Cheesecake is indisputably my favorite dessert. Every party, potluck, picnic, or birthday, I’ve always overseen the baking of the cheesecake. I take pride in this no-bake cheesecake recipe that I’ve developed, and I’d love to share this cannabis-infused version to satisfy all your sweet edible needs. We’ll be using my cannabutter recipe for this.
For the canna-butter you’ll need:
- A quarter or 7 grams of marijuana
- 3 sticks unsalted butter
- A cheesecloth
For the cheesecake:
- 16 oz cream cheese
- 2 cups granulated sugar (for filling) + 2 tablespoons brown sugar (for crust)
- 1-pint heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 package gelatin
- 16-20 Graham crackers
- ½ cup melted cannabutter
- 3 tbsp water or milk
First, we’re going to lightly toast—also known as “decarb”—our marijuana. Preheat your oven to 245 degrees Fahrenheit. Grind your quarter into uniformly sized bits and spread out on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant. Keep a close eye on your oven. Overexposure to heat will destroy the cannabis rather than fully activate the THC.
Remove from the oven and let cool while you melt 3 sticks of unsalted butter in a saucepan. Once the butter is melted, add your marijuana and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer while constantly stirring for 45 minutes to an hour. Careful not to burn your butter!
Once this step is done, strain your cannabutter through a cheesecloth and mesh strainer into a measuring cup to catch the bits of ground marijuana. Make sure to squeeze your cheesecloth to wring out every last drop of that cannabutter. If left to cool long enough, the butter will solidify once more, but we’re going to use it melted in our cheesecake.
Before you start making the crust, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium bowl, crush up 16-20 graham crackers until they are the consistency of breadcrumbs. I like using the cinnamon sugar graham crackers or honey flavored graham crackers to give the crust a bit of flavor. In a separate bowl, melt ½ cup of cannabutter. Add the melted butter into the crushed graham crackers and mix in with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix until it reaches the consistency of wet sand and every bit graham cracker is coated in melted butter.
Press this mixture into a springform pan, bringing some of the crust about an inch up the sides. Now you’re going to par-bake the crust in the oven to set its shape. This should take about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant.
In the meantime, whisk two 8 oz packages of room temperature cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add in 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl, beat 1 pint of heavy cream until it gets to the soft peak stage. Add in your remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
Dissolve one package of gelatin in 3 tbsp of hot water or milk and add this into your cream cheese mixture. If you want to up the dosage of THC, dissolve your gelatin into a few tablespoons of hot cannabutter instead. Combine your whipped cream and cream cheese mixture 1/3 at a time, folding it in carefully to avoid deflating the air whipped into the cream. Pour this mixture into your prepared and cooled graham cracker crust and leave in the fridge to set for 4-6 hours or overnight. You can also stick this in the freezer for half the time if you’re on a time crunch.
This recipe is just a base recipe and you can adjust the measurements to find what works for you. You can add freshly sliced strawberries on top and use strawberry extract for a nice strawberry flavored no bake canna-cheesecake. Experiment with different fruits and levels of cannabutter to find your perfectly infused no-bake canna-cheesecake.