Make THC caramels by cooking a regular caramel base to 245°F, taking the pot off the heat, and stirring your infused butter in at the very end. That last-minute add is the part that matters. Cannabinoids stay under their degradation range while the butter still melts into a smooth, chewy caramel. Dose by the butter, cut the pieces small, and you have an edible that keeps for weeks in the fridge.
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Why the infused butter goes in last
THC starts to boil off around 315°F and it loses potency with time at high heat. Caramel cooks between 235°F and 250°F, so you are not boiling your cannabinoids away, but a long simmer at 245°F still costs you. Thirty seconds of stirring off the heat costs almost nothing.
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There is a texture reason too. Cold butter dropped into hot caramel is standard candy-making practice. It cools the sugar down fast, stops it from climbing past your target, and gives the finished caramel a soft chew instead of a hard snap.
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What you need
Equipment
- A clip-on candy thermometer you trust. Test it in boiling water first; it should read 212°F at sea level.
- A heavy 4-quart saucepan. Thin pans scorch sugar.
- A wooden spoon or stiff silicone spatula.
- Parchment paper and a 9x9 inch pan.
Ingredients
- 1 cup infused unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Keep at least half of the fat as real dairy butter. Coconut oil alone gives you a caramel that never firms up right.
Figure out your dose before you cook
If you bought infused butter at a dispensary, the label tells you milligrams per tablespoon or per package. Divide from there. One cup is 16 tablespoons, so butter at 10 mg per tablespoon gives you a 160 mg batch. Cut that into 40 pieces and each one lands near 4 mg.
Homemade butter is an estimate, so treat the number as a range. Aim for pieces at 5 mg or less. Nobody complains about a caramel being too weak, but plenty of people have had a rough evening after eating a second piece too soon.
Step by step
- Line the 9x9 pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides.
- Combine both sugars, the corn syrup, the condensed milk, and the salt in the saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring for good.
- Clip the thermometer to the side and cook until it hits 245°F for firm caramels, or 235°F for soft ones. This takes 15 to 25 minutes. If crystals form on the sides, brush them down with a wet pastry brush.
- Pull the pot off the heat and let it sit for a minute. Add the butter and vanilla and stir until the mixture is completely smooth.
- Pour into the lined pan. Leave the last bit in the pot; the bottom scrapes can carry a scorched taste.
- Cool at room temperature for 3 hours or overnight. Do not rush it in the fridge, which makes the caramel sweat.
- Lift the block out by the parchment, cut into 40 to 64 pieces with a warm knife, and wrap each one in parchment.
At high altitude, subtract about 2°F from your target for every 1,000 feet above sea level.
Testing and effects
Eat one piece and wait two full hours before you decide anything. Edible onset runs anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes depending on what else is in your stomach, and the effects last longer than smoking does. Potency varies from piece to piece because the butter never distributes perfectly evenly. That is true of every homemade edible.
Storage and basic safety
- Airtight container in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks, freezer for 3 months, with parchment between the layers.
- Write the dose and the date on the container. Caramels look like caramels.
- Keep them locked up, away from kids and pets.
- Tell people what they are before you offer one. Never leave a plate of these out unlabeled at a party.
Mistakes I see most
- Stirring after the boil starts. That is how you get grainy caramel.
- Cooking past 250°F. You get hard candy and lose more THC.
- Dumping the butter in at the start. More heat, more splatter, less potency.
- Skipping the thermometer and guessing by color. Sugar does not care about your instincts.
Check your state rules on homemade edibles before you make a batch, and only if cannabis is legal where you live.