Before you tackle your next baking project, or try baking edibles for the first time, it’s important to know the different options you have when it comes to cooking and baking with cannabis. You can purchase your own flower and make the perfect cannabutter at home, but if you’re worried about smell, you may want to explore a different, more discrete, option.

Whether you share kitchen space with roommates or you’d prefer to spare your favorite cookware from a cannabutter mishap, there are a lot of advantages to baking with distillate. Find out more about some techniques for cooking with cannabis concentrate and how you can make edibles with distillate right at home.

What is Cannabis Distillate?

Before you can roll up your sleeves and bake a batch of brownies, it’s important to understand what cannabis distillate is and how it should be handled when cooking.

A distillate is a molecularly pure concentrate created through the process of distillation. In the case of cannabis specifically, the distillation process isolates cannabinoids, like THC or CBD, into a highly concentrated substance which can be used for a variety of purposes.

Benefits of Baking With Distillate

In addition to high levels of cannabinoids, one of the reasons cannabis users are baking with distillate more and more is due to the concentrate’s versatility. Unlike cannabutter, which can often have remnants of plant matter, cannabis distillate is purely composed of cannabinoids, meaning you have a lot more control over the dose you add to cookie batter or drip on a batch as it cools.

One of the main reasons cannabis has such a distinct smell and even taste is due to the presence of organic compounds called terpenes. When cannabis is distilled for the purpose of isolating THC, non-essential compounds like CBD and terpenes also get removed and this removes the skunky, plant-like smell and taste that is often associated with certain strains.

Because distillate has no detectable taste and smell, it is very versatile and pairs nicely with just about anything. You can bake it into a batch of brownies or even add it to your favorite entree for dinner. You’ll still get the therapeutic effects of THC without the distinct taste.

When baking with distillate, a lot goes a long way. Unlike cannabutter, you can use a relatively small amount of distillate in your batter and get the same effect as a recommended serving of cannabutter depending on the size of your batch of edibles. This means cooking and baking with distillate will save you trips to the distillery and could potentially save you money.

How to Make Edibles With Distillate

Now, let’s get to the real reason we’re all here: how to make distillate infused edibles. Interestingly enough, the answer to this riddle is a little anticlimactic–that’s really how easy it is. Once you purchase your concentrate, it’s really as simple as adding the distillate to your edible batter and baking at a low, consistent temperature. See our breakdown for making distillate infused edibles below:

1. Loosen the distillate by placing the container in warm water
2. Once the mixture looses up, measure out the amount you need
3. Pour the distillate into your oil or melted butter
4. Stir constantly to ensure it is thoroughly integrated into the mixture
5. After you’ve added your distillate to your wet ingredients, add the oil to the dry ingredients in a larger bowl
6. Combine all ingredients and pour the batter with the distillate into the baking tin and place in the oven

Hot drinks

Want to start your day on a high note, but don’t like smoking or eating sweet, fattening edibles? Distillate is already activated, so you can add it to drinks without much of an infusion process. But because distillate is thick and sticky, melting it in a hot drink works better than putting it in a cold one. Just drop a dab of distillate on the bottom of your coffee or tea mug, then mix in simmering hot chocolate or bone broth, or make yourself a weed hot toddy.

Drop it straight on your tongue

Hey, some of us just want to get it over with. This process doesn’t need much explanation. Just make sure you’re not dropping too strong a dose on your tongue, and have a mint on hand.

Honey and syrups

Infused maple syrup for morning waffles, infused simple syrup for evening cocktails and infused honey for everything. Although a bit more complicated than dropping a glob on the tongue, creating infused honey and syrups doesn’t require a lot of effort, and the result can be incorporated into loads of drinks and recipes. You’ll need an emulsifier to ensure the cannabinoids don’t separate after the mixture cools, so use an equal part sunflower lecithin for the amount of distillate used. Heat the honey or syrup on low, mix in the distillate and lecithin, and stir until properly mixed. Store it in a cool, dark place, and try to use it all within six months, before it spoils.

Gummies and hard candy

A small step up in difficulty from honey and syrups but still easy in the grand scheme, making distillate-infused gummies and hard candies requires a few extra ingredients (gelatin or corn starch, among other flavorings) and pieces of equipment (candy molds, specifically), but it becomes easier with repetition. For hard candies, try Cannadish’s recipe, but include an amount of lecithin equal to your cannabis distillate to ensure that the sugar and cannabinoids don’t separate during storage. Stoners Cookbook has a reliable infused gummies recipe; just substitute your distillate for the infused coconut oil.

Mac and cheese

Mixing distillate with mac and cheese is a good way to hide distillate’s sometimes-grassy flavor in a big, buttery dish — and while the butter’s fat isn’t required for infusion, it will make the THC more potent during digestion. Add the distillate to the mac after mixing in your dairy and cheese products at low heat to make sure the THC is distributed evenly, then get high while satisfying your comfort food fix at the same time.