My Magazine: Psychedelicatessen: Sensi Star Christmas Cookies

“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.”

When Donna Collins auditioned for the TV show Master Chef with Gordon Ramsey, she created a dish that used jelly as an ingredient. Very impressed, one of the judges advised Donna that she needed to start her own company because her jelly was some of the best he’d ever had. Donna took the judge’s advice, and in 2012, the Jelly Queens was born.

The Jelly Queens’ line of gourmet, handmade, sustainably sourced organic artisan jams, jellies and sauces soon began accumulating awards, with their Blood Orange Lavender Honey Marmalade even taking home a coveted Good Food Award and a World Marmalade Award.

Recently the Jelly Queens have been venturing into new territory, with cannabis-infused versions of those same award-winning products marketed under the name the Jelly Shamans.

Personal tragedy first led Collins to become interested in medical cannabis. While in high school, her son was run over by a car in a parking lot. Donna watched as he dealt with an arduous rehabilitation process and felt helpless seeing him in constant agony. During his short life, medical cannabis was the thing that brought the young man the most relief from the pain and anxiety before he sadly passed away at the age of 34.

Because her son strongly believed prohibition must end, his experience forced Donna to re-examine her own preconceived beliefs about marijuana. After a lot of soul searching, Collins answered the call and set her mind to making delicious, healthy, healing cannabis-infused foods.

While the Jelly Queens, Shaman’s parent company, is based in Texas, they are currently in the process of opening facilities in various legal cannabis states. Already familiar with food manufacturing, that side of the business posed no challenges, but Collins admits that the patchwork of marijuana laws around the country presented a bigger learning curve than previously expected. Enlisting the help of professionals to deal with such practical details, Collins remains focused on being a culinary artist at heart.

“In the end, what’s important to me is the product,” Donna said. “Everything we do is completely handmade, created in an open kettle, which means the food retains more nutritional value. We cook seasonally, and we know and have personal relationships with all our farmers.”

Of course, marijuana is a completely new ingredient, and Collins says they are still nailing down their cannabis sources. First launching CBD products, the Jelly Shamans will follow up with THC-infused varieties.

CBD or THC, or even with no cannabis at all, Donna’s products always feature plenty of unique flavor. These are not your granny’s preserves!

Linzer cookies are a holiday classic given a counterculture twist!

Sensi Star Christmas Cookies

This cookie version of the classic Linzer Torte features some modern twists like Jelly Shaman’s Mango Chili jam filling between the delicate medicated spiced almond cookies. The jam comes in both THC and CBD versions. If you are a cannabis lightweight, substitute the cannabutter in this recipe for regular butter and let the medicated jam alone infuse the cookie. I

f you use cannabutter, the THC dose in these cookies will be dependent on the strength of the marijuana you used to make it. My free Precise Dosing for Homemade Edibles class will help you determine that number and how to adjust for your needs and tolerance level.

These cookies are medicated with cannabutter and an infused jelly.

Makes 18 large cookies.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cannabutter, room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup powdered sugar for dusting
3/4 cup Jelly Shaman’s Mango-Chili jam

In a small bowl, stir together ground almonds, flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.

Beat the dough together in an electric mixer.

Fit an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and combine cannabutter, butter and sugar. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat for another minute. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl. With mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Mix the dough as little as possible in order to achieve a tender cookie.

Refrigerate the dough to make it easier to work with.

Divide the dough into two pieces, flatten each piece into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Roll out your cookie dough into a thin sheet.

Remove dough from refrigerator and place between two large sheets of plastic wrap or waxed paper. Use a rolling pin to roll dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Place rolled dough, in plastic wrap, on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least another 20 minutes, or freeze for 10.

You can use a variety of cookie cutters to create custom shapes.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Once rolled dough is very firm, remove top layer of plastic wrap. Use a large star shaped cookie cutter (mine was 3 1/2-inches) to cut as many star shapes from the dough as possible and place on the prepared baking sheet about 1/2-inch apart.

Get creative with household objects to make shapes in your cookies.

Now you need to make cut-outs in half the cookies—these will be the tops. If you have a smaller star cutter you can use this. I didn’t so I improvised by using a small plastic dispensary bottle to cut out small circles in the center of half the stars. Gather the cut-out centers along with the other scraps, flatten, roll out and chill in order to repeat the process until you have no more dough left.

Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until just firm to the touch and just starting to brown. Remove to wire rack immediately to cool.

Generously dust the cookies with powdered sugar.

To Assemble:

Place the cookies with the cut outs on a wire rack over a baking sheet or cutting board. Sift a heavy layer of powdered sugar over the cookies to coat.

The Jelly Shamans create unique flavors like this mango chili jam.

Turn solid star cookies upside down and spoon generous dollops of the jam in the centers. Use the spoon to spread the jam and top with a sugar frosted cut-out cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies. Spoon a little extra jam into the center cutouts and serve.