Salty snack mixes are a great alternative to cloyingly sweet baked cannabis edibles. The body metabolizes THC through the gut differently (and more slowly) versus by inhaling it into the lungs. The liver metabolizes Delta-9 THC into 11-OH-THC, which passes the blood-brain barrier, and enhances the psychoactive effect.
Step 1. Make Butter, Decide on Potency
I make a pound of canna-butter or canna-oil at a time, using this classic technique. A “standard” potency is 1 oz/28g bud per lb/450g butter or oil. Note that there can be a wide difference in the THC content of your starting plant material. Purchasing cannabis from state-regulated shops (where it’s legal for medicinal or recreational purposes) is a good idea. They are required to lab test their products and print them on the label, so you know the exact THC content of the starting material. The potency can vary from the strain, type of material (bud vs. trim), its age, etc. We added a handy calculator to help you estimate the potency of the butter, even if you have to make an educated guess of the THC content of the starting material. Note that in states where cannabis is legal for recreational use, 10mg THC is considered a “standard dose.”
Once you have the butter or oil, use it as you would in any recipe. Store butter or oil in the freezer in an airtight container for maximum shelf life. Shake or trim work as well as bud for making butter or oil, as they still contains a lot of THC. Once you have a batch on hand (I store mine in an airtight mason jar and keep it in the freezer), making snacks is simple.
Step 2. Make snacks
In addition to the potency of the butter/oil, you can also adjust the strength of the finished snacks by adjusting how much butter you use in the recipe.
For the mix, pick a variety of salty, crunchy snacks that have an ‘absorbent’ texture. Pretzels, baked rice crackers, and other snacks which have a “shiny” texture do not absorb the butter as well as snacks with an “open” texture. “Open weave” breakfast cereals like shredded wheat or Chex, rye toasts, cheese puffs, plantain- or banana chips, Goldfish crackers, corn nuts and sesame snacks are all examples of absorbent textured snacks.
It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to find pre-made snacks that don’t contain dreaded vegetable oils (safflower, canola, sunflower, corn) or GMO ingredients. It is relatively easy to build a gluten-free mix based on rice- or corn-based snacks.
Want to make your own snacks? Try our vegan Cannabis sourdough crackers, aka Scooby Snacks!
THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the preparation is ensuring that you evenly coat the mixture with the butter/oil. This can be tricky due to the varying sizes and shapes of the pieces. The best kitchen way to get everything evenly coated is to use a gloved hand. Keep stirring the ingredients under a stream of butter drizzle. Spreading the butter unevenly will give you inconsistent results and varying levels of strength from bite to bite in the final snack.
Cannabis Snack Mix
Ingredients
(Dry ingredients should weigh 16 ounces/450g and yield 8 cups/2 liters); find a balance of lighter and more dense snack ingredients to blend together.
- 2 cups woven grain cereal like Chex
- 2 cups puffed cheese snacks Cheetos or cheese curls
- 2 cups mini rye toasts
- 1 cup dried plantains
- 1 cup sesame snacks or goldfish crackers
Butter Mixture- 5% potency, 1 oz. cannabis per lb butter/oil
- 60 ml (¼ cup) canna-butter or canna-oil for a 10 mg THC per 1 oz serving (1X strength) OR
- 125 ml (½ cup) canna-butter or canna-oil for a 20 mg THC per 1 oz serving (2X strength) 20 mg THC/1 oz serving: 1/2 cup/125ml canna-butter or canna-oil
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 Tablespoon red miso paste
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 225°F/107°C.
- Melt canna-butter or oil over low heat or in the microwave.
- Using a gloved hand, carefully mix and fold dry ingredients together slowly in a large mixing bowl.
- Peel garlic. Using a microplane, grater or garlic press, mince, grate or press cloves and stir into melted butter.
- Stir miso paste into melted butter mixture.
- Whisk it to ensure the cannabinoids are evenly distributed throughout the fat. Slowly drizzle 1/4 of the butter mixture into the mixing bowl in a thin stream. It is important that you coat all the ingredients UNIFORMLY. Use one gloved hand to carefully stir and fold the mixture while pouring the butter with the other hand. Mix thoroughly.
- Repeat the previous step 3 more times, each time incorporating 1/4 of the mixture, until you have poured all of it into the large mixing bowl.
- Spread mixture evenly onto two half-sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 75 minutes. After 30 minutes, rotate the pans and move them to different racks in the oven.
- Remove from oven, let cool, then store in airtight container. To keep long-term (more than a few weeks), store in freezer.
Sources:
- Pioneer Woman’s Chex Party Mix
- Cannabutter in 7 Easy Steps
- How to Make Cannabis Infused Butter
-
Your Brain On Edible Marijuana, youtube.com/asapscience. Accessed Mar. 13, 2018.