2 posts tagged “pumpkin soap”
Pumpkin soap, just after it's been cut from the log. (Each log makes 16-17 usable bars.) This soap was made with a high water content, because spicy essential oils tend to be quite tricky in soap. When this picture was taken, this soap is still so soft that fingerprints can be embedded. As the soap cures, the water evaporates, making a very hard bar of soap.
Orange Brulee soap after it's been cut, cured and trimmed. I use a handheld wood planer to bevel my soaps most of the time. I have equipment that would let me do it faster, and probably with more uniformity, but it's a pretty zen process to do it by hand. I squish all the shavings from each batch into little balls. They end up looking like weird rocks once they've gotten polished up from being used. There's dozens of little soap rocks in all the bathrooms in the house. (And the neighbor's houses, and friend's houses...I get a little crazy with the soap...)
So, I made the pumpkin soap today. It looks really, really cool. Only time will tell if it darkens up as it cures. I hope not. It's the most delicate shade, with little flecks of spices in it. I made it with pumpkin, a pumpkin oil, eo: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and then ground versions of those same spices. It smells incredible. Yay! I can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow when I unmold it.
Notes on making the soap: add EOs and FOs to the melted oils. Add NaOH, and stir by spoon just until blended. (Stick blender, bad for this temperamental soap this early in the process.) Pull a couple of ladles worth into another bowl and blend in the pumpkin with stick blender. Return blended mixture to big batch and blend until light trace. Sprinkle in spices and stir to blend. If clumpy, use stick blender, but that'll speed up trace considerably. This soap will set up amazingly fast. From adding the pumpkin blend until pour, there's only about 5 minutes to work before it'll seize.
Oil temp at start: TX room temp - 80 to 100F. No hotter...the EOs have insanely low flashpoints.
NaOH temp: Shoot for low 80's, but up to 100 will work
63oz oils - test recipe blend of coconut, palm, castor and rice bran
18.25 oz H20 (reduced from standard of 21.25 because of the pumpkin add) (2/3 ice to 1/3 water)
260g dry NaOH
6oz pumpkin puree (started with 3, but that wasn't enough)
2oz pumpkin oil
1oz sweet pecan oil
1Tbsp Cinnamon essential oil
3/4 Tbsp each Clove and Nutmeg essential oil
1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice
This pour will end up being a little big for my bar standard, it poured
almost to the rim of the 3x3.5x18 log mold. I'll have to remember
to pull a few ounces into guest bar molds next time...because further
reducing the water would be a nightmare of seizing, I think.
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