By Eric Miller
Thanksgiving, a divisive holiday, one both feared and beloved, ridiculed and celebrated, racist and welcoming. Depending on what side of the aisle, you’re on, it’s either a horrible celebration of genocide or a time-honored American tradition. For me, I try not letting politics get in the way of gluttony. It’s a day to come together with family that I actively ignore and show them how well that chef life is treating me. In case you’re wondering, it’s pretty awesome, I hardly ever get to eat the food I cook for my customers but that’s ok. I’m here to share with you, the cannabis community what I really eat, we’re going off the menu for this one.
I love butter; I studied French cooking for a few years and in that time I have lined every inch of my bloodstream with unsalted butter because they put that shit on everything. We’re also going to tackle a rather scary-to-most-people concept, fresh homemade biscuits, both saturated with THC.
Author’s Note: If you have not checked out my previous articles and are unsure of what I am talking about, then by all means, GO BACK AND READ THEM. I discuss why concentrates are better than the flower buds for edibles, the science behind THC and the human body and the chemistry involved in making kickass edibles.
Another Author’s Note: If you want to make your recipe high potency then use a whole gram instead of a half gram but please keep in mind your math and dosing.
CRANBERRY APPLE SPICE BUTTER
cranberry spiced butter
Nothing says, “The Holidays” quite like cranberries, apples and bloating. With that in mind the first in a two day easy breezy Thanksgiving appetizer. Start this recipe a day or two before Thanksgiving and have it ready for the main event with no fuss.
INGREDIENTS
Makes 24 servings
1 cup cold unsalted butter
1/3 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons grated orange zest, cut the skin off the orange and chop very fine if you don’t have a zester.
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/2 gram of decarbed concentrate, frozen
DIRECTIONS
Take a large sauce pot or deep saute pan and place a smaller sauce pot in the center on the stove, fill the larger sauce pot with water, set to high heat and get to a rolling boil, this is what we call a Bain Marie. The water is going to gradually melt the butter without cooking it too much. Allow the butter melt until all the white stuff floats to the top and then sinks to the bottom. The white stuff is called sediment and impurities, this comes from the butter making process and isn’t a bad thing we are just making a fancy and delicious butter called CLARIFIED butter.
While your butter’s oil separates itself, combine all the dry ingredients that are the following dried cranberries, grated orange zest, kosher salt, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, allspice, ground ginger, ground cardamom by whisking them together until it is all one color. The key here is homogenization.
When your butter is clarified, you can scoop out the oil and place into a separate bowl or any container capable of holding the hot oil.
Combine clarified butter, honey, and frozen decarbed THC until all blended together in a sauce pot over a low flame. You’re going to want to use a rubber spatula if you have it and mix everything until the concentrate is completely incorporated. Once combined add dry ingredients and refrigerate until hardened, usually an hour or so, but overnight is preferred.
BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
Makes 12 biscuits
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup cold buttermilk, plus little extra
Few quick tips before we move…
Be sure to use cold butter and buttermilk in these biscuits. Meaning until it’s time to add them, leave them in the fridge, preferably already portioned.
Cube your butter, or at least make it into smaller pieces.
Don’t overwork your dough, meaning don’t slap, fold, and kneed so much, you’ll make your biscuits hard and taste funny.
When cutting your biscuits out, don’t twist your cutter, simply push down using the heel of your hand. This will seal off the edges of your dough, so when it goes to rise it’ll be shorter and denser.
Place the biscuits on a baking sheet touching each other, it’ll help all the biscuits rise higher and come out softer.
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside. This is the main stage.
In a large mixing bowl, sift and then whisk together dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt until well combined. Add the in the cold butter and cut into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or a whisk (if you have a food processor use that on a low pulse) until you obtain bean-sized pieces of butter. Pour the buttermilk into the mixture and gently combine dough starts to come off the sides of your mixing bowl.
Lightly flour a level surface and pour out the dough and work it together with your hands. Pat, literally pat, NOT A SMACK, your dough into a rectangle and fold it in thirds. Turn the dough a quarter around, gather any crumbs and flatten back into a rectangle. Repeat this process two more times. Be careful in this because as previously mentioned, overworked dough tastes weird and we’re looking for light and fluffy.
Once you’ve worked your dough, continue patting until the entire rectangle is 1/2-inch thick, this is important so if you have to measure then measure. If you have a biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits, if not then use an ice cream scoop, if there’s no ice cream scoop then use a deep spoon. Repeat the process and gather any scrap pieces of dough and keeping the dough at 1/2-inch thickness until you have 12 biscuits.
Place the biscuits on your lined baking sheet touching each other. Brush the top of each biscuit with a little bit of buttermilk.
Bake at 450°F for about 15-17 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove once cooked, slather in cranberry butter and enjoy the HIGH HOLIDAY.
