The perfect way to shape your baked goods? Cannabis-inspired cookie cutters, of course. Check out a few of our favorites for inspiration:
Marijuana Leaf Cookie Cutter — It’s classic but incontrovertibly iconic, and the clearest indicator of what’s in the cookie jar.
Stash Jar Cookie Cutter — Okay, it’s technically sold as a Mason jar cookie cutter, but we think it could go either way.
Legal State Cookie Cutters — Celebrate legalization, or exciting steps in that direction (such as California’s latest news) with state-shaped cookie cutters.
B-A-K-E-D Cookie Cutters — Sure, you can spell out anything you want with alphabet cookie cutters, but words with double meanings are more fun.
Using butter that’s too soft
We’ve all been there — wanting to make cookies yet forgetting to take the butter out of the refrigerator to soften. Whatever you do, fight the urge to heat it in the microwave for a few seconds. This will very likely make the butter too soft.
Cookies won’t hold their shape as well and are likely to turn out greasy when made with butter that’s too soft.
Let the butter stand at room temperature for about an hour, until it’s soft and gives to gentle pressure. If you’re really pressed for time, you can speed the process along by cutting the butter into small cubes, or even grating it.
Working the dough too much
When making cookies, I used to have a (very!) bad habit of mixing in the dry ingredients until they were completely incorporated. And then mixing the dough even more, for no good reason. Thankfully I was eventually steered in the right direction.
Over-working the dough yields a tough cookie, which is not at all what you want. The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender.
One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they’re just incorporated, and not a second longer. Once the dry ingredients are added, less mixing equals more tender cookies.
Not chilling the dough
Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you’re making cut-outs. Even if you’re tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it’s only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.
Chill sugar cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 15 minutes. The dough will be so much easier to work with! It will roll out nicely, and if you’re making cut-outs, chilled dough will help you get clean, sharp edges. Chilled dough also holds its shape better in the oven.
Rolling out the dough too thick or too thin
When you’re making cut-out cookies, it can be tricky to roll the dough just right. Roll it too thin, and the dough will be really fragile and may easily tear or break. Roll it too thick, and you run the risk of the cookies not baking evenly or cooking all the way through.
For super soft, tender sugar cookies, roll the dough to 1/4-inch thick. The dough will be easy to work with, without breaking or tearing, and it will bake up nicely.
Over-baking the cookies
We often tell you to bake cookies until they’re golden brown. This isn’t the case with sugar cookies, though. Once the edges develop a golden hue, you’ve gone too far. While overcooked sugar cookies are certainly still palatable, they’ll be hard and crunchy, instead of soft and chewy.
Pull the cookie sheet from the oven as soon as they’ve set and gained some color, but not too much. They should also look slightly crackled across the center.
How to Tell if Cannabutter is Bad? Cannabutter Shelf Life!
As with all food, cannabutter comes with its own set of storage needs.
Ignore them, and your batch of cannabutter stands the risk of spoiling before its time.
Listed below are a few risk factors that could promote fast spoiling of cannabutter:
- Being exposed to unnecessary light and heat.
- Exposure to moisture, mold, or mildew.
- Contamination caused by bacteria or bugs.
These ‘risk factors’ can cause total spoilage or result in compromising the taste and quality of cannabutter.
If you want to use a bit of stored cannabutter for making edibles, carefully break a portion of it off using a dry knife or spoon.
Avoid biting into the block of cannabutter or using a dirty spoon/knife at all costs. Doing so puts the entire jar of cannabutter at risk of spoiling.
Spoiled cannabutter has a distinct smell. It takes on a scent that is similar to fermented fruit. Unusable cannabutter also tends to develop mold.
Sometimes, the butter in itself can appear to be edible, but if it tastes rancid, you may want to dispose of it.
The shelf life of cannabutter depends largely on how carefully it is stored.
However, there are some other factors that also play a role in this regard.
Some of them are the ingredients used to make the cannabutter, the preparation method, and the temperatures at which the butter was processed.
If your cannabutter is store-bought, be sure to check for its expiry date.
With store-bought cannabutter, how it is packaged and its packaging material affects its shelf life.
Recipe for Cannabis-Infused Sugar Cookies
Start to finish: 45 minutes
Yield: 24 cookies
Approximate dosage: 10mg THC per cookie
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups flour, plus more for rolling
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup of 240mg cannabutter
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Optional: Powdered sugar and milk, for frosting
*For less potent cookies, switch out any portion of the cannabutter and replace with standard butter as desired.
Instructions
- Beat cannabutter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.
- Add dry ingredients to cannabutter mixture a little at a time, stirring until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Cover dough and refrigerate for an hour or longer.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and preheat oven to 375°F.
- Roll dough on a generously floured surface to approximately ⅓” thick. Cut cookies (see below for thematic cookie cutter suggestions) and transfer to ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden in color.
- Remove from oven, transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
To frost: Combine powdered sugar with milk and stir until desired consistency is reached, then add food coloring as desired. If you like, add a teaspoon or two of cannabutter to thicken the frosting and add an extra kick of potency.
Note: The amount of cannabis butter specified in this recipe is a very loose suggestion; the actual amount you use should be modified based on the strength of your cannabutter and the potency you desire. Dosing homemade edibles can be tricky, so the best way to test for potency is to start with one portion of a serving, wait one to two hours, then make an informed decision on whether to consume more. Always dose carefully and listen to your body, and never drive under the influence of cannabis.