Ann Allchin’s book, Butter and Flower, presents 45 recipes for cannabis edibles and a collection of stories from 15 people with divers perspectives on cannabis. Directions are given for making oil, butter, and sugar infusions using a cannabis strain with at least 16% THC and the recipes that follow use the infusions in specified amounts to create the cannabis edibles. Thirty-six of the recipes are for sweets such as cookies and cakes, while 8 savory recipes are for snacks such as breadsticks and seedy bars.
The recipes are divided into 9 groups: Foundation Recipes, Classics, Chocolate, Fresh Fruity and Floral, Culturally Cool, Nutty, Weird and Whimsical, Savories, and The Great Peach Gummy. The entry for each recipe include an brief introductory note about the recipe, a suggested mood/strain of cannabis, quantity with the amount of THC/serving, a list of ingredients, step by step directions presented in paragraph style, and a full page picture of the completed recipe. Cannabis infusions are used for all or some of the sugar and fat ingredients but the recipes could be successfully made without any cannabis. Some of the highlights are black forest cheesecake tart, butterscotch cashew pudding squares, and caramelized onion blue cheese not-cougeres. And yes, of course recipes for brownies and chocolate chips are included.
The stories from various cannabis users are informative and entertaining. The people range from a medicinal herb gardener, art curator, and gay writer from Brazil to a cannabis dispensary owner, a pro-cannabis lawyer, and ex-con with prison time for cannabis related crimes. Each story is personal and explores individual problems and/or pleasures of their experience with cannabis.
Written in a cutsey style, the book reflects the authors love for her subject. Her recipes are inviting but the focus on THC concentration of each serving suggests that they are more for recreational use of cannabis than health benefits. The photographs are both colorful and instructive, and enhance the text greatly. The introductory information that covers subjects like safety and how to buy cannabis, is helpful to a newbie. Nice collection of recipes and stories.
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