Think Outside the Box: Brownies from Scratch

Well, I thought bringing a good, simple brownie recipe to this site would be a good idea. On this site, as well as in real life, I hear about a lot of people doing positively blasphemous things with their cannabutter. I have found over the course of my career of creating cannabis confections that it is absolutely worth it to go the extra mile. I am posting this with the following assumptions:

1) Cannabutter should be considered a precious commodity.

2) If cannabutter is precious, it should be treated as such.

2) It is fucking crazy to put $100 worth of cannabutter into a $2 Betty Crocker box.


So, let's get started. The most important thing to have on hand is some high-potency cannabutter. I won't go too far into details here; as there are a hundred butter FAQs around. I use only high-fat (read: expensive) butter in my preparations; but Land O Lakes or a similar (unsalted!!!) butter will work well. I do the butter and water method in a crockpot for about 8 hours. It looks like this:



Then, I strain through a strainer. I have used cheesecloth many times in the past; but, a simple ($7) strainer seems to work very well for me. I pour additional hot water through the strainer to get all of the last bits out. I believe this is much more effective than trying to squeeze cheesecloth to death.



Also, after I chill it and separate it from the water, I like to melt it again and throw it into an ice bath. I then stir it vigorously until it cools and becomes solid from the cold ice on the outside. This is a tedious additional step, but I believe it makes a more texturally consistent butter. This is only an issue if you are making more than one recipe worth of butter.



The butter then looks like this:



And now, the recipe. The recipe I used was from the Scharffen Berger website. Scharffen Berger is a little chocolate company in Northern California who makes really beautiful baking chocolate. It is sold in high-end grocery stores, cooking stores, and any big chocolate store. I bought mine at a big chocolate store when I made this run:



Oh, and I don't live anywhere near NorCal. This isn't some local company for me. Ghirardelli also works in a pinch. Make sure you get chocolate labeled 70% cocoa for this recipe.

• 6 ounces Scharffen Berger 70% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 325 F.
Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over simmering water.
Stir sugar into chocolate until blended. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and nuts. Spread into a buttered 13" x 9" baking pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes up with crumbs (not batter). Cool in pan.



So, there is the recipe. I just wanted to show you guys how easy it is, and swear to you that you will be rewarded for doing just a little more work. So here we go.

First, we make a double boiler.







Then, we throw in some chocolate and butter. I use a wire whisk to slosh the mixture around. It melts very quickly. Whisk until smooth. Then add sugar.




Add your eggs one at a time. Whisk well between them. With warm mixtures like this one, I am always afraid of cooking the eggs. This is something that has happened to be when making flourless cakes. It sucks. Don't fuck around with whisking. Add the vanilla and mix well after you finish incorporating the eggs.



Now, I want to emphasize the importance of sifting flour. You can get away with not doing it without disastrous results, but the rewards are everywhere. It makes for more even distribution, and it gives you the proper measurements. Measuring flour (and any other ingredient) by weight is the most accurate way, but I chose to use volume measure to make this all more accessible to any kitchen. I do realize that many of you do have scales, though. Most recipes provide measurements for flour assuming that it is sifted. I use the $7 strainer that I used for the cannabutter. It is clean and dry, of course.




I put one cup into the sifter, and got almost a cup and a half. I added a cup. DO NOT tap it down or pack it in. Whisk the flour in thoroughly.



Then, scrape it into a clean, 9" X 13" pan. A Pyrex glass pan is preferable. I had a filthy one, so I lined it with foil and gave it a light, even spray of non-stick baking spray.



Scrape the batter into the pan and let it settle. It should cover the whole pan without any forced spreading.



Put it in a pre-heated (important detail) oven. The temp is 325F. Even though the recipe calls for 30-35 minutes, I pulled it out at about 27. My oven runs a little hot, and I like them a little extra gooey. Test doneness with a toothpick or fork. If it comes out with batter, it needs more time. If it comes out clean, it is just getting done. If it comes out with little crumbs, it is a cooked all the way. Pull it out and let it cool.



Oh, and you can let your favorite person get some good lickings out of the bowl. Or, you could do it yourself.




So, there it is. Even if it was an extremely long read, I went from tossing the butter and chocolate in the double boiler to tossing the brownies in the oven in 12 minutes. It really isn't difficult to do, and the brownies are 100X better. I hope someone gets a good read out of this and throws that Duncan Hines box out the window.

S-Town

I cook for King's Kitchen, so before I start, I'd like to mention that I bake about 4 batches of brownies every week. I generally use President's Choice Organic, which is much better than most brownie mixes, but I am intrigued by your passion on the matter. Is there any difference in the effect of the outcoming brownies? People are widely in love with the taste, which for whatever reason they assumed I made them from scratch, but I'm still figuring out ways to make this a proper cash business, as lots of potheads are pretty resistant to the brownies and I've had to up the amount of cannaflour I use recently due to two people who didn't get high. I also had to give them each extra strong hits for free, because I am rabid about keeping my reputation in the clouds- when this shit is legalized in Canada, I'm gonna be overwhelmed by corporate competitors.
One other question: Does the ice method improve the effects? Or what? I didn't really comprehend the intended outcome.

In all, thanks for the informative post! Although I prefer to cook the butter for a longer time and at about 100ºF higher, I've also seen the safety and labour benefits of cooking inside water, and overall see this as a great post for beginners and experts alike.

PS- At my school, they nicknamed me O-Town. Go figure.

Gamberro said:

I cook for King's Kitchen, so before I start, I'd like to mention that I bake about 4 batches of brownies every week. I generally use President's Choice Organic, which is much better than most brownie mixes, but I am intrigued by your passion on the matter. Is there any difference in the effect of the outcoming brownies? People are widely in love with the taste, which for whatever reason they assumed I made them from scratch, but I'm still figuring out ways to make this a proper cash business, as lots of potheads are pretty resistant to the brownies and I've had to up the amount of cannaflour I use recently due to two people who didn't get high. I also had to give them each extra strong hits for free, because I am rabid about keeping my reputation in the clouds- when this shit is legalized in Canada, I'm gonna be overwhelmed by corporate competitors.
One other question: Does the ice method improve the effects? Or what? I didn't really comprehend the intended outcome.

In all, thanks for the informative post! Although I prefer to cook the butter for a longer time and at about 100ºF higher, I've also seen the safety and labour benefits of cooking inside water, and overall see this as a great post for beginners and experts alike.

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the reply. I am not a chef, but I suppose it is notable that my girlfriend is. I am just a food geek. Also, I suppose it is notable that I am a chocoholic, and a bit of a chocolate snob.

I have seen some good brownie mixes before, but I like to make it from solid chocolate. I have never tasted potent cannabutter that didn't have a very strong taste of cannabutter. That being said, I generally try to go above and beyond with the other ingredients. I use Scharffen Berger chocolate because it is delicious, complex, and most importantly, has a very strong flavor. I like to have people say "these are really good brownies", rather than "these are really good for being weed brownies". I feel that many brownie mixes are too weak in chocolate flavor to really overcome the flavor of the butter. Therefore, I like to choose my own chocolate. I really wanted to post this to show how easy it is. It took me 12 minutes, and that includes trying to snap pics as I went.

Oh, and cannaflour? I want to know how to make that!

And lastly, the ice bath is something that I have only begun to do fairly recently, and I think it works wonders. I find that when I heat and re-chill the butter, it tends to clarify itself. Even though this isn't a terrible problem (I use 86% butterfat butter anyway, so there aren't many milk solids) I do this so that the butter has a consistent texture and potency. If I was only making butter for one recipe, it wouldn't matter. However, if I didn't do this, I might end up with all of the milk solids in my first recipe, and pure, potent clarified cannabutter in the second. I plan to make a flourless chocolate cake and a batch of cookies with the other bit. I may be just being paranoid about the milk solids separating though. I thought this [experimental] method was worth mentioning.

So, thanks for stopping by my little tea party. If you ever have an inkling to go from scratch, I would recommend it. It is easy, delicious, and when you hammer down your own perfect recipe, that will be the thing to give you the advantage.

S-Town