Anthony Pellegrino
Most people know that smoking weed is not the only way to enjoy marijuana. As a matter of fact, many people love to eat it! Of course edibles at the dispensary are usually pretty expensive, and they'll never taste quite as yummy as your own favorite recipe. If you learn how to make weed brownies yourself, you can enjoy your favorite treat with a bonus any time you like.
Learning how to make pot brownies is just the first step. You'll also need to learn how to calculate the dose. Everyone has heard the horror stories about incorrect dosages. The THC in edible weed is processed differently by your body, making it much more potent in the process. An incorrect dosage can be a recipe for an uncomfortable day.
So in this guide, we'll show you step-by-step how to bake your own pot brownies safely and properly and give you a link to learn how to calculate the potency in each serving. And if you're looking for some excellent flower to try in your new recipes, try California's best marijuana subscription box! With Nugg Club, you'll receive $225 worth of dispensary quality cannabis products for just $99! That's 5 to 7 full-sized, name brand products (yes with THC). Want more products? Add unlimited extras to your box from the Nugg Club wholesale market for 40% to 60% off retail prices. Let's get started!
Now, here's the thing. Making edibles is a little more complicated than simply mixing cannabis with some brownie mix. This is because the active cannabinoids in dried marijuana flower are THCA and CBDA, which are the acidic forms of THC and CBD. The subjective effects of THCA/CBDA are completely different from that of their non-acidic form. But because the cannabinoids exist within dried flower in this way, you'll need to heat it up first before it can be used to infuse edibles. This process is referred to as "decarboxylation." Although it adds an hour onto your prep time, skipping this step means you'll be missing out on most of the THC in your brownies and makes it impossible to calculate dosage.
Once all your marijuana is decarboxylated, you'll create something called "cannabutter" or canna oil. This is simply an infusion of cooking oil or butter with cannabis, hence the name. Have you ever had a batch of weed brownies at a party that tasted like green, skunky twigs and seeds? It's not so common these days, now that cannabis has gone main stream. But many stoners who imbibed in edibles before they became legal, and thus sooooo much better, would simply grind up and dump an 8th of raw weed into a batch of brownie mix and cook it all up at 400 some-odd degrees. Not only does this taste awful, it wastes a lot of the potential THC in the batch because it's not properly converted.
Cannabutter is what you'll actually use to make the pot brownies, not the dried marijuana flower, for much more superior result. For a little more detailed help, be sure to check out our guide on making cannaoil.
As we mentioned, when consumed in edible form, THC is processed differently by your body than in other consumption methods. Often, dosages are much more potent than if they were smoked. This means that the most crucial part about making marijuana brownies is accurately gauging the dose.
You might be wondering if an eighth is enough for weed brownies. It just depends on the size of your recipe and the potency of your pot. Keep in mind the strain you use will impact the strength and effects of the edibles you make. So regardless of what dish you plan on making, it's important to find the best strains for edibles.
An eighth of weed weighs roughly 3.5 grams. If the potency of your cannabis is 20% THC, your flowers will have about 200mg THC per gram. So an eighth, or 3.5 grams of 20% cannabis will have about 700mg of THC. Divided up between 10 servings, your brownies would have about 70mg of THC per serving. So you might actually want to start with less than an eighth if you want to be able to enjoy an entire brownie in one sitting.
Luckily, you have tools, such as an edible dosage calculator, at your disposal. Be sure to use one to calculate the individual dosage and serving size before you start mixing your baking supplies and cannabutter. When using the calculator, you may want to adjust the amount of THC or CBD per serving. To do so, you can do one of the following:
Remember to stir, stir, stir, stir, and then stir some more when diluting your edible oils. Otherwise the THC may settle to the bottom, resulting in an uneven distribution per serving.
Do not skip this step. It's a necessary step to ensure your edible experience is a fantastic one. Generally speaking, cannabis users will find that the proper dosage for their edibles may be significantly smaller than what they usually smoke. And if most of their THC went into one side of the pan more than the other, some will be way too strong, and some will have barely any effect at all. Therefore, make sure that oil is good and mixed before adding it to your recipe. Don't count on trying to mix it up into the batter with extra elbow grease instead, because overworked brownie batter tends to fall flat and get gummy.
If you're entirely new to edible marijuana, a 5mg dosage would be a prudent starting place if you're wondering how much THC per serving you should be shooting for. If you have some more experience or are more comfortable with cannabis, you could start with 10mg. But, as always, it's best to go low and slow when first trying edibles. We've included a pot brownies recipe below meant to act as a starting point. Once you've become more accustomed to making and eating pot brownies, feel free to experiment and alter the recipe!
Ultimately, there's an element of personal taste involved in the perfect weed brownie recipe; much in the same way that traditional brownies are about personal preference. Once you have your first batch under your belt with this easy brownie recipe, you can tweak it to your taste. You can even try adding extra ingredients like chocolate chips or nuts. There's no reason that the brownies you make can't taste delicious just because you're baking with cannabutter.
You'll need the following ingredients to make pot brownies:
* For a gluten-free pot brownie recipe, you can substitute regular flower with a rice flour blend or a commercial substitute like King Arthur Gluten Free Flower.
You will also need the following kitchen supplies:
How long do pot brownies take to set in? 30 minutes to 2 hours with some outlying variations even up to six hours or more depending on personal physiology, medications, and what was eaten with the brownies. This can be quite a surprise for those that are used to smoking, vaping, or dabbing. Inhalation consumption methods are known to allow THC to rapidly enter your system. Usually, you'll feel the effects within minutes or seconds. Marijuana brownies, on the other hand, are a whole different story. As such, people (especially those new to edibles) will become impatient and eat another brownie, thinking their dosage was too low. Yet, the edibles will inevitably kick in and leave these impatient, and now very heavily-dosed consumers feeling extremely high and uncomfortable.
Long story short, slow and steady is the name of the game when it comes to edible marijuana. It will usually take at least 30 minutes to feel the effects of a pot brownie, with a peak at about 90 minutes, but it can also take up to 2 hours with a peak at 4 or 5 hours or longer depending on the dose. Patience is a virtue when eating edibles of any kind. Remember, you can always take more, but you can never take less!
Patience is also a virtue when learning new recipes. It doesn't always work out the first time. You might want to try a dry run on this or any other marijuana edible recipe before using your beloved stash of homemade canna butter. You can even order some yummy edibles with your Nugg Club Box to try out while you experiment with your pot brownie recipes. Check out our run down of the 7 highest rated cannabis products on the Nugg Club Add On Menu to make your kitchen time even more fun!
