it can add a strong chlorophyll taste and doesn’t extract any additional THC
6. Allow to cool and store in a cool, dark place

How to Make Cannabutter in an Instant Pot

With this method, you can decarboxylate the cannabis and infuse the carrier oil all in one device. 

1. Place the flower in a glass jar and seal the lid
2. Add 4 cups of water into the inner pot of the Instant Pot 
3. Place a trivet in the inner pot and the glass jar on the trivet
4. Close the lid and set the unit to cook on high pressure for 40 minutes
5. Manually release the pressure, open the unit, and remove the glass jar from the pot
6. Open the jar and add a cup of butter or cooking oil to the decarboxylated flower, and reseal it
7. Place the jar back in the pot and set the unit to “slow cook” for 4 hours with the pressure valve open and enough water at the bottom to create a water bath 
8. After 4 hours, remove the jar, strain the butter, and store

How to Make Cannabutter in a Crockpot

Unlike with an Instant Pot, you can’t use this method to also decarboxylate your flower, but it’s still a simple way to make infused cannabis oil. 

1. Place the decarboxylated flower and the butter or oil of your choice in the cooker
2. Set it to cook on low heat for 4 – 6 hours 
3. Strain and store

Now that you have a good amount of infused cannabutter, you can use it to create your own infused recipes. An easy way to get started is to follow the recipe of your favorite homemade or store-bought brownie mix and replace a portion of the recipe’s butter or oil amount with your newly infused cannabutter.

How to Dose Cannabutter

Assuming you know the potency of the flower you used, you may be able to more accurately dose your cannabutter with a little math. The equation looks like this:

• Take the grams of flower you used and multiply it by 1,000 to get it in milligrams
• Multiply that number by the THC percentage of the flower used
• Divide that number by the number of servings from your recipe

For example, if you used 3.5 grams of 20% THC flower to make 1 cup of cannabutter and then use the cannabutter to make a dozen cookies, you will get:

• 3.5 x 1000 = 3500 milligrams
• 3500 milligrams x 20% = 700mg THC
• 700 / 12 cookies = 53.33mg THC per cookie 

If you don’t know the potency of your flower, or if it’s your first time baking or cooking with cannabis, one rule of thumb is to replace no more than half of the butter in any given recipe with your infused butter—at least until you can gauge its potency. Better yet, start with a ratio of a quarter amount of infused butter to three-quarters of regular butter and slowly work your way up.

How to Store Cannabis Oil

Just as heat and light are the enemies of potency in cannabis flower, they’re also what you want to avoid for your completed cannabutter or cannaoil recipes. 

Store your infusions in a sealed, well-marked jar in your refrigerator, away from the reach of children. Alternately, you can freeze them in a freezer bag, though you’ll want to allow them to thaw completely before use for the best texture. Stored this way, your cannabutter should be good for at least a month in the fridge and up to 6 months in the freezer.

Score Premium Flower for Potent Cannabutter

Learning how to make cannabis oil or cannabutter is much simpler than it may seem. But to make fantastic cannabutter that can elevate your favorite snacks and meals, you’re going to want top-shelf cannabis to infuse it—that’s where we come in.

At our Mission, you’ll find a huge selection of locally grown flower, offered in every style and price point. From zingy, energizing sativas to deeply relaxing indicas, there’s dank, perfect flower to start your home cannabutter projects.

Have more questions about baking or cooking with weed? Stop by any of our locations and ask our friendly budtenders for more information. We’re always here to help!