How to Make Cannabutter With Trimmings, Leaves and Stems

Cannabutter is also known as cannabis butter or weed butter. It is the main ingredient for a wide range of marijuana edibles. Most homemade edibles start with cannabutter.

The cannabis plant is amazing! It can be used until it is completely gone! Use all parts of your cannabis plant, weed stems, weed trimmings, weed leaves, and wax! So what is there to do with cannabis leaves, stems, and trim?

Why Use Trim, Leaves, and Stems For Cannabutter?

If you grow marijuana, you’ll have plenty of garden waste.

Don’t waste that trash—turn it into stash! You can use leaves and cannabis stems for weed butter!

Trim, leaves, and stems are leftover cannabis materials that growers collect both during the grow cycle and after harvest.

Although most of the active components of marijuana are in the flowers, some cannabinoids are in the sugar leaves, fan leaves, and other trim.

Sugar leaves, the tiny leaves that cluster around the marijuana flowers, contain between 5 and 7 percent cannabinoids. The large fan leaves found throughout the cannabis plant contain 2 to 3 percent cannabinoids.

Although these percentages are low for smoking, you can get more for your money by infusing those cannabinoids into butter. Use the trim and leaves from your cannabis plant to make edibles. Save the high-quality buds to smoke. Don't waste your leftover stems! Cannabis stems are gold!

How to Decarb Marijuana Trim, Leaves, And Stems

Before you make weed butter from trim, your first step is you need to decarboxylate it. Decarboxylation is a process that uses high temperatures to “activate” the cannabis compounds.

This turns non-intoxicating THCA into highly intoxicating THC. If you don’t decarboxylate, you’ll get the medical benefits of cannabis but not the high!

There are many ways to decarboxylate cannabis. The easiest way to decarboxylate trim, leaves, and cannabis stems is in the oven.

First step, put the cannabis leaves and stems for cannabutter in an ovenproof baking dish with a glass cover. Heat the oven to 212° F and place the cannabis in the oven.

Heat the cannabis for an hour and a half. After you remove the dish from the oven, let it cool completely before you remove the cover.

Although butter is an excellent solvent for cannabinoids like THC, you can use other types of oil too. The best oils to use are those that have triglycerides with medium-length chains. These oils, known as MCT oils, include olive oil, butter, and coconut oil.

This is good news for vegan marijuana enthusiasts. To make vegan cannabutter, just use olive or coconut oil instead of butter!

Clarified butter, also known as ghee, works better than butter for infusing cannabis. Clarifying the butter removes water and milk solids.

Making Cannabutter With Trim and Leaves

1. Instructions for Making the Cannabutter

After you decarboxylate the weed, it’s time to make the weed butter. Put the decarboxylated cannabis in a crockpot. You can fit as much as a half-pound of cannabis in a standard crockpot. If you have less than an ounce of cannabis, use a mini-crockpot.

If you don’t have a crockpot, you can use a large pot on your stovetop.

Once your weed is in the crockpot, add two sticks of butter for every ounce of trim. Add enough water to completely cover the cannabis.

Set the crockpot to medium or turn the stove burner on low. Heat your mixture for 4 to 12 hours. Check your mixture frequently. Add water if it gets low. Adjust the settings as needed to keep the temperature around 150°F (65.5°C).

2. Straining the Cannabutter

When you’ve finished infusing your butter with cannabis, strain out the plant material. Line a strainer with three layers of cheesecloth. Place it over a collection container. Pour the mixture from your crockpot into the strainer.

Fold the cheesecloth around the leaves and squeeze out as much cannabutter as possible. Wear knit gloves (to protect your hands from the heat) covered by latex gloves (to protect the cannabutter from your gloves).

If you used butter or solid coconut oil as your base, put the collection container in the refrigerator overnight. When the cannabutter is hard, you’ll be able to pour out the liquid water without losing any cannabutter.

Be sure to pat the butter dry to remove any excess water. Excess water can make your cannabutter moldy!

If you used a liquid oil, put the collection container in the freezer overnight. When the water is frozen, you’ll be able to pour the liquid oil into a collection container.

Shelf Life of Cannabutter

Now that you have a batch of cannabutter, you might be wondering how to store it?

The amount of time you can store cannabutter depends on where you store it and the type of oil you used. Infused butter lasts in the refrigerator for 60 days.

It will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 6 months!

Other cannabis infused oils last even longer. You can store infused olive or coconut oil in the refrigerator for 3 to 6 months. Ganja butter will stay fresh in the freezer for an entire year!

Cannabutter Potency And Dose

In the past, the potency of THC in cannabutter was of little concern; the goal was simply to make it as strong as possible.

Today, with the rise of legal dispensaries, consumers have become more aware of their ideal THC dosage. Consequently, there is a growing interest in knowing the exact milligram content of THC in homemade cannabis edibles

You can estimate potency as long as you know the strength of the cannabis and how much weed and butter you used.

If you follow this recipe, you will use eight ounces of oil for every ounce of cannabis. If you used sugar leaves, your cannabutter will contain around 4.25 mg/gm of THC.

Your fan leaves cannabutter will contain around 1.7 mg/gm. In comparison, cannabis flowers with 20% THC will yield cannabutter with a potency of around 17 mg/gm.

How to Use Cannabutter

After you make cannabutter, you can use it to make weed brownies, cookies, pasta sauce, and more weed edibles. Every cannabis cook needs to know how to make amazing marijuana brownies using oil.

You don’t even need to bake something. You can just spread your cannabutter on toast!

3 Delicious Cannabutter Dessert Recipes

1. Cannabis Chocolate Chip Cookies – You will need cannabutter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking soda and chocolate chips.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the cannabutter and sugars together until creamy.

Beat in eggs and vanilla extract until combined.

Add in the flour and baking soda then stir until everything is blended together well.

Finally fold in the chocolate chips. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown on top.

2. Cannabis Brownies – You will need cannabutter, white sugar, cocoa powder, eggs and all-purpose flour to make these delicious treats!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Melt cannabutter over low heat before mixing it with white sugar in a bowl or mixer until blended well together.

Beat in eggs one at a time before adding cocoa powder and all-purpose flour into the mixture gradually while stirring continuously with a spoon or spatula so that no lumps form.

Bake for 20 minutes or until done when tested with a toothpick inserted into the center of them!

Enjoy as soon as they have cooled down slightly!

3. Cannabis Fudge – To make this delicious cannabutter fudge, you will need cannabutter, white sugar, evaporated milk or heavy cream, unsweetened cocoa powder, butter and vanilla extract.

Begin by boiling the cannabutter, white sugar and evaporated milk or cream together in a pot over medium heat until it reaches a full boil.

Once at a full boil reduce the heat to low/medium and simmer for 6 minutes while stirring continuously.

Then add in the cocoa powder and butter and stir until everything is melted together and blended evenly.

Now remove from heat and add the vanilla extract before stirring once more.

Pour this mixture into a greased pan lined with parchment paper then let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Enjoy your homemade cannabutter edibles!

Cannabis College Online

Were these recipes fun? Do you want to learn other ways to make cannabutter and many more weed edibles? Want to make more delicious recipes with cannabis stems, cannabis trim, cannabis leaves, and cannabis wax?

Cannabis Training University’s Cannabis Cooking Pro certification will teach you everything you need to know to get started on your cannabis cooking career.

Earn your cannabis cooking certification. Enroll at the best marijuana school today! You can sign up at our online store and start cooking with cannabis today.

Cannabutter FAQ's

Can you put wax in butter to make edibles?

The strong flavor and green color in cannabis butter is a result of putting wax in butter to make edibles. Cannabis cooks also use concentrates like live resin, shatter and wax to make homemade edibles.

How to make cannabutter using concentrates?

Move your concentrate using a spoon or dabber into the heated butter or oil. You can lightly heat the utensil with a torch to melt the concentrate into the saucepan. Gently stir your concentrates into the warm butter.

How do you make edibles out of trim?

Step 1. Use trim to infuse oil or butter:
Step 2. Use a crockpot o make cannabis butter.
Step 3. Make an infused oil like coconut oil, or MCT oil.
Step 4. Make an infused oil like CBN oil, CBG oil, or CBD oil.

How much trim do I need for a pound of cannabutter?

In a large pot or slow cooker add 1 pound of butter per 28 grams of trim. Add water. Make sure to submerge the cannabis under the water.

What can I do with leftover leaves and stems?

1. Make cannabis concentrates and extracts.
2. Add extracts to your food and beverages.
3. Make cannabutter and other cannabis edibles.
4. Create homemade cannabis salves.
5. Mulch it. Compost it. Improve your garden soil.

Is trim good for making edibles?

Making cannabutter, or cannabis-infused cooking oil, is one of the most often used applications for trim. The trim can be infused into butter or oil to create a versatile ingredient that can be used in baking or cooking a variety of delicacies that include cannabis.

Can you use weed stems for making edibles?

Although stems are low in cannabinoids, they are useful for making edibles, topicals, teas, and cannabutter.

Karen Getchell

Karen gained expertise in developing training programs and technical documentation as a Senior Editor at Cisco Systems. She began her journey in cannabis as a patient, searching for a way to heal herself. When she perfected a method for making cannabis oil, other patients began to seek her out. An early adopter of CBD medicine, she started her CBD-infused-products business in 2014. Over the last two decades, Karen has taught hundreds of patients and caregivers how to select strains, infuse oils, and extract cannabinoids.

When she isn’t teaching cannabis cooking classes, Karen works as a cannabis business consultant, writes for online cannabis publications like Cannabis Training University, Leafly, and Weedmaps, and runs a CBD-infused-product business.