CBD shortbread: why the oil goes on after baking

A CBD biscuit is a food. CBD added to a food falls under the EU novel food regulation, and no CBD extract has been authorised under it. On 20 May 2026, the French Ministry of Agriculture restated that foods containing CBD are not authorised and must be withdrawn from the market, food supplements and online sales included. It also reports several hundred poisonings linked to these products since 2024.

So no CBD biscuit can be sold, or served in a tearoom. A batch made at home for your own consumption is not placing a product on the market, but it is your responsibility. The oil must come from authorised hemp, with no more than 0.30% Δ⁹-THC. The full background is in our overview of CBD regulation in 2026.

Many recipes mix the oil into the dough. Three reasons argue for the opposite.

The first is the dose. Mixed into the dough, the oil is shared among all the biscuits, unevenly if the mixing or slicing is uneven. Here is what a batch of 20 biscuits gives:

"In theory", because these figures assume a perfectly even dough and no loss in the oven. Nobody can check what a given biscuit contains.

The second is heat. A 2022 study in Frontiers in Chemistry heated 25 mg of pure CBD in a sealed vial at 220 °C. After 60 minutes, more than 80% had gone, partly converted into Δ⁹-THC, cannabinol (CBN) and cannabielsoin (CBE). A sablé bakes for 12 to 15 minutes at 160 °C, far from those conditions, and no published study measures the loss in a biscuit. Adding the oil after baking removes the question. Our guide to cooking with CBD oil compares other preparations.

The third is the tin. Twenty dosed biscuits get eaten like biscuits: three at teatime make three doses, and a child cannot tell the difference. A tin of plain biscuits does not have that problem.

For about twenty biscuits roughly 5 mm thick:

• 200 g of flour;
• 100 g of lightly salted butter, softened;
• 80 g of icing sugar;
• 1 egg yolk;
• 1 pinch of vanilla powder, optional.

1. Beat the softened butter and icing sugar until creamy.
2. Add the egg yolk, then the sifted flour and vanilla, without overworking the dough.
3. Shape a log 4 to 5 cm across, wrap it in cling film and chill it for at least an hour.
4. Cut half-centimetre slices and lay them on a tray lined with baking paper.
5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 160 °C, until the edges turn golden.
6. Let them cool completely on a rack: warm sablés break.

Chilling is the step people skip most often. Dough that is too soft spreads in the oven and loses its clean shape. Salted butter balances the icing sugar; with unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt.

On 9 February 2026, EFSA published a provisional safe level of 0.0275 mg of CBD per kilo of body weight per day, about 2 mg for a 70 kg adult. It was set for food supplements of CBD at least 98% pure. EFSA states that safety has not been established for people under 25, pregnant or breastfeeding women and people taking medication. This recipe is not for them.

The calculation starts from the total CBD stated for the bottle: 1,000 mg in 10 ml makes 100 mg per millilitre. Divide the dose you want by that concentration.

These volumes are too small for a dropper. A 1 ml oral syringe graduated in hundredths, sold in pharmacies, lets you measure them. Put the drop on the underside of the cooled biscuit and let it soak in for five minutes. If the batch analysis gives a different content from the label, the analysis is what counts: the laboratory page explains how to read it.

EFSA's reference is per day. One dosed biscuit a day, the others plain. Our article on how much CBD per day explains that reference and its limits.

Plain sablés keep for 5 to 7 days in an airtight tin, away from moisture. A dosed biscuit is eaten the same day; if it has to wait, label it and keep it out of children's reach.

The oil keeps best cool and in the dark. A stability study in Scientific Reports on CBD e-liquids measured minimal degradation over 30 days at 4 °C, against about 20% at 37 °C, and an average drop of 13% in daylight against 4% in the dark. Our guide to storing CBD oil turns that into practical rules.