By Rafi at iBakeDenver

It's such a rewarding feat to create your own food products from cannabis, knowing that all of the ingredients are healthy, organic, and full of goodness. Homemade no bake edibles with cannabutter are such treats that involve paying attention to flavor, consistency, and patience. Oftentimes, as a beginner making your own weed butter, it helps to elicit advice from the online professionals, as they've been in the cooking trenches of these edibles for longer than you can imagine.

What is CannaButter?

To be clear, cannabutter is a combination of cannabis and butter and is commonly used in baked goods such as brownies or cookies. These cannabis edibles contain cannabinoids--THC and CBD--which allow you to feel a little of the psychoactive effects from the THC and gain the wellness benefits from the CBD. It's sort of like the best of both worlds.

Prior to making cannabutter, understand what effects you are trying to achieve with creating no-bake edibles. Since cannabis offers numerous health benefits and is becoming more accepted as a natural treatment for aches and pains, the popular choice of cannabutter is the next step as a smoke-free option for making edible cannabis products. This marijuana butter is versatile, improves the quality of your sleep, and manages nausea, pain, and vomiting.

How Do You Make CannaButter?

If you're searching for a cannabis recipe to properly dose it for your weed edibles, look no further than cannabutter. As the integral ingredient for all homemade marijuana edibles, the secret lies in how easy it is to make and to understand how much you are ingesting once the result of the product is complete. Take your time with the entire process; the last thing you need is to make any mistakes and absorb too much cannabis into your system when you hadn't planned on it.

Whipping up your own natural cannabutter relies on nine necessities:

1. 7 grams of cannabis flower
2. 1 cup of raw, organic butter
3. 1 cup of filtered spring water
4. A cannabis grinder - basically, an herb grinder with two halves
5. One large nonstick baking sheet
6. One medium stovetop pot
7. A thermometer to ensure proper cooking temperature
8. A swath of cheesecloth large enough to hold the final product
9. An airtight glass jar to preserve the cannabutter when it's ready

Then follow these simple steps:

Step One: Decarbing Your Cannabis Flowers

• First, grind your cannabis flower.
• Heat your oven to 230 to 245 degrees Fahrenheit
• Spread your ground cannabis on the nonstick baking sheet
• Bake for 30 minutes
• Try not to overbake, as you'll end up baking the cannabinoids right out of the final product.
• After the above has been completed--commonly referred to as ‘decarbing your weed’ --you're ready for the next step of steeping it all on the stovetop. Now, this is the most crucial part, so you don't want to miss a step and make a mistake, something we'll cover in a bit.

Step Two: Cooking Your Creation

• Melt the cup of water and cup of butter together
• Keep your burner on the lowest stovetop heat
• Add your decarbed weed and mix into the heated pot and cover with a lid
• Let simmer on low for a minimum of three hours

Step Three: Straining Your Butter (The finale!)

• Place one or two layers of cheesecloth over a jar and secure them with a rubber band wrapped around the mouth of the jar.
• Slowly pour the butter through the cheesecloth and into the jar
• Let it cool for 30 minutes at room temperature
• After it's cooled and solidified, pour the excess water out that has risen to the top of the jar.

Your cannabutter is now ready to be the primary ingredient in your no-bake edibles. Savor every bite of your creation and prepare yourself to enjoy the wellness benefits of cannabis.

What are the Top 3 Mistakes, and How Can You Avoid Them?

When cooking with cannabis--and despite cannabutter being the easiest to make for all beginners entering into the no-bake edible sphere--there are some mistakes that can be made along the way. We'll show you what they are and how to avoid them. 
As mentioned above in Step One, it's crucial to decarb your cannabis. Failure to do so will result in an awful tasting final product. You can't cook raw weed. Therefore decarbing is an essential step to take before you begin making your cannabutter. 

Secondly, over-grinding your cannabis to the point where the THC is less than what you originally had dosed out. Too much grinding and the taste becomes bitter, and your butter isn't a quality cannabutter, with all the goodness that cannabis provides.

And the third and final mistake, infusing the cannabutter without enough water, or any at all. While your final product may seem alright, it's a good idea to add the water as this keeps the temperature low and helps the butter from burning. There's nothing more terrible tasting than burnt cannabutter.

So you see, the key to a perfect cannabutter recipe for your brownies, cookies, or other no-bake edibles involves consistency. It takes a great deal of practice when you first start out and a few hiccups along the way as well, but don't get discouraged. Oftentimes, your initial batch of cannabutter may be either too potent or not potent enough, and once you taste it and feel the effects, you can alter the doses of cannabis on your next attempted go round.

In Conclusion

There's no denying that cannabutter, or marijuana butter, is the primary ingredient in making baked goods and edible candies. The results of your efforts will do wonders for your health in terms of inadequate sleep or relieving pain associated with cancer-related symptoms. To avoid overconsuming your cannabutter, simply follow the above recipe, change the dosage if needed to arrive at the proper outcome, be okay with making some mistakes along the way, and enjoy the fruits of your labor!