How to Make Edibles with CBD: The Best Cannabutter Recipe

Cannabis-infused butter is one of the most well-known ways to bake with cannabis flower and create a homemade edible. It's frequently called cannabutter (or canna butter if you like spaces), cannabis butter, marijuana butter (if it's made specifically marijuana), CBD butter, pot butter, or weed butter. Chances are, every story about “pot brownies'' and cannabis edibles from the 60s and 70s started with a heavily infused slab of cannabis butter. This cannabutter recipe will guide you through each step you need for making cannabutter and to be a part of the rich weed butter tradition.

Why This Is the Best Cannabutter Recipe

Before we dive into how to make cannabutter, we’d like to take a moment to talk about how and why this is the best cannabis infused butter recipe and how it differs from our guides on infusing coconut oil and MCT oil with cannabis. Regular butter can’t really handle the temperatures that coconut oil and MCT oil can, so this time around, we’re going to recommend decarboxylating your CBD flower in the oven first and then infusing it into the butter. To be clear, you do not have to make a decarboxylated CBD flower! You can put the cannabis flower directly into the clarified butter, but if you decide to go that route, it will take quite a bit longer to decarboxylate effectively and you’ll run the risk of making a batch of CBD butter that doesn’t taste very good.

Ok, let’s dive in!

Canabutter Recipe Ingredients:

• 14g of flower (use full hemp (CBD) flower, small buds, or shake)
• 1 cup of butter (unsalted butter or salted butter)

Homemade Cannabutter Recipe Materials Needed:

• Cheesecloth
• Grinder (preferably a hand grinder; coffee grinders and blenders grind the material too fine)
• Double-boiler, slow cooker, or simply 1 pot and 1 pan
• Rubberband
• A mason jar or airtight container for storage
• Baking sheet or cookie sheet (if you choose to make decarboxylated cannabis in the oven first)

Directions on How To Make Cannabutter:

Step 1: Decarboxylate the CBD Flower

Preheat your oven to 245˚F. Cover your baking tray with a sheet of parchment paper and spread the CBD flower in an even layer across the tray. Once the oven is heated, place the baking sheet in the oven and set a timer for about 40 minutes. Every 10-15 minutes, slide the tray out and stir the flower a bit to make sure that the buds are evenly heated on each side.

Step 2: Grind the CBD flower

Reminder - you don’t need to grind too much. If it’s too fine, it may filter through the cheesecloth and end up in your cannabutter. Also, you’ll want to wait for it to cool first!

Step 3: Combine the CBD flower and melted butter

Combine the hemp/CBD flower and melt butter in your double boiler, slow cooker, or saucepan.

Step 4: Add Heat

Heat on low for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. Be sure not to let the melted butter burn! Since you’ll be using decarbed cannabis, you do not need to heat it up to the normal decarboxylation temperature of 240˚F. Ideally, you should shoot for about 160˚F.

Pro Tip: use a meat thermometer to measure the temperature.

If you’re using hemp flower that has not been decarboxylated, you’ll want to get the mixture up to 240˚F, albeit slowly, and cook it for 4+ hours.

Step 5: Strain and Store the Homemade Cannabutter

Once the CBD infusion is complete, place your cheesecloth over your jar and fit your rubber band around the mouth of the jar, securing the cheesecloth in place. Pour the mixture through the cheesecloth.

Pro Tip: Do not squeeze the cheesecloth after pouring the mixture through! That will lead to an unnecessary amount of chlorophyll in the oil.

That’s that! You are now taking part in cannabis history... Sort of... Well, whether or not that’s true (we’d like to think it is), you will certainly have a great batch of CBD-infused butter to cook with!

How to Calculate Potency in Your Cannabutter Recipe

Now, let’s talk about how to calculate the potency of your homemade cannabutter. If you purchased your hemp flower from us, you'll have test results handy. If you can't find them, don't stress! You can always visit the product page of the hemp flower you purchased and look at a digital version.

Let's start with a manageable number and say that your flower contains 10% CBDa.

When cannabinoids are decarboxylated, about 87.7% are activated. To be conservative, let's say that 80% are activated in your CBD cannabutter. If the flower contains 10% CBDa, each gram will yield about 80mg of CBD. In this recipe, we used 14 grams, so 14 x 80 = 1120mg.

We hope you enjoyed this CBD cannabutter recipe. If you’re interested in exploring other ways to use hemp flower and CBD products in your food, check out other  CBD recipes to bake with CBD effectively. Find other CBD infusions like CBD MCT oil.

If you have any questions, you can  contact us here.