Delicious holiday cookies!

Marijuana is green; Christmas trees are green.
THERE'S NO WAY THAT'S A COINCIDENCE!

Grab a tree-shaped cookie cutter and follow along! These cookies, a traditional recipe modified just a teeny bit, are so incredibly delicious. They really do melt in your mouth. Get some of those little shiny edible balls to sprinkle on top. Go all out.

This is the quantity in which I'm making them; of course, you can cut in half or double the recipe. You just might be baking for a while :D

I took:

1/4 ounce bud - ground up finely with seeds discarded (My boyfriend and I use a coffee grinder and rinse it afterwards)
2 sticks butter - delicious, sweet, artery clogging butter, cut into tablespoon-sized chunks
3-4 cups water - to ensure the plant material doesn't burn.

Throw the whole lot into a crock-pot (ours is pretty small) and set it for 'low' or, even better, 'keep warm' if you happen to have that setting.

Let the crock-pot do its thing for about eight hours, checking periodically to ensure it's not too warm, maybe stirring it up occasionally. My mother would whack me in the butt with a dish towel when I did that as a child - supposedly, it extends the cooking time by ten minutes every time you open the lid. But we just want enough heat to encourage the THC to bind with the butter, so it's perfectly okay to check on it every once and a while.

When the mixture is a nice green color, go ahead and unplug the crock pot. Let it sit for a few minutes to cool.

While it's cooling, get an old pair of pantyhose or run to the dollar store and get some - about 1.99 for a really cheap pair. This is great if you don't happen to have cheesecloth.

Back at home, cut the pantyhose about your hand's length up from the footsie part. This will catch the extremely fine plant material so the butter is nice and smooth.

Fit the open side of the pantyhose over a small, deep mixing bowl, stretching it tight and securing it with a rubber band. This works even better with a big, empty coffee can. If the pantyhose is extremely taut on the surface of the bowl - if it's almost parallel to the counter top - put a few pieces of gravel in there (washed, of course) to simply weigh it down a little so you don't have a cannabis butter flood.

Now, and perhaps with some help if the crock-pot is especially heavy, slowly tip the liquefied cannabutter mixture into the bowl, straining it through the pantyhose. When all of the mixture has been transferred to the bowl, remove the pantyhose and squeeze the remaining plant material to get the last little bits out.

Let the mixture sit in the 'fridge for several hours. The butter will separate from the water and float to the top. At this point, the butter can be scooped out with a ladle. Pat the butter dry, and transfer one cup of it to a large bowl. Set the other cup aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Now, you're ready to prepare your cookies!

In the large bowl with your

1 cup cannabis butter

add to it

1 cup white sugar, and
1 egg.

Using an electric mixer, beat the mixture on medium speed and be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl often. You're done when it's creamy.

Add

2 tablespoons orange juice, and
1 tablespoon vanilla.

Turn the mixer down to low speed. At this point, if desired, you can also add

6-7 drops green food coloring.

Slowly, add

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, and
1 teaspoon baking powder.

When it's mixed well, divide the dough into 2 equal parts.
Wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.

When firm, smack the dough down onto a floured counter top or cutting board. Roll it out until it's about 1/2" thick.

Now, grab a cookie cutter. If you don't have one, a great trick is to use an overturned drinking glass to cut out perfectly round cookies. Just dip it in flour, press the rim into the dough, and do a little 'shaking' motion with your hands to loosen the cutout from the rest of the dough.

Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet with a little breathing room and throw them in. Every oven varies, so check them after 7 minutes and keep them in for no longer than 15 minutes.

Remember, cookies and brownies are done when they don't look it! They continue cooking when you remove them from the oven.

Let the cookies cool. Then repeat with the last wad of dough. As if delicious cannabutter cookies weren't enough, you get to frost them, too!

In a small bowl, combine

1/3 cup cannabis butter
3 cups powdered sugar, and
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Optionally, you can also add

1-2 drops green food coloring for a pretty pale green color.

Using the same mixer, beat the mixture at low speed until smooth. Gradually add

1-2 tablespoons milk

about a teaspoon at a time until the frosting is as thick or as thin as you like it. Make sure the cookies are completely cooled! I apply the frosting by dipping a spoon in the frosting, then smoothing it out on the cookie with the back of the spoon. Add some holiday jimmies if you feel like it.

You're done! Dig in with some eggnog & Bailey's on the rocks.

As for how many to eat, it's really a matter of preference. You can easily down five or six of these in a sitting. Three or four cookies should do you for a few hours. If you're really feeling adventurous, split a whole batch with a friend.

Mind you, you have 2/3 cup cannabutter left. Whip up some grilled cheese sandwiches - normal butter on the outside, cannabutter on the inside, and a little velveeta. Have some buttered, salted egg noodles. Use it in some Kraft macaroni & cheese or Pasta Roni.

Enjoy, and happy holidays! :jointsmile: