Cook time: Including prep, 3.5 hours
Yield: 30-60 cookies
In 1938, the United States was in the tail end of the Great Depression when a great feat of innovation heralded the dawn of a new age: the chocolate chip cookie.
Invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield, a chef at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, the chocolate cookie might just be the perfect snack, and Ruth Graves Wakefield, the perfect example of how while necessity might be the mother of invention, sometimes just dumping some chocolate bits into the cookie batter can get you there too.
But did the humble Toll House Inn chef ever dump some cannabis into the batter? Probably not, but her original claim to fame is a classic all the same, and a great way to make edibles.
What makes edibles great
You know what makes chocolate chip cookies great, but unless you’re experienced with edibles, you may be asking yourself, why not just smoke some weed? Fair enough, but the simple answer is: the experience is very different.
When smoking cannabis, the effects kick in right away. With edibles, it can take as long as an hour and a half or more as it works its way through the digestive system. And when it does kick in? It’s a potent, full-body experience that can be much more immersive and intoxicating than a few hits off a joint.
Also, they can be a great alternative for people who have respiratory conditions, never got the hang of smoking, or just don’t like the smell.
It can also be a very low-key way to consume cannabis. After all, you’re just an innocent everyday citizen eating a cookie on the bus, who could be any wiser?
A word of caution: Take your time
With the delayed onset of edibles, many people in history have made the mistake of being impatient and taking a second dose when the first didn’t kick in yet and then realizing that they have made a mistake that — while not actually dangerous — may set them up for an unpleasant and way too powerful cannabis experience.
With edibles, take your time. Start with a low dose, wait at least an hour and a half, maybe even two hours and see. Worst case, just take a bigger dose the next time.
How to make cannabutter
When making cannabis edibles, the easiest shortcut is to have a cannabis-infused fat on hand.
THC — and the rest of the cannabinoids — are fat-soluble and must be consumed with a fat in order to be metabolized by the body. Infusing cannabis into a fat like butter, coconut oil, or olive oil, creates an easy to use fat that you can quickly add to any dish to make it magical.
But for rich chocolate chip cookies, nothing is better than cannabutter:
1. Decarboxylate some cannabis
The first step in making cannabutter is to decarboxylate some cannabis. Decarboxylation is a process by which applying heat to cannabis activates the compounds in the plant, converting THCA into THC. Without it, the cannabis won’t get you high. Start off by grinding about a half ounce of cannabis and bake it on an oven sheet for about 30-45 minutes at around 220-245°F (105-120°C), and keep an eye out to make sure it doesn’t burn.
Check out our step-by-step directions: How to decarboxylate cannabis
2. Simmer the butter and cannabis together
After decarboxylating the cannabis, simmer a cup of water and a cup of butter until the butter melts. Let it simmer, and mix in the decarboxylated cannabis and mix well. Simmer on low heat – around 160-180°F (70-80°C) for 2-3 hours, making sure not to let it boil. After 2-3 hours, take the pan off the heat and let it cool before straining it through a cheesecloth into a container.
You can always add more cannabis or a stronger strain if you want to make it more potent.
Recipe: Making cannabis chocolate chip cookies
Why overthink things? What could make more sense than to make cannabis chocolate chip cookies using the original Toll House recipe? Just substitute half of the butter for cannabutter, and follow the rest of the steps. It’s that simple.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup CannaButter (8 tablespoons), softened
- 1/2 cup regular butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) TOLL HOUSE Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
3. Beat butter, cannabutter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg.
4. Gradually beat in flour mixture, stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop out the batter in rounded tablespoons and drop onto ungreased baking sheets.
6. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
How many cannabis cookies should I eat?
Your body may react to edibles more strongly than someone else’s depending on your experience with edibles, your metabolism, and your tolerance. Still, a good general guideline is, start with a small dose, be patient, and see how you feel after an hour or two.
The above cannabutter recipe with a 14% THC strain will contain about 40mg of THC per teaspoon. This means that a batch of cookies that calls for 8 tablespoons of said cannabutter should include a total of 960mg of THC.
The recipe says it makes about 5 dozen cookies (though our experience is that you should usually halve that estimate). If you have 60 cookies in a batch of 960mg of THC then that would come out to about 16mg of THC.
Considering that the average THC gummy has about 10mg THC, you should figure that 1 cookie — or 2 even — should give you a solid dose. You can also make the recipe using more butter and less cannabutter, or the opposite — this is a judgement free zone.
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