Cannabutter is one of the simplest and most effective ways to extract THC/CBD from grow trimmings. Save all leaves that have visible trichomes, for most plants this will just be the sugar leaves you trim directly from the buds. If the fan leaves are yellow/brown before drying throw them out or they will ruin the taste of your butter.

Cannabis Edibles Dosage Calculator

Edibles Dosing:
1 – 5 mg Novice User
10 mg Average dose
20 – 40 mg High Dose
50+ mg High Tolerance user

Dry out your cannabis

You -unfortunately- cannot skip this step even though you are going to be re-hydrating the cannabis in the butter/water mixture. To properly decarboxylate your cannabis it will need to be dry. It should be dry enough that if you rub it between your fingers it flakes but not so dry it turns to sand.

Decarboxylation

Decarboxylation slightly modifies the THC molecule so that it becomes bioactive when ingested. This is why eating raw cannabis has little to no effect. Decarboxylation is best done in the oven.

Preheat your oven to 250F. If you have a probe thermometer it will come in handy. Check the internal temperature of your cannabis every 5 minutes. Once it reaches 230F start a 30-minute timer. This preheating is an often forgotten step in cannabutter guides, especially when working with large amounts of trim. It can take up to 20-30 minutes to bring your cannabis up to temperature, meaning the total time spent in the oven will be 40-60 minutes.

Infusion

In a large pot or slow cooker mix 1 lb of butter per 28g trim. Add enough water to submerge all of the cannabis. Slow cookers work well as they require less monitoring and are less likely to burn the butter. Infusion should last 2-3 hours at a low simmer. The water will pull out chlorophyll and any other water-soluble compounds that may negatively impact the taste of your butter. If using high-quality flower you may want to omit the use of water to preserve terpenes – but who makes cannabutter from high-quality flower anyways.

Straining

After infusion, the vast majority of the THC/CBD will be dissolved into the butter. You could do a second pull but the extra 5-10% yield is usually not worth the extra chlorophyll in your butter. Most guides recommend using cheesecloth to strain your cannabis which is a rather antiquated method of straining. A fine mesh steel strainer absorbs less butter and is easier to clean.

Strain the mixture into a pyrex or ceramic dish. Push down on the plant matter with the back end of a spoon to strain out all the butter. The trim can now be thrown out or composted.

Separation

After straining, put the butter/water mixture into the fridge to allow the butter to solidify into a hard layer(12-24 hours). Cut a small hole in the butter to allow the dirty water to drain off. Strain the water to catch small bits of butter floating in the solution.

Use a paper towel to dry off any remaining water on the underside of the butter. This is very important as excessive moisture can lead to bacteria growth on your butter.

Cannabutter Dosing

To figure out how strong your butter is, take a digital scale and weigh out 1.0 gram of cannabutter. Put this on a two-bite brownie and take note of the effects. Try the calculator above to get a rough estimate of your potency. The calculator finds the dosage per 7 grams of butter because that is the average amount of butter in a chocolate chip cookie.

Storage

Butter can keep in the fridge for 1-4 months provided it is free of any moisture on the surface. To store butter for longer periods it should be vacuum-sealed and frozen.

Chocolate Chip Weed Cookie Recipe

• 115g Cannabutter (diluted if necessary)**
• 1 egg
• 100g White Sugar
• 80g Brown Sugar
• 2g Salt
• 5g Vanilla Extract
• 185g Flour
• 2g Baking Soda
• 225g chocolate chips

Cream together butter, egg, sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Once thoroughly mixed add flour and baking soda. Mix just enough to combine. Add 225g chocolate chips. Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours or your cookies will come out of the oven flat.

Bake for 9-10 min @ 350F

I like to make large batches of cookies at a time. I will usually scale this recipe up 4x. I roll the cookie dough into tubes that can be cut into cookies and baked fresh anytime. This cookie dough will keep for 3 weeks in the fridge or indefinitely in the freezer.

**If you have sampled your butter and found that 7g of cannabutter is too strong of a dose you will want to dilute this recipe. This recipe produces approx 16 cookies at around 7g butter per cookie. I make my butter very concentrates where 1g of butter has 10-20mg THC. Therefore, I typically mix 15g of cannabutter with 100g of regular butter. Make sure you mix the butter together well to get uniform dosing!