Kief butter recipe: How to make cannabutter using kief

Learn how to make kief butter that is very potent. Cannabutter made with kief has a mild nutty flavor, not the strong “weed” flavor you get if you make butter with cannabis flower or trim.

This pile of kief is perfect for kief butter recipes.
A pile of pure dry sift 73-micron kief is perfect for kief butter recipes.

This kief butter recipe works great for all edibles (check out our marijuana brownie recipe). Don’t have any kief available? See recipes to make cannabutter using butane hash oil (aka BHO or shatter), marijuana trimmings or flowers, or hash.

Kief is made up of the trichome heads of the marijuana plant. A sifting or screening process separates the psychoactive mushroom-shaped trichomes from the plant material, leaving you with a pile of pure hash or kief. Since the green plant material is removed, the strong “marijuana” flavor of your marijuana butter will be greatly reduced in kief recipes. The result is a nicely balanced flavor that won’t overwhelm your edibles.

Before cooking with kief you’ll need to decarb it to activate the THC. Decarboxylation is done by heating the dry ice hash at a low temperature which causes a chemical reaction. This step is essential – do not skip it. Learn how to decarb kief.

How to make kief butter (recipe for 1 stick)

Learning how to make kief butter is simple. After decarboxylating your dry ice hash the next step is to dissolve it into something that contains fat, in this case a stick of butter.

How to make cannabutter with kief ( or dry ice hash)
To make cannabutter with kief or dry ice hash, first decarb your kief and then simmer it in butter to dissolve.

Using 1 or 2 grams of kief per stick of butter is a good way to cook your first batch. Better to start light and work your way up once you’re sure you can handle it.  See below for more info on how much kief to use to target specific THC content levels in your kief butter.

  • Slowly melt 1 stick of butter and then add 2 grams of kief that is already decarboxylated. Make sure the kief is broken up into fine pieces with your fingers rather than using a big chunk.
  • Simmer lightly for 10 minutes, stirring constantly while scraping the bottom of the pan with a silicone spatula. The kief will melt into the butter and dissolve. Press down on any chunks with the spatula to speed this up.

Keep the heat as low as you can to maintain a slight bubbling simmer when cooking this kief butter recipe. Too much heat destroys THC. Too much heat will also cause the butter to brown, affecting the flavor of kief recipes . You don’t need to cook it too long. THC is fat soluble, and cooking it in fats such as butter make cannabinoids available to your body.

How many grams of kief per stick of butter are needed?

How much kief to use depends on how potent you want your butter to be.

Making higher strength cannabutter requires either using more hash or reducing the amount of butter.  For example, if the recipe calls for one stick with 2 grams of hash, you can make your canna butter double strength by either using 4 grams of hash or by reducing the amount of butter by 50%.

A kief extraction screen lets you dry sift cannabis flower or trim.
A kief extraction screen lets you dry sift cannabis flower or trim to get the material you need to make kief butter.

Personally when cooking with kief I like to make very strong cannabutter, and then portion it out into small measured amounts so that only a small amount is needed to boost whatever recipe it’s used in. But remember it’s better to go light then to overdo it and have a bad edibles experience.

Cooking with kief in butter to decarb it

Some kief recipes have you decarb it directly in butter using a double boiler consisting of a mason jar placed in a pan with a few inches of boiling water.  This method of decarbing kief requires that you cook the butter much longer to achieve decarboxylation since the double boiler keeps temperatures lower.

The old hippie way used to be to sauté the kief or weed in butter for a half hour to an hour on low heat and then cook edibles with it, but that method is very inconsistent and not recommended.

We prefer to decarb in the oven first since it’s a more consistent way to gently heat the kief, and then add the already decarbed material to the butter.

How to make kief for this recipe

Don’t have any kief on hand but still want to make this kief butter recipe? Dry sift extraction using specially designed screen sets or trim trays is an easy way to get a few grams to cook with. You can also use bubble bags and dry ice to extract from cannabis flowers and trim, or make bubble hash using iced water. All of those methods produce the kief needed for this recipe.

If you haven’t yet extracted your kief from your pile of sugar leaves and don’t want to the hassle of making kief, check out our recipe to learn how to make cannabutter with trimmings.

How to determine THC content of canna butter made with kief

Determining the THC content of cannabutter made with kief is  important. Too much THC in kief recipes causes a bad user experience. This is why it’s so important to know how much kief to use to correctly calculate THC content.

The magical butter machine is the easiest way to make kief butter.
The Magical Butter Machine is the easiest way to make kief butter with consistent potency.

Knowing how to make cannabutter using kief requires some simple math to determine the potency.

Pure kief runs in the range of 30-33% pure THC.  So if you use 2 grams (2000 mg) in kief recipes, you can assume that will equal about 660 mg of THC.

  • 9 brownies with 73.3 milligrams of THC per serving
  • 12 brownies with 55 milligrams of THC per serving
  • 16 brownies with 41.25 milligrams of THC per serving

It is always better to under-dose your first batch than to overdo it. Never eat a new brownie recipe and decide after 20 minutes to eat another one because it’s taking too long to kick in. It may end in disaster.

THC in edibles gets processed by the liver. Unlike smoking,  it is very easy for people to ingest too much cannabis inadvertently. Overdosing on marijuana edibles is an awful experience.  Be cautious on your first try.

Once you have learned how to decarboxylate your kief and make cannabutter, you’re ready to cook.  Cannabutter can be used right away or stored in the fridge in a small sealed glass jar for longer-term storage.

Take special precaution to keep kids away from cannabutter or weed edibles, and never underestimate the ability of youngsters to find them. Safely storing cannabutter made with kief as well as prepared marijuana butter edibles save you a trip to the ER and will also keep you in the running for the parent of the year award.

The cannabutter in these brownies was made from 1 stick of butter and 3000 mg of kief extracted using dry ice. A pan of 12 brownies would each have about 80 mg of THC per serving.
The cannabutter in these brownies was made from 1 stick of butter and 3000 mg of kief extracted using dry ice. A pan of 12 brownies would each have about 80 mg of THC per serving, a strong dosage for many people.

Kief recipes: cooking with kief butter

After you decarb BHO you can turn it into cannabutter for use in hundreds of weed edibles recipes.

Now that you have just learned how to make canna butter with kief, here are a few kief butter recipes you can use to cook edibles:

In addition to cooking with kief butter to make baked goods or cocktails, you could just add it on top of anything you’d like to make all recipes turn into kief recipes.

Toast is an easy choice, topped with cinnamon-sugar or jelly to mask the flavor. It’s also good on pasta, vegetables, pretty much anything you’d use regular butter on. This is handy if preparing recipes with kief for a party because you can vary how much kief to use depending on a user’s tolerance.

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