A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Own CBD Gummies at Home

Recipe submitted by: William T.

CBD gummies are tried and loved by many and have become a hot commodity in the health and wellness space over the past few years. They are convenient, discrete, and of course, delicious! Gummies are a great way to get the same great relaxing effects, without smoking. But with an overwhelming amount of options, how do you decide which ones to pick? What is the potency of each gummy? How will I feel afterward? What if they don’t taste very good and I don’t like them? Well, why not just make your own and customize your experience! 

Making your own CBD gummies is easier than most people think and doesn’t require a fancy science lab or expert knowledge. In this article, we are going to teach you how to make your own CBD gummies so that you can find relief in a convenient way. Plus, it’s a lot of fun. 

When you first are deciding how to make your CBD gummies you need to decide how many you plan on making. The amount you make depends on the mold that you use for making your gummies. These molds found on Amazon yield about 120 – 140 gummies at a time when using this recipe. Each gummy will be about ¾ the size of a Starburst.

The potency of the gummy also depends on the amount of flower you use. The conversion chart listed below is helpful for customizing the potency of your gummies. You can also double the potency by doubling the amount of flower. For today’s recipe example, we will be using ½ cup of oil with 7g of flower. If using dry sift/kief, use 4g to ½ of a cup of oil.

Materials needed (in order):

• Flower

• Cookie Sheet

• Oven

• Coconut Oil

• Mason Jar

• Lecithin

• Crock Pot / Instapot

• Jell-O – Starburst or Jolly Rancher flavor is recommended.

• Unflavored Gelatin

• Gummy molds

• LorAnns mold inhibitor (optional)

• Cooling rack or place to dry gummies

STEP 1: Decarbing the CBD:

In order to begin, you must start by decarbing (the process of decarboxylation) the CBD in order to activate it.

Now this may sound like a complicated lab procedure, but it’s far simpler than you may think. If you have ever heated up hemp flower at all, you’ve already decarbed it. Or if you think you’re a total newbie, no worries! Cooking food in the oven or microwave is basically the same thing, and you’re ready to kick it up a notch!

Basically, decarbing allows the compounds in the CBD to be infused in the oil or butter. Because we are not heating up the CBD for gummies, we need to express the compounds.

For decarbing, you will need:

• The flower or dry sift puck you want to use. We are using Holy City Farms Kosmic Kush flower today.

• A cookie sheet lined with foil.

• An oven or InstaPot. This recipe will use an oven as it typically yields the best results.

Begin by preheating the oven to 240 degrees fahrenheit.

While the oven is warming up, break the flower up by hand into small bits. You can also use a grinder, but be sure to do a coarse grind and not a fine grind. Breaking it into small bits, as shown below, works great and infuses with the oil just fine. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and place the coarsely ground flower on the sheet.

Once the oven is warmed up, place the cookie sheet on the center rack and let it sit in the oven for 45 – 60 minutes. CBD takes longer to decarb than THC flower, which normally can be done in about 30 minutes. When the CBD is done decarbing, it will come out a golden brown color as if it has been lightly vaped. 

*NOTE – The oven method is known to produce a strong scent. We suggest doing this on a day you can open the windows or don’t have company visiting. The Instapot method typically does not smell.

Step 2 – Infusing the Oil

For this, you will need:

• A small mason jar.

• A Crockpot or Instapot.

• Refined coconut oil. Or oil of your choice – refined coconut oil has no coconut taste and isn’t expensive.

• Lecithin. This helps the compounds bond to the oil. Liquid typically works better than granules.

Place the decarbed CBD flower into a mason jar and pour the oil over the top. Use the conversion chart above to determine the amount of oil needed to the ratio of flower you decarbed. Because we used 7g of flower for the example, we will use a ½ cup of oil. Add a ¼ tsp of lecithin to the jar and mix gently.

Close the jar and place it into a Crockpot. Fill the Crockpot with water until it is at the same level as the oil. Using warm or hot water from the faucet can help to speed up the process.

Set the Crockpot to low for 4-5 hours. 5 hours if using cool or cold water as it will need to warm up in order to infuse the oil. Cooking longer than 4-5 hours is absolutely fine. The longer the flower sits in the oil, the more it infuses and some people will infuse it overnight.

Once done, turn off the Crockpot and let it cool down, then remove the jar from the cooled pot. Be sure to use an oven mitt or pad to remove the jar if it is too hot. Let the jar cool.

Place a coffee filter or piece of cheesecloth into a measuring cup, open the cooled oil mix, and pour over the filter or cheesecloth. It is recommended to wear a glove during this part for an easy cleanup. Once the oil slows down filtering through, squeeze the remaining pulp in the filter/cloth to get the remaining oil out. You can now pour your infused oil back into the jar and store it until ready to use.

If your oil comes out a darker color rather than the goldish color in the photo below, that usually means you need to decarb a little longer. But no worries! The oil will still work, but you may notice a bit more of a hemp taste.

Step 3 – Make Some Gummies

You are going to need:

• Lecithin

• 1 box of Jell-O. Jolly Rancher or Starburst Jell-O tastes great and hides a large amount of the hemp taste.

• 3 unflavored gelatin pouches (¾ an ounce)

• ½ cup of infused oil

• 1 cup of water

• Something to stir with

• A double boiler

On the side in a bowl:

• Mix ½ cup of cool water and 3 packets of unflavored gelatin (.25 oz) then set aside. This will bloom the gelatin in the bowl.

Mix the following ingredients into the double boiler. DO NOT BOIL.

• ½ cup of water

• ½ cup infused coconut oil

• ½ teaspoon lecithin oil

• 1/4 tsp LorAnns mold inhibitor (optional)

• Heat and stir until well mixed (about 5 minutes)

Then add to double boiler:

• 1 box flavored Jell-O (Starburst or Jolly Rancher works the best for flavor)

• The bowl of bloomed gelatin

• Stir for 10 minutes – DO NOT BOIL

Use a pipette or turkey baster to add the content to molds, stirring every so often to keep the CBD gummy mixture mixed up while you do so.

Let sit for 30 minutes then pop out of molds, they should pop out easily. If they come out oily, you didn’t use enough lecithin. You can always melt them back down and add more if this happens.

Place on tray and let air dry for 24 hours. This will change them from Jell-O texture to more of a gummy bear consistency. This also helps reduce some of the moisture from the gummy, helping them last longer and keep from getting moldy as quickly.

The next day, place the CBD gummies in an airtight container and store them in a cool dry place, refrigerator, or freezer. Even when frozen they are as hard as a Starburst. 

If you used the mold inhibitor and refrigerated your CBD gummies, they should remain good for up to 9 months. They typically last 2-3 months without it.

Check Out Holy City Farms

Holy City Farms is a family-owned and operated CBD hemp farm located in Charleston, South Carolina dedicated to promoting health and wellness through a holistic and natural approach. That means ensuring that our holistic CBD offerings empower customers without resorting to harmful substances.

Holy City Farms offers a variety of type 2 and 3 CBD flower as well as an assortment of CBD dry-sift pucks, perfect for making homemade edibles! All products are cultivated and created in-house and delivered to you in discrete packaging.

To submit your own recipe or have an idea you want to share, reach out to us at YourFriends@HolyCityFarms.com.