How To Make Edibles At Home
If it’s legal to purchase or grow marijuana in your state, you may be wondering how to make edibles at home. Or how to make infused marijuana or CBD for your restaurant or skincare and beauty products. While you can mix dried marijuana or hemp leaves, stems, and flowers in your food—to ensure even distribution and consistency, most use infused butter or oil. You can purchase your infused cooking butters and oils, but you can make your own too.
Why weed must be dried first?
In their raw state, the cannabinoids in marijuana and hemp are not active. You could eat or smoke raw marijuana and you would not get high or experience any medicinal benefits. The same is true for hemp. If it is raw, you won’t experience any wellness benefits.
To activate THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids—marijuana and hemp must be dried or cured. This article details how to dry or cure buds, leaves, and stems at home.
If the drying process is more than you are up for, you can purchase dried buds, leaves, and stems to make your own infused products.
Is making your own edibles worth it?
There are a variety of benefits to making your own edibles. While there is a growing range of premade options to choose from, your options are limited. With your own butter, oil, or powder, you can cook, bake, roast, candy, and infuse any food or beverage you desire.
You can make infused:
- Sugar
- Honey
- Coffee
- Cocktails
- Non-alcoholic beverages
- Gummies
- Candies
- Baked goods
- Meals
- Massage oils
- Topical creams
- Skincare products
- Bath and beauty products
- And more!
It is cost-effective to make your own, but for those who love to cook and bake—it is something they truly enjoy. Make your infused products for yourself, give as gifts, or (if legal) sell your products in your existing restaurant or business. Once you get started, you may be inspired to launch a business with the delicious products you make.
What is the easiest way to make edibles at home?
The fastest and easiest way to make edibles at home is with an infused oil, butter, or powder. Oil and butter are your most versatile option. Powder is ideal for mixing into beverages without disrupting the flavor profile as much as with straight oil. However, powder isn’t ground up leaves, flowers, and stems. It’s the process of mixing an infused oil with lecithin. This is an emulsifier that binds the oil to the powder.
You can purchase an infused product, or you can make your own. Making your own allows for a wider range of oils and infused based products. Most infused oils are olive oil or coconut oil. When you make edibles, you can use almost any oil you want. However, peanut oil, canola oil, and vegetable oils are not ideal for infusions.
The most popular base oils include:
- Olive oil
- Grapeseed oil
- Avocado oil
- Almond oil
- Sunflower oil
- Unsalted butter
- Salted butter
You can even add in other edible herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, and more. Or add essential oils and edible flowers such as lavender for DIY tinctures and topical skincare and beauty products.
Once you make or purchase your oil, butter, or powder—all you need is an edibles cookbook or online recipe. Or you can cook with and add your oil, butter, or powder to your favorite recipes.
What machine do I need to make edibles?
You can infuse your own oil with a slow cooker or crockpot and a double boiler. However, the process is time-consuming—taking a minimum of 13 hours for a well-infused product. This is more time than most of us have to invest. Not to mention the burn risk of transferring hot oil from the crockpot to the double boiler and splatter burns while it heats. For this reason, many restaurants, home chefs, and homemade skincare and beauty product enthusiasts use the MagicalButter machine instead.
The MagicalButter looks a bit like a miniature electric teapot. Like an electric teapot, it heats the liquid you are infusing. Unlike an electric teapot, it has a small blade similar to that of an immersion blender and it’s completely enclosed.
All you must do is set the temperature and timer. Most infusions take 1 to 2 hours to make. Most infusions need to be strained once complete.
Enjoy a perfect infusion every time, as your new appliance:
- Grinds
- Heats
- Stirs
- Steeps
The only other appliances you will need are those required to mix, bake, cook, or speed up the food prep process.
Is a cannabutter machine worth it?
Yes! Not only does a cannabutter machine save you money, but it is a safe, easy, and consistent way to make infused products.
You can also infuse:
- Oil
- Butter
- Honey
- Vinegar
- Simple syrup
- Milk
- Vegetable glycerin
- Sugar
- Monk fruit sweetener
- Concentrates
- Non-cannabis oils, honey, and butter
Once infused you can make your own edibles, tinctures, or topical products.
How long does cannabis oil and butter last?
Some infused products have a short shelf life. Thankfully, with a cannabutter machine, you can quickly and easily make small batches as needed.
Cannabis butter lasts for 3 weeks in the fridge and up to 6 months in the freezer, 3 weeks once defrosted. It must be stored in an airtight container. If you want spreadable butter, only set out the amount you need at room temperature. To create convenient servings, pour your butter into an ice cube tray with a lid and keep it in the freezer. Then pop out one portion at a time as needed. For easy baking, pour them into a silicone butter mold before placing them in an airtight container. Or use butter molds to create decorative designs.
Cannabis oils, honey, vinegar, and powder have a much longer shelf life of between 12 and 18 months. Their potency will gradually reduce over time, so portion them into an airtight container. Store them in the fridge to keep them fresh. If you keep them at room temperature, keep them out of direct sunlight. If the oil begins to smell rancid, discard it immediately.
Last but not least, be sure to clearly label your cannabis products so that you don’t confuse them for non-infused products.
How to store cannabis infusions?
All cannabis products should be stored in an airtight container. Even vinegar, which typically has an open top. A glass container is ideal, preferably dark to minimize light. Potency fades faster in sunlight, heat, and humidity so keep your home or kitchen temperature controlled—or store your infused products in the fridge.
Since bathrooms are steamy, consider keeping infused skincare and beauty products near the bathroom but not in it. Or keep a small beauty product fridge in your bathroom.
How to bake with cannabis butter?
The exciting thing about cannabis butter, is that you just swap out standard butter for cannabis butter.
For example, if your recipe calls for two sticks of regular butter, use two sticks of infused butter.
If a recipe calls for more than a few tablespoons of oil, you may want to use half infused and half non-infused oil—but this varies depending on how many servings you are making. If it’s a baked good, go ahead and use all infused oil. If it’s a meal, consider using some infused oil and some non-infused oil.
How long do homemade edibles keep you high?
While smoking marijuana will get you high faster, edible products last longer. You can feel the effects of vaping or smoking within 10 minutes, and your high is likely to last for 1 to 3 hours.
With edibles, it will take closer to an hour to kick in, but your high will last for 6 to 8 hours. This makes edibles ideal for those who are prescribed marijuana for medicinal purposes. To speed things up, you can take it sublingually—by placing the oil under your tongue for 10 to 30 seconds.
Hemp products also last longer when ingested instead of vaped.
Do edibles show up in drug tests?
Yes. If the product is marijuana-derived, there is a high risk that it will show up on a drug test. Even hemp products with 0.3% THC or less may show up on a drug test. For this reason, most who take hemp select CBD brands that process their products to ensure 0.0% THC. Even then, there are no guarantees—as not all CBD brands are transparent about their processing.
Holmes Organics is fully transparent about our 0.0% THC hemp-derived CBD products and we provide access to the third-party lab results for every batch.
With the new generation of hemp-derived THC products, you must be mindful of the THC content of your product to ensure you are taking it responsibly. While hemp-derived CBD won’t get you high, hemp-derived THC will.
Looking for a ready-made edible?
It’s always great to have options, so consider investing in a MagicalButter machine to create your own infusions. Our Delta-9 THC gummies are ideal when you run out of edibles, or you aren’t in the mood to make edibles.