Alice B. Toklas brownie
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An Alice B. Toklas brownie, also known more colloquially as a magic brownie or special brownie, is a type of hash cookie (a cake containing cannabis). Eating such a brownie can result in the same psychoactive effect or "high" as smoking marijuana, although it may be delayed or mitigated due to slower absorption of the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) through the digestive tract. Products containing cannabis are widely available in cannabis coffee shops in the Netherlands (and various European cities), where consumption use of marijuana is effectively legal.
The name derives from Alice B. Toklas, the lover of Gertrude Stein, who included a recipe for "Haschich Fudge" in her 1954 Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, a volume intended not so much as a cookbook but as reminiscences on her life with Ms. Stein. However, prior to publication Ms. Toklas was short of recipes, and the recipe in question was contributed by her friend Brion Gysin as a joke. The recipe was introduced:
- "This is the food of Paradise.... it might provide an entertaining refreshment for a Ladies' Bridge Club or a chapter meeting of the DAR.... Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected. Almost anything Saint Theresa did, you can do better."
The suspicious ingredient ("canibus sativa" [sic]) was not spotted by Ms. Toklas before the book was published, and though it was removed in the American edition, it was printed in the British one.
Once the press discovered the recipe, the book received wide publicity. Quote Time
- "The late Poetess Gertrude (Tender Buttons) Stein and her constant companion and autobiographee, Alice B. Toklas, used to have gay old times together in the kitchen. Some of the unique delicacies that were whipped up will soon be cataloged . . . in a wildly epicurean tome . . . Perhaps the most gone concoction (and also possibly a clue to some of Gertrude's less earthly lines) was her hashish fudge."
The original recipe, although rather vague as to directions, may conceivably be summarized as follows:
- 1 tsp. black peppercorns
- 1 whole nutmeg
- 4 sticks cinnamon
- 1 tsp. coriander
- 1 handful stone dates
- 1 handful dried figs
- 1 handful shelled almonds
- 1 handful peanuts
- A bunch of cannabis sativa ("picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green")
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large pat of butter
Grind the pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, and coriander in a mortar. Chop and mix the dates, figs, almonds, and peanuts. Grind the cannabis and mix it with the spices; dust this mixture over the fruits and nuts. Mix the sugar with the butter and knead this together with the fruits, nuts, spices, and cannabis. Eat with care - two pieces are quite sufficient.
Other recipes have been devised, the most standard being simply to prepare regular brownie mix and include an appropriate quantity of marijuana.
Other terms for an Alice B. Toklas brownie include "space cake", "pot pie", "hash brownie", "special brownie", or "magic brownie". The latter term has been used as a source for just about any other food item that contains marijuana or mushrooms: "magic tea", "magic cake", etc.
See also
External links
- The Straight Dope column (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_234.html) on Alice B. Toklas brownies (includes original text of recipe)
- Erowid.com (http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_faq_eat.shtml) recipes for cooking with cannabis, including Cannabis Brownies (http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_faq_eat.shtml#chocolate) and Hash Brownies (http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_faq_eat.shtml#gaspo)
- Drugs-plaza.com (http://www.drugs-plaza.com/recipes.htm) recipes for cooking with cannabis, including Cannabis Honey Brownies (http://www.drugs-plaza.com/recipes_honey_brownies.htm)