“Welcome to Psychedelicatessen, a weekly column exploring the world of cannabis cuisine, including recipes from the great chefs and ganjapreneurs who fuel our appetite for adventure.”
Halloween is my favorite holiday, mostly due to my love of horror movies, outrageous partying, fall weather and carving pumpkins. The best parties of the year are usually Halloween-related, since sexy costumes, socially-acceptable inebriation and the unreal atmosphere combine to create a magical, lawless realm unmatched by Independence Day fireworks or New Year’s Eve hype.
However, Halloween usually has the worst food of any holiday, especially if you don’t like crappy candy!
We’ve got to contend with hellish black-bunned hamburgers and disgusting pumpkin flavored beers foisted upon us by undead marketing departments, as well as extreme “gross-out” party foods, like severed limbs made of cake covered in fake raspberry blood, jello brains and phyllo dough intestines. While I’ll gleefully watch gore onscreen, I draw the line at weird fake gore on my plate. I’d rather eat something cutesy and fun at a party, rather than a “kitty litter” cake that makes my stomach churn just thinking about it. I guess I have a sensitive appetite, especially when I’m stoned!
My rule for Halloween food is that it should aim to delight the party-goer without being a totally disgusting turn-off, and the first priority should be using ingredients that actually taste good together rather than providing an aesthetic effect at the expense of actual edibility.
My medicated, adult version of the classic kid-pleasing “Worms & Dirt” dessert layers a hash-infused chocolate pudding over crunchy cookie crumbles, topped by homemade gummy worms that could be infused with additional hash oil. Making the gummy worms was a lot of work, but I’m pleased with their realistic appearance and texture.
There’s two ways to do this recipe—the DIY Healthy Hippie Way or the Lazy Stoner’s Easy Way—so choose whatever method fits your skills and schedule. Preparing treats should be fun, not an annoying trick, so use either method to bring these “Weed Worms & Dank Dirt” to a Halloween party near you!
Weed Worms & Dank Dirt Recipe
Lazy Stoner’s Easy Way
Take a few shortcuts here by using store-bought gummy worms and a boxed pudding mix. If you live in a legal pot state, try to find medicated gummy worms if you’d like to increase the overall potency of your dessert. MediZen Space Worms and Candy Care Gummy Worms are available in California, or you can just use regular gummy worms.
Easy Way Ingredients:
Stones 6. Takes 2 hours and 15 minutes to make
2 – 3 grams of kief or unpressed hash or 1 milliliter of hash oil
4 cups whole milk or cream
2 3.5 oz boxes Organics Chocolate Pudding Mix
2 egg yolks, well beaten (optional)
2 packages Newman’s Own Chocolate Creme Filled Chocolate Cookies
1 package regular or medicated gummy worms
6 half-pint Mason jars
First, make sure your hash is fully activated by placing it on a baking sheet or in a small Pyrex dish and toasting in an oven at 240ºF for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring or shaking it halfway through.
Add the toasted hash to the milk or cream and stir together in a medium sauce pan. Cook over low heat for 10 – 15 minutes, until milk is just barely steaming. Add the pudding mix and egg yolks (if using), and whisk to dissolve completely. Raise heat to medium-low and continue to whisk constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil for one minute, still stirring, and then remove from heat. Distribute the pudding evenly between six jars, leaving about an inch of space at the top of the jar. Place a piece of plastic wrap on the pudding surface to avoid the formation of a skin. Chill in the fridge for 90 minutes or overnight.
Add the cookies to a food processor and pulse for a few minutes, until cookies are completely crumbled.
Remove the jars from the fridge and stir up pudding to aerate. Add an even layer of cookie crumble to each jar, then top with the gummy worms! If you’re going to a party, just screw on the lids back on the jars for easy transport.
Healthy Hippie Way
Stones 6. Takes 3.5 – 4 hours to make.
This version uses a dairy-free, vegan pudding recipe that’s just divine, along with homemade gummy worms that could include hash oil if you so choose. I used 1 milliliter of hash oil, measuring 286 milligrams of THC, and yielded about 50 worms at approximately 5.5 mg of THC each. A lot of gelatin can get wasted in this process, so if you choose to infuse, make sure to keep the medicated scraps to snack on.
While this delicious pudding is vegan, the homemade gummy worms are most definitely not, so if you have vegan friends, I’d prepare a few jars of only pudding for them to enjoy. Aw yeah!
Healthy Way Ingredients:
Cannabis Chocolate Coconut Pudding
2 – 3 grams of kief or unpressed hash
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup maple syrup
4 tbsp agar flakes
1 14 oz can coconut milk
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla extract
Cookie Crumble
2 packages Newman’s Own Chocolate Creme Filled Chocolate Cookies
Weed Worms
3 cups concentrated cherry, pomegranate or cranberry juice
3/4 cup whipping cream
9 tbsp gelatin
1 milliliter of hash oil (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
100 bendy straws
Instructions:
Step One: Start with the Cannabis Chocolate Coconut Pudding.
First, make sure your hash is fully activated by placing it on a baking sheet or in a small Pyrex dish and toasting in an oven at 240ºF for 15 – 20 minutes, stirring or shaking it halfway through. Set aside.
Add the water, maple syrup and agar to a medium saucepan. Let it sit for 5 minutes to soften the agar. Bring the liquid to a boil, lower the heat, then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until agar is completely dissolved. Stir with a rubber spatula and make sure no agar is sticking to the sides of the pan.
Take 1/4 cup of the coconut milk and mix it thoroughly with the arrowroot powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
To the syrup mixture on the stove, add the rest of the coconut milk, the cocoa powder and the salt. Bring the liquid to a boil and stir in the arrowroot mixture, stirring constantly until bubbles begin to appear and mixture thickens a little.
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips, toasted hash and vanilla extract. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes so the chocolate totally melts. Whisk everything together thoroughly. Pour pudding into a shallow pan. Once the mixture has stopped steaming, chill it in the fridge for 45 minutes to overnight.
When you’re ready to compose the Weed Worms & Dank Dirt dessert, cut the pudding into chunks and place in a food processor or blender and whip until smooth.
Step 2: Make your gummy worms.
Add the juice to a medium saucepan. Stir in the gelatin very slowly, adding a little bit and stirring to incorporate before adding more. Put the heat on and turn it up slowly to medium, whisking until all gelatin is dissolved. Add your optional hash oil and stir until it is also dissolved.
Remove pan from the heat and add the vanilla and lemon extract.
Measure out 1 cup of gelatin mixture. Take this 1 cup and add it to a small bowl with the cream and stir to combine. Doing this will create different colored worms.
Extend the bendy straws and place them standing tall in a pint glass or large jar. Secure the tops with a rubber band if necessary. I used two pint glasses, one for half creamy, half regular worms and one for regular worms. When filling the straws, place a plate below the glass to catch any excess.
Pour the creamy gelatin mixture evenly into the straws. Place the glass into the fridge to chill until the jello is firm. Add the rest of the gelatin mixture to these straws and the others. Place all straws into fridge to chill until completely firm.
To remove worms, run hot water along the outside of the glass to loosen the gelatin. Pull the straws out firmly using a lateral motion. Clean off the scraps from the outside of the straws. Using a rolling pin, very slowly squeeze the worms out of the straws by rolling from the empty end of the straw. The worm should crawl right out of the straw. This process takes time and some finesse. If you go too fast, the straw will split under the pressure. I needed to frequently wipe off the rolling pin to get the best results.
Now you’ve got homemade hash-infused gummy worms!
Step 3: Compose your dessert.
Spin your cookies around in a food processor on pulse until they are crumbly. Layer the whipped pudding into the jars, add some cookie crumbles and a few worms, then top with more pudding, another cookie crumble layer and a healthy helping of gummy worms on top.
Enjoy Halloween!