An Intro to Homemade Edibles

So, if you’ve tried chocolate, gummy, or drink, and decided that you enjoyed them, you may be asking yourself: what’s next? 

While tempering chocolate can be difficult for a beginner, applying simple baking techniques can take the hassle out of making your edibles. More people have come into our cannabis dispensary in Calgary asking about baking techniques using cannabis, and we’ve heard your requests! 

The Effects of Eating Cannabis Edibles 

Edibles can give you a fun and exciting high with way less of the harm of inhaled consumption methods. Though they can take as long as 2.5 to 3 hours to kick in, the high from an edible can last you 4 to 6 hours (even longer for some, depending on dose and tolerance). 

Many find them more physically intense and relaxing without leaving you a coughing mess or feeling like you need to impress anyone with a massive bong rip. 

When you eat an edible, your body absorbs the cannabinoids through your liver instead of your lungs. When you smoke, you absorb about 25% of the THC, but when you take an edible, you absorb around 70% to even 90% of the THC – that’s a pretty significant jump! 

(Read what to do when you’ve had too much!) 

Your sensitivity may vary depending on how often you take edibles and how often you consume cannabis. Ultimately your experience comes down to how sensitive your body is too different consumption methods, and for some people, edibles legitimately do not work. If you’re one of them, you’re not taking them wrong! It just has to do with the enzymes in your liver.

How To Make Edibles – Courtesy of Our Calgary Dispensary’s Budtenders

Homemade edibles can be a little trickier to dose than the manufactured ones you can purchase at the store, but for some, that is the adventure. Today we’ve decided to give you the option to make something that can be hard to find in a cannabis dispensary…the holy grail of stoner food…the Special Brownie.

In-store, cannabis oils are often made with coconut oil, something you can easily use while cooking or baking various recipes. If you choose to use cannaoil in your recipes, substitute an equal portion of the oil with your preferred brand’s oil and voila! You have something you can use for edibles. You do not need a 1:1 ratio of cannaoil to whatever oil a recipe calls requires.

The only tricky part is ensuring that you have evenly mixed the oils and evenly dispersed them through whatever goodie you have baked. While mixing them is not a foolproof or guaranteed way to get an exact dose in each edible, it is significantly easier to do the math for store-bought oils. 

This is because they have more exact dosing than the estimated doses in homemade cannabutter or cannaoil. Stay tuned for a cannabutter how-to in a later blog, where we’ll break down how to make it and how to calculate the estimated dose.

So for you first timers baking, here’s a simple recipe to follow for a heavy, fudgy brownie using oil. You need to substitute some of your oil with your cannaoil to get a finished product that you enjoy. If you need some advice on which cannaoil to use, our Budtenders will help you!

Dosing these edibles requires you to do a minimal amount of math. First, you must measure the dose you mix into your oil so that you can figure out how much is spread across the entire pan of baked goods. Estimate how many pieces you will cut from your pan and then dose and substitute your cannaoil accordingly. If you use 2ml of cannaoil, remove 2ml from the recipe.

For example, if you cut nine pieces from an 8×8 pan and put 30mg of cannaoil in the recipe, in theory, you will have an edible that is equivalent to 3 to 3.5mg…or a little more than a microdose, which is great if you really want to get a little high without risking freaking out. A 9×13 pan in 12 pieces will give you around a 2.5mg dose, closer to the legal market microdose.

As with all homemade edibles, it is impossible to tell if the cannabis is evenly distributed, so we caution that you consume with care. In an area, you feel safe and comfortable! Go slow with your edibles to avoid a nasty evening.

One of our budtender’s favourite brownie recipes is done in a square 8×8 pan, making nine brownies to share.

Making Your Special Homemade Brownies!

This recipe will call for:

1. 1 cup of oil (subtract however much oil you will be substituting with cannaoil)
2. 1 cup of sugar (ideally fine sugar, like castor, but granulated white is okay too)
3. ¼ cup of lightly packed brown sugar (don’t press it down into a hard brick; just tap it down with your fingers)
4. 1 tsp of vanilla extract
5. 2 whole eggs (If you’re a vegan stoner or have an egg allergy, substitute ½ cup of boiled, peeled, and mashed sweet potato, or ½ cup of non-dairy yogurt for two eggs)
6. 1 egg yolk (this makes it richer and fudgier; sorry vegans, we’re not 100% sure what else to add to help with fudginess for you here…what you are looking for is something that is dense in fat)
7. ¾ cup of all-purpose flour
8. ¾ cup of dark cocoa powder
9. ½ tsp salt

The 10 steps guide to making brownies:

1. Grease your pan—oil or butter is fine—or line it with parchment paper and heat your oven to 350°.
2. Select the dose of cannaoil that you want for the whole pan of brownies. Substitute that volume of cannaoil. So if you have a teaspoon of oil, remove a teaspoon from the 1 cup of oil, and replace it with the cannaoil.
3. Mix your oils together thoroughly! This is important to make sure you get a more even dose. 
4. If you are combining cannaoil with coconut oil to bake with: make sure your eggs are at room temperature so the oil does not seize. This can change the texture of your brownie.
5. Mix the combined oils with your sugar and vanilla, then add in the eggs. Make sure the eggs are fully combined so you have a single texture, which should be smooth and maybe a little granular. It’s okay if your brown sugar has a few small chunks, but break down any large brown sugar chunks 
6. Mix your flour, salt, and cocoa powder together. 
7. Combine your wet and dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix them just until they look smooth and don’t have any bubbles of dry ingredients. This is easier to do with a silicone spatula, so you can smoosh the batter in the bowl to incorporate your dry ingredients. If you over-mix, your brownies will be more cake-like and less dense.
   
8. Pour your batter into the greased pan and spread it evenly, then bake for around 25-30 minutes. Watch the brownies closely at the 25-minute mark and check them for doneness with a toothpick. If they are done, your toothpick will come out clean.
9. When done, remove your brownies from the oven immediately and let them cool for about 10 minutes before serving. We know that they smell wicked good right away, but if you don’t do this you can get a gnarly stomach ache, and nobody wants that.
10. All in all, the process should take you about 40 minutes altogether.

Brownies are a simple and sweet treat to share, and they’re perfect for a cold day where you don’t even want to think about outside, let alone brave it for a toke. These are great if topped with a little coarse salt, busted up candy cane, or even some ice cream. If you want to turbocharge your high, try mixing in some Legend Milk chocolate into the recipe! But ordinary chocolate chips work too…just be careful not to eat too many!

Bud Bar is your trusted Calgary dispensary. We pride ourselves on creating an open and welcoming environment where you are comfortable and safe access recreational cannabis. We set ourselves apart with personalized customer service with our budtenders providing one-on-one sessions so that you can learn about our cannabis products and accessories. We offer a selection of high quality yet affordable products, including flower buds, pre-rolls, oils, capsules, as well as accessories like vaporizers, bongs, and pipes. As your trusted Calgary marijuana dispensary, we can make it easy and safe for you to get recreational cannabis. Visit our marijuana stores in Calgary Northwest today, or place an order online!