Several of my friends have asked me about how to make homemade bar soap. It never works out for them to come to my house to watch and learn how I make my soap, so I was able to #katch it using the Periscope app.
Here is the link. FYI: It's 45 minutes long, no joke. But it's a step by step tutorial that can be watched at your own convenience.
https://katch.me/AmyLHeatonisQ/v/248be713-7b4c-3bac-b752-0b97a6f49357
Here is the link to the soap calculator:
http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer
Here's the link to where I found my recipe:
http://millersoap.com/soapanimal.html#BlendedCoc
Please email me if you have any questions!
In two weeks I will post a Part 2 where I will pull the soap bars out of their molds so you can see the end results.
(Updated)
My Recipe for making 26 bars of soap:
Blended Soap Using
Shortening with Coconut oil, Olive oil, Castor oil, and Shea Butter
45 oz. meat/veg
shortening (I use Great Value brand)
20 oz. olive oil (I use
regular virgin, not extra virgin)
20 oz. coconut oil (I
use expeller-pressed coconut oil)
4 oz. castor oil (I use
Home Health brand, cold pressed and cold processed)
2 oz shea butter (I
purchased this on Amazon.com but not a necessary ingredient)
12.95 oz. lye crystals
(Get at Ace. Use a lye calculator and set it at 3% superfat. See link below.)
30.21 oz. clean cold
water (I use Reverse Osmosis water, distilled is good too)
Temps 110-115 (I aim for
both the oil mixture and lye mixture to both be 113 degrees.)
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Soapmaking Routine Using the Stick Immersion Blender
1. Take out all the
soapmaking ingredients and utensils, place near the soapmaking area.
2. Dissolve premeasured
lye by stirring it into the determined amount of cold water (I buy lye in bulk so weigh it
on a postal scale). I am now doing this in a one quart size Pyrex (heat
resistant) glass measuring cup. This is placed on the stove top under the
exhaust fan while being mixed. (This will heat up a lot in a matter of
seconds... be aware that it
will get really hot.) I usually crack open the kitchen window slightly for
added ventilation and avert my face while the lye is first being mixed in. It
will produce fumes during the first minute or two. After that... the solution
turns clear from its original milky appearance and there will no longer be
fumes present. If you happen to catch a bit of the fumes, your body will do its
best to make sure those don't get into your lungs (this is translated as coughing and wheezing!)... if
that happens, I just quickly step into the next room while holding my breath
and get some good cleansing breaths before going back to the lye mixing. Not
very scientific, but it seems to work just fine so far! :-) When you stir in
the lye, be sure to keep the crystals moving around during the first 30 seconds
or so, in order to prevent them from forming hard clumps in the bottom of the
mixing container. While I often use heat resistant glass, you can also mix your
lye solution in a stainless steel pan or a really stout, heat tolerant plastic
container. Remember... start
with COLD WATER! :-) If you don't want to do your
mixing inside the house, you can also take this process outside... but be sure
you are in an area where you will not impact children or animals and do NOT
leave your lye solution unattended outside after mixing it up. As soon as the
fumes have dissipated... bring it carefully into the house. (I stress carefully after receiving a horror story from a
fellow who tripped on the porch step with a whole pan of lye solution in
hand... what a mess! He recovered okay, but it was an experience I'm sure he
would not care to repeat!)
All recipes are based
on WEIGHTS, not volume. You will need to weigh
oils and lye with a good scale. Water can be measured with a liquid measuring
cup with no problems.
3. In a stainless steel
spaghetti cooker, I weigh out the hard fats (palm, coconut, etc.) in the
soapmaking pan and sometimes part of the liquid oils. I leave part of the
liquid oils out to be added after melting the harder fats. Any wax candle
color, crayon or beeswax goes in at this point also, unless I'm swirling or
doing something unusual with the batch.
4. While the fats are
melting I line the mold with freezer paper, if I haven't done it already. I
currently use two overlapping sheets of freezer paper, arranged perpendicular
to one another and creased into the corners of the mold. These sheets are cut
slightly wider than the width of the box to that they will overlap and cover
the corners to reduce leaking.
5. Melt the above hard
fats on a low setting on the stove, stirring periodically. After they have
melted, I put the pot back on the scale (on top of a heat resistant pad) and
measure in the remaining room temperature oil (usually between 24 and 32
ounces). This cools it off faster.
6. When the temperature of
the fats is close to 110 degrees, I speed the cooling of the lye solution if
necessary by setting the Pyrex cup in a sink of cold water (halfway up the side).
I stir the water around and watch the thermometer until it drops to the
temperature I want. The thermometer and stirring spoon are rinsed of lye water
and placed in the sink to await washing.
7. It's time to start up
the blending. I turn on the stick blender and pour the lye solution quickly
into the fat (while I'm blending I set this cup into the sink and overrun it
with water to rinse and wait for washing). The soap is mixed for about a minute
until it starts to smooth out and glisten. Sometimes, I'll turn on the burner
under the pot for just a minute to warm the soap slightly if it's looking
grainy to start. You are striving for a good mix, but not little globs of fat
in the mix. The soap ideally should look smooth and develop a "satin"
finish as you blend and stop to check it.
8. During the above process, I
frequently turn OFF the stick
blender and use it as
if it were a spoon to stir
the soap. This works well on mine since the guard does an effective stirring
job. I alternate blending with
it ON and stirring with it OFF until
it starts to thicken slightly (the surface appearance will change and develop
some dullness...patterns can be seen in the wake of the blender). If you don't give the motor rest
periods during blending, you can burn out your blender. My "ON"
periods are probably only about 15 - 30 seconds at a time... and OFF periods at least
that long, or sometimes longer. Also,
you want to make sure you have true trace... not just something that has
emulsified and appears thicker than it really is. Stirring for a minute with
the blender off will "stir down" a false trace, but not a true one. I
lift the blender (in the OFF position) out of the soap to check how well the
soap coats the guard. It should be like thin to medium pudding before pouring.
Some fragrance oils will really speed up
this thickening process, but most essential oils do not. The whole process
doesn't normally take more than 3 to 10 minutes, depending on the recipe. How
thick you want the soap before putting in the additives will depend on what
kind of fragrance you will be using. Most essential oils behave pretty well...
many fragrance oils can cause rapid thickening or other problems. Read the
notes on fragrance oils below before making your soap.
9. It's time to stir in
the additives, fragrance or essential oils. This is better done with the blender off,
but I turn it on briefly after stirring to make sure the fragrance/essential
oils are smooth and completely incorporated. Sometimes they will clump slightly
and I want to break those up. Any other ingredients can be added at light trace
also, like superfatting oils that weren't put in at the start, natural
colorants like paprika, herbs, etc. Save
the fragrance for last* in
case you get one of those fragrance oils that accelerates trace and forces you
to pour quickly! =:-O
10. When the soap is
getting slightly thicker but not to the pudding stage yet, I pour it into the
mold. If you are doing confetti soap or adding heavy substances to your soap,
you will wait for medium thick pudding to pour. Use a spatula to clean off the
outside and guard of the stick blender first (inside too the best you can...unplug
it first ... there is danger of bumping the switch while cleaning) and then use it to scrape all the soap
out of the pan into the mold. The spatula also works well for marbling if
you're doing that.
11. In a cool room, set
the box with poured soap into a pasteboard box and cover that with another
pasteboard box which fits over the bottom one. I will open this at gel stage
and allow some heat to escape before I cover it back up for the long haul (of
course, I peek!). When the soap shows signs of cooling down by becoming opaque
at the edges, it's time to put the cover back on. A heavy towel can go over all
this if the room is cool. In summer, I only cover the soap until it reaches gel
to the corners of the mold... then uncover it until it cools down and becomes
opaque on top.
12. CLEAN UP! :-) Wipe out the pan, utensils and outside
of the stick blender (and as much around the blade as you can safely get) with
paper towels and dump those in the garbage. Fill the soapmaking pan half to
2/3rds full with hot soapy water, set back on the stove and stick blend the
water until the inside of the blender is completely cleaned (about a minute).
The water will look like skim milk by the time you're done. The water is poured
out of the pan and everything (all your soapmaking paraphernalia) is washed
with hot soapy water, rinsed and dried until next time.
All this can be done in
the space of ONE HOUR. :-)
TEMPERATURE CHART*
(*Note
for text browsers: Fat Temperature listed first, Lye Solution second.)
Types
of Fat
|
Temperature
of Fats
|
Temp.
of Lye Solution
|
Sweet rancid fat
|
97º to 100º F.
|
75º to 80º F.
|
Sweet lard or other soft fats
|
80º to 85º F.
|
70º to 75º F.
|
Half lard and half tallow
|
100º to 110º F.
|
80º to 85º F.
|
All tallow
|
120º to 130º F.
|
90º to 95º F.
|
Vegetable Fats
|
100 º to 110º F.
|
90º to 95º F.
|
Correct
temperatures are extremely important for making the finest soap. Follow these temperatures
closely. Use a dairy or floating thermometer.
In
hot weather or in a hot room if the soap mixture remains greasy, set it in a
pan of cold water and continue stirring until thick, when it is ready to pour.
If temperatures are too low, lumps of soap will form and separation will occur.
In that case, set the mixture in a pan of warm water and stir gently until it
is of the right consistency, and all the lye is reincorporated.
