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How To Cook With CBD Flower And Oil

You might have asked yourself the question can you cook with CBD oil? Yes, you can, and it’s pretty simple too!

Cannabinoids such as CBD are fat-soluble, and therefore, as long as they are used in combination with fat, you can cook with CBD and any other cannabinoid compound.

This applies regardless of if you are using cannabis/hemp flower, a concentrate or a shop-bought CBD oil.

The great thing about cooking with CBD oil is that there is no work required to use it as an ingredient. This is because the CBD is already active and suspended in a fat; all you need to do is add it to a recipe!

Just remember, most CBD oils will taste earthy so use oil which contains MCT instead of hemp seed oil for a more neutral taste, useful to recreate CBD oil recipes with!

Although, if you want to infuse your own CBD olive oil with hemp flower that’s also pretty simple given the information in this post, or if you want you can keep it simple by adding a pipette of CBD oil to a cake mixture!

Do remember CBD is not water-soluble usually, so if you place the CBD oil in water, it will float. If you intend on creating some CBD smoothies or shakes then maybe look at using water-soluble CBD (it is more expensive but also thought to be more bioavailable).

Now before we whizz ahead, there are a few rules when cooking with CBD, let’s run through them below:

Decarboxylation

If you are using a product that has gone through minimal processing and is thus considered a raw product, you will need to follow a couple of steps.

If you are using a CBD oil, skip down to the cooking with CBD oil section.

Raw indicates that there’s a part of the plant that didn’t go through the curing and heating (decarboxylation) process; leaving a raw product naturally rich in cannabinoid acids, such as CBDA which are the starting point for all cannabinoids. While these type of acids are said to have their own benefits, for simplicity, we are going to stick to CBD in this post.

Products such as hemp (CBD) flowers or raw CBD oil will need ‘decarbing’, meaning activation. If you are using a CBD oil or paste which doesn’t mention it is raw, then it has (highly likely) already gone through the activation process.

But hold on a minute, what does all this mean? I just want to cook with CBD!…We hear you, just hang on for a short chemistry lesson and all will be revealed!

Cannabinoids like CBD start as acids in the hemp plant. To ‘activate’ these acids into a compound like CBD or THC, they must be heated or exposed to ultraviolet light, beginning a chemical reaction, turning precursor acids into fully-fledged cannabinoids ready for use.

If the product is raw, there are several ways to activate the CBD and other cannabinoid acids in the raw hemp flower.

Just remember, if you are using a raw hemp product and will use this in food when decarbed, it’s going to taste hempy (earthy)!

We have put together some tips for cooking and baking below to follow:

Baked Hemp Flowers

We are assuming the use of 25g (2500mg CBD given 10% CBD potency) CBD flowers for the instructions below:

1) Grind your hemp flowers into small pieces but not into a powder. You might assume the finer ground the flowers are, the better due to a larger surface area, but this might lead to a stronger earthy taste in your end product.

2) Preheat your oven to 105C / 220F and add the ground flower into a baking sheet covered baking tray loosely scattered. Cook for 25 minutes (if your flower is moist it might take a little longer). You will know it’s done as the flower will have turned light brown and dry but not burnt.

3) Use the now decarbed flower for cooking with as you wish, but note cannabinoids have an extremely low level of bioavailability if they are not combined with a form of fat before ingestion. This method is also popular to make your own CBD oils by using a diluent such as olive oil.

To work out how much CBD you have, use this calculator for edible dosage. But, if you prefer doing it manually, review the potency of your hemp flower and follow the simple calculation below (note if you use more or less flower, you can replace the “25” with any amount).

Total CBD: (25/100)*hemp_flower_potency = CBD in grams. Divide this by 1000 to figure out the total CBD in mg in the 25g of hemp flower.

Divide the total CBD by the number of people eating your infused dish, and you have the milligram per serving!

Moving on we have some tips for cooking with CBD to gain a full spectrum of benefits from hemp flower:

How to Make CBD Coconut Oil

1) Follow step 1 from the oven method.

2) Add the ground flower into a fat, we will use coconut oil for example, and let it simmer under a low heat on the hob for a couple of hours. If you are using a raw oil or paste, add this to the fat instead of the flower.

3) Filter the coconut oil using a cheesecloth, and this will help ensure your substance has a soft texture when liquidised.

4) Use the coconut oil for cooking with in any way you like!

CBD Cannabis Butter

If you are not a fan of coconut oil, you might prefer making cannabis butter aka cannabutter using CBD flower.

Similar to creating a cannabis coconut oil, you need to infuse the hemp flower into the fat (butter) to activate the CBD into something you can consume to feel the full benefits.

First, you need to decarb your buds ready to use. Which you can do one of two ways:

  1. Follow steps 1 and 2 in our toasted CBD flower instructions and add to melted butter.
  2. Grind your hemp buds and activate them directly in the fat by simmering a block of butter with your ground flowers for 15 minutes.

Either way, once the hemp flower is activated, it’s just a matter of reconstituting the butter into a block, which you can use at your leisure with a knife to add to toast, recipes and so on to making cooking with CBD effortless.

Next, we move onto a few recipes, making it easy for you to take these tips for your own CBD edibles!

Cooking with CBD Oil Recipes

If you have a bottle of any (non-raw) CBD oil, you can go ahead and add sprays/drops directly into a recipe.

Add drops of oil to any food you like as it is already in fat and decarbed.

A couple of our favourite recipes for learning how to cook with CBD oil which we love are given below for you to try out:

Raw vegan CBD brownies

You will need the following ingredients to make 10 CBD brownies:

  • 24 Medjool dates (pitted)
  • 1 cup unsalted almonds + extra for decoration 
  • 1 cup unsalted almond butter (the good stuff!)
  • 1 cup raw cacao powder
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 pipettes 1500mg CBD oil (300mg CBD – 30mg per brownie)

Instructions:

  1. Place a layer of greaseproof paper on a 16″ square baking pan or 2 x 8″ pans.
  2. Place dates and almond butter to a food processor and pulse the switch until the mixture is cookie dough-like (sticking to the sides).
  3. Put the almonds in and again pulse the food processor until fully blended. The mixture should naturally stick together and remain intact if you created a ball from it.
  4. Place the remaining ingredients in the food processor and blend. You may need to use a splash of water if the consistency is a little too thick.
  5. Pour the mixture onto the greaseproof paper and stick the baking tray in the freezer to set (around 20-25 mins).
  6. Place almonds ontop of the brownie (optional), we recommend 5 on each slice!
  7. Remove from the freezer and cut into 10 pieces!

Raw vegan CBD energy balls

This one is even simpler to make than the last!

  • 12 Medjool dates (pitted)
  • 75g pecans
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 1/2 tbsp almond butter
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 2 pipettes 1500mg CBD oil (300mg CBD – 25mg per brownie)

This recipe makes 12 large balls

Instructions:

  1. Crush the pecans via pulsing them in a food processor until they are a fine powder
  2. Place the remaining ingredients in the food processor and pulsate until combined
  3. Scoop out a heaped teaspoon and create a ball.
  4. Repeat until done (around 12 x)
  5. Store them in the fridge and try not to eat them all at once!

Extra tip: We love peanut butter and enjoy combining it with a ball as a dip – tasty but moreish!

As you can probably see, cooking with CBD oil is super duper easy. Enjoy!