Coffee and Cocoa Soap: Easy 3 Oil Recipe and Tutorial
and Full Tutorial How-To
I've made soap with fresh brewed tea and honey and wanted a coffee recipe to compliment it. How fun is that, tea and coffee luxury homemade soap!
I also wanted to make a simple 3 oil recipe that would be a good starting recipe for new soapers as well as a good basic and affordable cleansing, nourishing bar. Full tutorial and recipe below.....
If you wish to make a smaller batch, please use Brambleberrys Lye Calculator and reformulate your
recipe to get correct lye and liquid amounts, etc.
Recipe:
11.6 oz Coconut Oil (22% of recipe)
18 oz Olive Oil (34% of recipe)
23.3 oz Crisco Vegetable Shortening (which is soybean at 75% and palm oil 25%) (44%)
7.2 oz Lye (sodium hydroxide) this is a superfat of 6%
17.5 oz Liquid ( I used coffee, you can use plain distilled water, or tea)
1 oz Cocoa powder, unsweetened (optional if you aren't making mocha soap)
1 - 1 1/2 oz Fragrance oil, (I used .8 oz of Brambleberry's Almond Biscotti)
Yields: 77.7 oz
Lye, Crisco, Coconut oil, Olive Oil, Liquid of choice (I used coffee)
Crockpot, Stick blender, pyrex or something like it to mix lye/water, long handled mixing spoons, I use silicon. Rubber gloves, and eye protection.
Scale to weigh ingredients.
If you choose to make this with distilled water instead of coffee, that is the only other ingredient along with your fragrance (optional) you will need. ( I added cocoa powder to go with the coffee )
You can purchase Lye on line at Brambleberry or in the USA you can still find it at ACE hardware in the plumbing section. Very affordable.Always wear protective eye ware and rubber gloves when working with lye.
I use glass or stainless steal when measuring my lye.
Have vinegar near by to neutralize any splashed lye.
Designate a crock pot for your soap making adventure, I got a used one at a thrift store.
1: Measure your brewed coffee (or liquid of choice) on a scale by weight.
In a separate container measure lye by weight.
2: In a well ventilated area, (I go outside) pour your lye crystals into the coffee (liquid of choice)
NEVER pour liquid into lye, always pour lye into liquid. Now stir until all lye crystals are
dissolved. Gloves and eye wear a must.
When thru stirring lye into water, drop the empty lye
cup, spoon into vinegar water to neutralize it. Always put anything with active lye on it into your vinegar solution when you are thru using it.
4: When all oils are melted together, pour into crock pot. Crock pot should be on LOW.
5: Now you slowly pour your lye mixture into the crock pot with the melted oils. Stir with long
handled spoon a bit.
6: Get your stick blender out and begin to slowly blend, stirring blender around the crock pot. This
is when the magic begins! As you blend away, the liquid/lye and oils begin to saponify, which
means you are literally turning your oils into soap by the chemical reaction to the alkali (lye).
Your mixture will begin to get thicker, when it gets like a soft pudding, and you lift up your blender (turned off of course) and the mixture leaves a trail, or a trace on top, this is called "Trace". Continue to stick blend until it gets like pudding.
7: Next, place lid on crock pot, leave on LOW, and watch as you make soap!
Never walk away from a crock pot of soap cooking, watch thru the lid, if it starts to boil up as
if to overspill, stir it and release the heat, it'll go back down.
Your mixture will go thru changes. It's edges along the crock pot will rise and curl in towards the center. You will see a clear liquid pool in the center, this is glycerin! Commercial soap makers remove this awesome natural soap by-product and use it for other purposes, that is why store bought soap is so drying, no glycerin. Your homemade soap keeps all that moisturizing goodness.
Depending on the ingredients added to your soap mixture, your soap can take a half hour to an hour to be done, I've had my coffee and tea recipes take 20 mins, so don't walk away!
My soaping friend who taught me how to make soap, (Vals soaps and more from home) showed me an easy way to tell if your soap is done......
Think of the sides of your soap as waves, and the center as a glycerin-island. The waves will continue to grow and rise around the island which is smooth. As it cooks, the waves roll inward closer to the center making the island smaller and smaller. When the island has sunk beneath the waves, you will see some clear glycerin on top. Stir it back in. Turn crock pot off. If you have a removable crock, take it out. Stir to cool down your soap. Yes, I said soap....you made soap!
8: If adding fragrance oil or essential oil, this is the time to put it in. Stir well. General rule of
thumb for fragrance is no more than 1 oz per 2 pounds of soap. Of course this is entirely dependent
on the fragrance or essential oil used. Some are quite potent. Most manufacturers give their
recommendations for their product. Only use soap fragrance oils, not candle ones.
9: Now its time to put into mold (s). I used a wood 5 lb. soap mold, lined with freezer paper to
easily remove the soap. You can use any mold you want. Silicon works great, plastic too.
Pringles cans work too. Tap mold on table after putting in soap to get out any air pockets.
Leave in mold over night, this recipe with coffee and cocoa was still soft after one
night, so I left it in for two.
Your beautiful homemade soap is ready to be cut and used. Tip: if you let your
hot process (crock pot) soap dry for a week or two it will become a much harder
bar, hence, will last longer in the shower! But, if you're like me, one bar ends up
in the shower right away!
 |
| 14 Bars in this batch between 4.6 and 5 oz. |
Any questions please ask away...... enjoy, Anna
