Cannabrownies - Recipe & How-To

I prepared this for a forum which supports people with Chron's disease an ulcerative colitis. UC is what led me to use cannabis regularly, and since I've been accepted into the Canadian MMAR program, I've experimented a lot.

This post was written so a complete stranger to cannabis could still bake these brownies. Hopefully you will not feel patronized as you read this because it is likely most of you guys are already familiar with all of this. I'm just too lazy to edit the whole thing just so I can remove information you probably already know.

Many people with IBD are completely unaware of the power of cannabis and many of them are even prejudiced, so I made this tutorial so people would see it's inoffensive and worth trying.

I figured this may be useful for other folks too, and since FC made me discover things like the Underdog and the Solo, if this has a chance to help someone even minimally, it's something.

I hope you enjoy, and if you try the recipe, do let me know if you liked it!

FOREWORD
This is a brownie recipe I’ve done about a dozen times. I tested many recipes before settling on this one. I like it because it’s simple, and it can be adapted to be more cakey or more fudgey/gooey depending on your personal taste. It will beat any store-bought mix, isn’t too expensive, and can be made into really nice brownies with quality Belgian chocolate and finer quality ingredients.

Cooking is both a science and an art in that you mix ingredients, but use your senses to guide the process. Baking is however much more science than art. It is vital that you measure the ingredients exactly, use the right baking pan size, and follow the mixing directions provided also to the letter. Baking is all about the chemistry of ingredients. The order in which they are mixed matters and how they are made to interact with each other will affect the final taste and especially texture. I’m an experienced cook and it took me years to understand you do not approach baking the same way you approach general everyday cooking. If you want consistent results you will need consistency in your method. In fact, you should treat baking cannabrownies as a scientific experiment that requires rigor and attention. If you do, you are guaranteed to find long-lasting, soothing relief of your symptoms with a successful batch. Considering the price of cannabis is significant in most places of the world, I encourage you to get the proper equipment to measure your ingredients (measuring cups, measuring spoons, a scale, and properly sized baking pan to begin with) otherwise the results might be less than impressive and you’ll have wasted precious medicine.

LET’S BAKE
To make any sort of cannabis edibles, there are always two steps:
1-Prepare the cannabis so it is in a cooking-ready state by extracting the cannabinoids out of the plant into a suitable fat
2-Bake your recipe as usual with the fat you prepared previously

If you are going to make cannabis edibles, it may be helpful to have some basic understanding on the chemistry of cannabis and how it interacts with our body.

The medicinal benefits of cannabis come from molecules called cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are produced by structures called trichromes. Trichromes look like tiny, gelatinous, translucid tentacles that grow on the surface of the cannabis flowers near the end of the plant’s grow cycle. A cannabis plant in late flowering stage will appear frosty and scintillate under light. A bit like the vampires in Twilight. *Shrug*

After the plant is harvested, the trichromes dry and form a white/brown powder over the flowers (or buds). It is this powder that contains the bulk (99%) of your medicine. The plant itself consists of fibers and other plant material that are of no benefit to you. This is why vaporization is much superior to combustion, because it removes as much as 80% of the unneeded byproducts you would normally get with combustion.

If you simply grind some flowers and add it to your brownie mix, an important quantity of cannabinoids will never be metabolized and you will lose significant potency.

Cannabinoids are liposoluble. This means they are molecules that can bind with a molecule of fat if they are provided with enough energy to do so. It cannot bind with water, which is why water filtration devices such as bongs or waterpipes are often used by smokers. Water acts as a filter that catches unwanted plant material, “smoothing” the smoke (so you don’t cough). Since the cannabinoids cannot bind to H20, cannabinoids remain in the smoke until it makes contact with your bronchioles in your lungs. Then, the cannabinoids are assimilated into your bloodstream and will eventually bind with your CB1 or CB2 receptors, which are mostly situated in your brain and your gut.

What we’re going to do is cook the cannabis into a fat, in this case butter, for a very long time and at very low temperatures. When we do this, the cannabinoids contained in the powder that is attached to the plant itself will slowly come undone from the plant and bind with the molecules of fat contained in the butter. Think of it as the musical chair of cannabinoids. The idea is that when the music stops (when you turn off the heat), all the cannabinoids should be sitting comfortably on their molecule of fat inside the butter and have left the plant behind.

By extracting the cannabinoids into a fat, you ensure they are in a state ready to be metabolized by your body, which will increase potency to maximum levels.

STEP 1 – PREPARING THE CANNABUTTER

INGREDIENTS
One pound of butter (salted or unsalted)
7g of dried cannabis flower buds

The method I use for extraction is completely dummy proof. You will never ruin your butter or waste herbs if you follow it. It does involve the purchase of a slow cooker (crockpot), and if you don’t have one you will have to, but see it as an investment. You are essentially making your own medicine; you should get the proper tools suited for the job.

1.1 I add 7g of fresh cannabis for every pound of butter I melt. In this particular case, I added 14g since I was making a double recipe. The brownish looking spices is vaporized cannabis. A few weeks worth in this case. Vaporization is efficient at extracting cannabinoids but it is not 100% efficient. By recycling your vaporized herbs, you ensure no cannabinoids will go to waste.

This is vaporized cannabis.

1.2 Start melting the butter on LOW in a saucepan, making sure it never bubbles or rises to high temperatures. If you heat the butter too much you will induce changes in the chemical properties of its makeup and it will affect potency later.

1.3 Grind your herbs using either a blender, food processors, manual grinder or coffee grinder. If you have none of these, then do not grind the flowers and simply add them to the mix as they are later.

If you use a blender, make sure to recuperate all the cannabinoids that have nested on the surface. You can use a spatula, or a little amount of water. If you use water, you can dump it into the crockpot and it will simply evaporate, leaving the cannabinoids behind with the others.

This is the actual medicine. Don't waste it!

1.4 Take out the crockpot. Set it on low. Add a few tablespoons of water so the bottom is covered. This is to prevent any potential burning. Add the melted butter to the crockpot.

1.5 Sprinkle your grinded cannabis in. Mix thoroughly, but gently. Cover, and let the crockpot sit there overnight (8-12 hours). By cooking at low heat, you are not damaging the cannabinoids. By cooking it for a long time, you ensure all the cannabinoids will find their way into the fat, saturating it with the Δ9-THC and CBD we desire.

1.6 In the morning, turn the crockpot off. Let it cool 15 minutes, then use a cheese cloth (best) to filer the butter. You should have a brownish/greenish looking mixture (which for some reason I forgot to photograph).

This is what a cheesecloth looks like. You can use a coffee filter instead, but it will retain some cannabinoids, so you will lose some potency.

1.7 Refrigerate the mixture. The fat will solidify, while the water left behind will accumulate at the bottom. After about two hours, the butter will look green like pictured below. Take a knife and dig yourself a hole in one of the corners of the Tupperware. Pour the water out. You are left with pure cannabutter ready to be used in your recipe. You may freeze it if you have too much. Frozen cannabutter can be preserved this way for months without losing much potency at all.

STEP 2 – BAKING THE BROWNIES

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (not the same as baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you used salted butter, omit the salt)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup cannabutter
1 (12 ounces) bag semisweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs

Optional:
1 (12 ounces) bag semisweet chocolate chips (for gooey version of brownies)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (for taste, if you don’t like nuts omit them)

2.1 Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; set aside. Grease and flour a 13x9-inch baking dish. This is important. You must absolutely use 13x9. If the dish is too small, the mixture will rise, the top will overcook while the middle never will, and the result will be less than desirable. If the pan is too big, the brownies will be dense bricks of textureless chocolately blobs.

2.2 Combine the sugar, water, and cannabutter in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

2.3 Remove from the heat and stir in one bag of chocolate chips and the vanilla extract until the chocolate has melted.

2.4 Let the mixture cool for ten to fifteen minutes, or fill the sink with room temperature water and sink the saucepan’s butt in the water for faster cooling. This is a precautionary measure to ensure you do not cook the eggs you are about to add. If you do not cool the mixture and your eggs start to cook when you add them, it is all over and you have to start again.

2.5 Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl, and beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth. If you are a professional iron chef I’m sure you could whisk this away with your iron arms, but for us mere mortals, we need an electric beater to do this right. I stress you must add the eggs one at a time. Trust the chemistry!

2.6 Fold in the flour mixture until incorporated. If you do not know what folding means, please Google it and watch a video as it is difficult to explain in words. Folding is basically a very gentle mixing action with a spatula. By gently folding your flour in, you are not adding an excessive amount of air to the mixture. If you prefer your brownies more cake-like, then simply beat the flour into the mixture with your beater. The recipe as it is given is the perfect balance between fudge and cake for me, but tastes differ, so feel free to experiment. If you are not an experienced baker, then I advise you to follow the recipe exactly for optimal results.

I usually fold my flour in three parts to make it easier.

*Optional*
2.7 Fold in the remaining bag of chocolate chips along with the walnuts. You do NOT have to fold in an extra bag unless you want an extra “gooey” version of the brownies. Sometimes I add it, sometimes I do not, it depends on what I feel like eating. In this case, I did add it, as well as the walnuts.

2.8 Pour into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges have started to pull away from the sides of the pan, 45 to 55 minutes. Pay close attention to the brownie after 45 minutes. Each oven is different.

2.9 Cool completely before cutting into squares to serve. As it cools the sugars keep interacting with each other, enhancing taste further. Resist the urge to plunge into the dish as soon as it comes out. The cooling process is required to get the proper results. After it has cooled, you can heat it up again, serve it with vanilla icecream, a filet of caramel, a chocolate sauce, a raspeberry coulis, etc. The options are limitless!

This is the extra-gooey version, which I can only eat with a spoon and a cold, tall glass of milk. Be creative in your presentation!

Thank you for a great step-by-step for making the canna butter!

Perhaps not all, but a goodly percentage of people with Crohn's/IBS are very gluten intolerant.

I think I would rethink the "brownie" part of the recipe.

All of the images are broken. Anyway that you can fix them as I would love to save a copy of your recipe

quick question when in the baking process does it smell up the house or in this case apartment you bake in???

I can be wrong but I think that only the process of producing cannabutter is smelly when heating is applied.
The baking of the cake isn't so smelly even if you use plant material (in my experience), so I think using butter should be smell proof.

Yeah, making the butter will stink and unfortunately you won't notice it so much because your nose will get used to it, then someone walks in and says "DAMN, smells like pot in here".

The actual brownies, not much smell. The chocolate, sugar, baking smells mask any pot odor.

ok yes thats what i found out when i was baking yesterday thanks so much!!!