You’ve probably heard the horror stories. Someone eats a brownie, waits twenty minutes, feels nothing, eats three more, and then spends the next six hours vibrating into another dimension. It’s a classic mistake. Making edibles isn't just about dumping a bag of weed into some Betty Crocker mix and hoping for the best. If you do that, you’re basically wasting expensive flower and ending up with brownies that taste like a lawnmower bag.
Honestly, the secret to learning how to make pot brownies that actually work—and taste good—starts in the oven, not the mixing bowl. You have to understand the chemistry. Raw cannabis won't get you high. If you eat a handful of raw buds, you might get a stomach ache, but you won't feel any psychoactive effects. That’s because the THC is currently THCA. It needs heat to drop that extra carboxyl group. This is a process called decarboxylation.
Skip it? You’re just making very expensive, slightly herbal-tasting fiber snacks.
The Decarb Phase: Don't Skip This Step
Most people mess up right here. They think the heat from baking the brownies is enough to activate the THC. It isn't. The internal temperature of a brownie rarely gets high enough for long enough to fully decarboxylate the cannabis. You need a dedicated "toast" in the oven first.
Preheat your oven to about 240°F (115°C). While that’s warming up, break your flower into small pieces. Don't grind it into a fine powder yet—that makes it impossible to strain later and leaves a heavy "green" flavor that most people find pretty gross. Think coarse salt consistency. Spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake it for about 30 to 45 minutes. Your kitchen is going to smell. A lot. If you’re trying to be discreet, maybe rethink this whole project or at least buy a very strong candle.
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Once it’s a light toasted brown color, it's ready. It should look dry and crumbly. This is now "active" material. You could technically eat it now, but please don't. It's gritty.
Infusing the Fat (The Real Magic)
Cannabinoids are fat-soluble. They need a carrier to get into your system effectively. Most traditional recipes for how to make pot brownies use butter, but coconut oil is actually a better choice for some. Why? Coconut oil has a higher concentration of saturated fats, which gives the cannabinoids more "hooks" to latch onto. Plus, it stays shelf-stable longer.
But let's stick to butter for that classic fudgy taste.
You’ll want a 1:1 ratio—one cup of butter to about an eighth to a quarter ounce of cannabis, depending on your tolerance. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a splash of water. The water is a "thermal buffer." It keeps the butter from burning and helps pull out some of the chlorophyll, which makes the final product taste less like a swamp.
Add your decarbed weed. Keep the heat low. Very low. You’re looking for a bare simmer, around 160°F to 200°F. If it starts boiling aggressively, you’re destroying the good stuff. Let it hang out for 2 to 3 hours. Stir it every now and then. Your goal is a slow, steady infusion.
Straining and Cleaning Up
When the time is up, grab a cheesecloth. Line a glass bowl with it and pour the mixture through. Don't squeeze the cheesecloth too hard. I know it's tempting to get every last drop, but squeezing forces out more bitter plant matter and chlorophyll. Let gravity do the heavy lifting.
Once it's strained, put the bowl in the fridge. The butter will solidify on top, and the dirty water will stay at the bottom. Lift the butter puck out, toss the water, and you have "cannabutter." This is your golden ticket.
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Mixing the Brownies
Now for the easy part. Or the part where you can cheat. Honestly, using a high-quality boxed mix is usually better than making them from scratch because those mixes are engineered to be moist and mask off-flavors. Brands like Ghirardelli are a favorite in the community because the high cocoa content does a great job of covering up the earthy notes of the infusion.
If you're going the scratch route, use extra vanilla extract. Maybe some espresso powder. These ingredients act as "flavor bridges" that make the herbal notes of the how to make pot brownies process feel intentional rather than like an accident.
- Melt your cannabutter (don't microwave it on high, do it gently).
- Mix in your sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
- Fold in your dry ingredients: cocoa powder, flour, salt.
- Add chocolate chips. Seriously. The extra fat and sugar in the chips help with the delivery and the taste.
Bake according to your recipe, usually around 325°F. You want to avoid high temperatures (over 350°F) once the butter is in the batter to ensure you aren't vaporizing the potency right out of the pan.
Dosing: The Math Most People Ignore
This is where things get scientific, and frankly, a bit risky if you guess. Let’s say you used 7 grams (an eighth) of flower with 20% THC.
That’s 7,000mg of flower weight. At 20% potency, you have 1,400mg of THC. However, you lose about 10-15% during decarboxylation and another 15-20% during the infusion process. You’re likely left with around 1,000mg of active THC in that entire cup of butter.
If your brownie recipe uses that whole cup and you cut the pan into 20 squares, each square is 50mg.
Wait. 50mg is a lot for a beginner. A standard "recreational dose" in many legal states is 5mg or 10mg. If you serve a 50mg brownie to someone who doesn't partake often, they’re going to have a very bad time. Always tell people exactly what is in them. If you want a milder batch, use half cannabutter and half regular unsalted butter.
Storage and Safety
Brownies stay fresh for about 3-4 days on the counter, but cannabutter can go rancid faster than regular butter because of the organic particles left behind. Keep them in the fridge for up to a week, or better yet, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze them. They freeze beautifully.
Label them. I cannot stress this enough. Use a big red marker. "ADULT ONLY." You don't want your roommate or your aunt grabbing one for a midnight snack thinking it's just a normal dessert.
Actionable Next Steps for a Better Batch
If you want to move beyond the basics of how to make pot brownies, focus on these three things for your next run:
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- Buy a Digital Thermometer: Stop guessing the temperature of your butter. A $15 infrared or probe thermometer ensures you stay in the 160°F-200°F sweet spot, preserving terpenes and potency.
- Sunflower Lecithin: Add a tablespoon of liquid sunflower lecithin to your butter while it's infusing. It’s an emulsifier that helps your body absorb the THC more efficiently, often making the effects kick in a bit faster and feel stronger.
- The "Low and Slow" Test: Before baking a full batch, take a half-teaspoon of your finished butter and eat it with a cracker. Wait two hours. This is the only way to gauge potency before you commit to a whole pan.
Making edibles is a craft. It takes practice to get the flavor profile right and the dosing consistent. Start low, go slow, and always respect the process. You can't undo a dose once it's eaten, so patience is your best friend in the kitchen.