This Valentine’s Day, why not bake a batch of CBD-infused brownies for your loved one? Taking the time out of your busy life to make something homemade is always considered a sentimental gesture, and you can pour your heart and soul into making these delicious treats.

CBD is known for promoting relaxation, soothing pain and discomfort, and balancing out irregularities in the brain and body.

When consumed, the active compounds trigger our serotonin receptors and release anandamide — these are both "feel-good” chemicals that our bodies naturally produce. When serotonin levels are low, people often experience depression and anxiety.

Anandamide is nicknamed the "cuddle chemical” due to the fact that it’s closely associated with oxytocin — a compound that enhances pleasure and encourages a deeper emotional connection.

Echo wants to share our secret CBD brownie recipe with you. We are including a more potent yet slightly more time-consuming version, in addition to a simplified variation. Regardless of which one you choose, you and your partner are sure to have a relaxing V-Day.

Recipe 1: Ditch Traditional Flowers This Year and Choose Hemp Flower

The key to making potent CBD-infused brownies is top-quality hemp flower. When purchasing the necessary ingredients, you’ll want to find flower that is grown using the best farming practices. We personally recommend Goodekind’s Hawaiian Haze.

Goodekind is a minority- and woman-owned company that donates an eighth of all proceeds to human rights organizations serving the US. Their Hawaiian Haze flower ($35 per 3.5 grams) is a sativa-dominant strain and a cross of Early Resin Berry and DC Haze.

When you’re baking with a sativa or sativa-dominant flower, the effects are somewhat different than indica strains—most people become more sociable and talkative, making this one a great daytime option. With light, airy, sticky buds and notes of floral, citrus flavors, your brownies are going to taste delectable.

Ingredients

• Brownie Mix (We didn’t want to overcomplicate this recipe by having you bake your brownies from scratch, so choose your preferred brand of brownie mix from the grocery store. We used Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix.)
• Eggs
• Cannaoil
• Water
• Optional: Beautiful Briny Sea’s Chocolate Honey Swirl Sugar
• Optional: Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutter

How to Make Cannaoil

Let’s start by turning your hemp flower into cannaoil. Cannaoil is made by extracting oil from hemp flower—and once you have completed the process, you can use your homemade cannaoil in place of olive oil or vegetable oil.

If you’re more of a visual learner, there are tons of tutorials on YouTube that will teach you how to turn cannabis into an oil or butter in simple steps. Instead of using cannabis, you can use the same amount of hemp flower.

Step 1: Grind the hemp flower. You can include the entire plant, just the flower, or a little bit of both—this is all a matter of preference. Just keep in mind that anything small enough to fit through the strainer will end up in your finished product, so you don’t want to grind the flower into a fine powder. If you don’t own a grinder, you can do this step manually by hand.

Step 2: Measure out one cup of ground flower and one cup of oil.

Step 3: Combine the 1:1 ratio of oil (you can use olive oil, vegetable oil, even avocado oil) and hemp flower into your saucepan and heat on low or warm for a few hours. This allows for decarboxylation (the activation of present cannabinoids.) In all cases, a small amount of water can be added to the mixture to help avoid burning, and the temperature of the oil should never exceed 245°F.

Step 4: Heat the combination of oil and CBD flower in a simple saucepan on low for at least 3 hours, stirring frequently.

Step 5: Turn off the stove and allow 30 to 60 minutes for the oil to cool off. Strain and store the oil. You can use a strainer or cheesecloth to remove the cannaoil from the remaining plant materials. Keep in mind, the oil’s shelf life is at least two months, and can be extended with refrigeration.

Directions

Once you have successfully made a batch of cannaoil, it’s time to get started on baking brownies. This is the easy part. All you need to do is follow the instructions on the box of brownie mix that you chose.

The only step that will be different is substituting regular oil for cannaoil. You will want to use the same quantity of cannaoil—so if the box says to use ¼ cup of oil, then you’ll need to use a ¼ cup of cannaoil. This guarantees that the consistency of your brownies is up to par.

Don’t forget, you want your brownies to be shaped as hearts for Valentine’s Day. You can use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to do so. We also add edible glitter, as well as pink and red frosting to the top side of each brownie to really make them perfect for the holiday.

Recipe 2: The Simple (But Equally Delicious) Variation

Our simple recipe consists of using brownie mix and hemp-infused olive oil when baking, and our more complicated recipe consists of making the cannaoil yourself from CBD flower.

Ingredients

• Jenny’s Baked Kitchen Hemp-Infused Chocolate Brownie Mix
• One Egg
• ½ cup of Potli’s Extra Vibrant Olive Oil (EVOO)
• ½ cup of Plain Yogurt
• Optional: Beautiful Briny Sea’s Chocolate Honey Swirl Sugar
• Optional: Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutter

Directions

This recipe is slightly more simple than the other version. The result will still yield CBD-infused brownies. However, you do not need to extract any oil from hemp flower. Some people may be opposed to that process because your house will smell somewhat like marijuana for several hours after the fact. CBD and THC smell remarkably similar.

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2: Grease an 8x8 pan with no-stick cooking spray.

Step 3: Pour brownie mix into mixing bowl.

Step 4: Mix one ingredient at a time with a whisk or electronic mixer until the batter is smooth.

Step 5: Scoop the batter into your pan and cook for approximately 15-20 minutes. You can use a toothpick to check the consistency, and if the batter sticks, you know they need to be baked for a few more minutes.

Step 6: Remove the baking pan from your oven and allow the brownies to cool for 30-40 minutes.

Press into the brownies using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, so you can turn your sweet treats into an even better shape for this romantic holiday.

We personally used Beautiful Briny Sea’s Chocolate Honey Swirl Sugar ($13) for some added sweetness. This sugar harmoniously blends organic cane sugar, organic cacao, honey, and vanilla. We sprinkled a dash on top of the brownies, as well, for a sparkly appearance and an irresistible taste.

Not only does this one-of-a-kind sugar add a nice touch to your Valentine’s Day brownies, but it also can be used in pancake batter, cupcakes, coffee, and so much more. You can gift the remainder to your loved one, reminding them that they are the sweetest.

In order to incorporate enough CBD into this recipe to make it beneficial, we recommend using Jenny’s Baked Kitchen Hemp-Infused Chocolate Brownie Mix ($35) and Potli’s Extra Vibrant Olive Oil ($32.) The full bag of brownie mix contains 1000mg of CBD isolate, while the olive oil contains 250mg of broad-spectrum CBD.

Potli’s Extra Vibrant Olive Oil is an extra virgin olive oil made from cold-pressed olives. With peppery and slightly floral notes, your brownies will have the wonderful flavor of sweetness with a hint of spice. Olive oil has a high bioavailability so you’ll absorb a large amount of CBD into your bloodstream. With most ingestible forms, the CBD gets lost during the digestive process due to the acidic environment of the stomach. Potli thoughtfully created EVOO with this in mind.

For a nice finish, you can decorate your heart-shaped brownies with sprinkles, icing, and edible glitter.