Making Hot Process Soap

A note about my soapmaking style

Herbal soap, vegan soap, castile soap, all-natural soap—call it any of those and it applies to my soapmaking style, which is from scratch with botanical ingredients. You can’t make soap without lye, although there’s no lye in the soap once saponification takes place. If someone says they made soap without lye, then they most likely used melt-and-pour, a pre-made soap, which means someone else had already used lye to make it. Soap is considered an all-natural product unless synthetics are added for fragrance or color. See About Hazelnut Grove Herbals for more info about my products.

When I made my first batch of soap back in 2001, I knew soapmaking would always be a part of my life. I built an herbal soap business and created more than 30 different formulas for moisturizing, soothing and healing soaps using unrefined, vegan carrier oils, organic botanicals and pure essential oils. I eventually sold the business in order to spend all my time with Lew during what became his last year. He has been gone 10 years now, and though I have not gone back into business I still make soap for my own use and for friends and family. I also enjoy teaching others, so here goes:

I’m looking to see what I have on hand today for carrier oils. My staples are olive, coconut, sweet almond and at least one nut butter. Today it’s shea butter, which I love for its nourishing and moisturizing qualities. I also love that it’s made by village women as a cottage industry in Africa. The women harvest nuts from the karite tree, and then render the butter over communal fires. They earn a living doing that when the butter is sold as fair trade. If fair trade means anything to you, check out Mountain Rose Herbs, where I buy (when I haven’t grown or wildcrafted) organic herbs and essential oils for my soaps and herbal products.

Note: It seems so strange that I am advocating plastic of any kind for any reason but it’s true, I am, when it comes to safety and hygiene. Yes, I can do it the primitive way but unless I absolutely must do it that way, I will use the easier and safer methods that I describe here.

Gather your supplies

Soapmaking is enjoyable and rewarding but things can go terribly wrong if you are distracted or you don’t have everything you need at hand. For hot-process soap you will need:

Crock pot

Stick blender

Large sheet of plastic to protect work surface. I have scraps of leftover 4-mil moisture barrier that works great. A vinyl table cloth would also work. Lay this down first thing on your counter or table, wherever you will be working. You may not realize you are splattering until later when you see the PERMANENT damage to your countertop or table. Plastic is the best protection from damage caused by lye (and essential oils, too).

Accurate digital scale, like a postal scale that you can buy at an office supply store

At least two liquid measuring cups, a 2-cup and 4-cup is best; plastic is safest (glass is heavy and slippery.)

A 2-qt plastic pitcher

Rubber spatula for stirring the lye and scraping the pan

Wax paper

Freezer paper

Protective gloves (vinyl, latex, etc) and shirt to cover arms

A large bottle of vinegar as an antidote in case of lye burn. Check the lid to make sure you can easily get into the bottle, then set it within reach.

And the ingredients:

Olive oil, 16 oz (Any olive oil will do; it does not have to be expensive, but it must be 100% olive, not a blend. Knowing the precise amounts of each oil in the formula is crucial when figuring out the lye.)

Coconut oil, 16 oz

Sweet almond oil 8 oz

Shea butter, 8 oz

2 oz essential oil (Some of the more affordable essential oils that also are great for skin care include lavender, patchouli, litsea cubeba and geranium.)

1 - 2 Tbs dried herb (I like to grind and sift lavender buds, which end up brownish in the soap, or use whole petals of calendula blossoms, which stay bright yellow.)

6.8 oz sodium hydroxide (lye) Used to be, you could buy it at the local hardware store. Not anymore, thanks to all the meth production out there because apparently lye is used in the manufacturing process. Nowadays you need to find a good soapmaking supply site for it.

13 oz water, either spring or distilled

This will make enough soap to fill one of my wooden molds, about 4 pounds, which makes 13 good size bars. This formula has 5% excess oil in the oil-to-base (lye) ratio to ensure a gentle soap.

Note: North America could have some beautiful vegetable oils but try getting any sunflower, soy, corn or canola that has not been gmo’d to death. The luxurious oils I use come from all around the world, which means expensive shipping unless I can find them locally. I use unrefined, organic and fair trade whenever possible… although if and when tshtf, I will take what I can get—might even be crying for some lard. I must say I’ve used soap made from tallow and it was nice. Bright white like you can’t get with vegetable oils, as well as silky smooth and very gentle. 

Before you start

The most crucial thing: Do not work with lye when children or pets are running around. Have no distractions, including company, and I’ll tell you why in a bit.

Mix the lye bath

The first thing you do is weigh and pour the water into the pitcher. Then, after donning vinyl or latex gloves, you gently scoop and weigh the lye in a dry measuring cup. Slowly pour the lye into the water, gently stirring with a rubber spatula as you go. Lye is extremely caustic (It dissolves gunk in drains!) The water gets flaming hot as soon as you stir i the lye (Oh and make sure to always add lye to water, NOT water to lye or you will have a volcano of sodium hydroxide on your hands.) Try not to breathe in the fumes. Once the lye is completely dissolved, set the pitcher somewhere safe where it can cool down, like on a ledge near an open window with absolutely no access for pets or children. A long time ago, I was cooling a pitcher of lye on the porch and got distracted when company arrived. We were sitting around the kitchen table gabbing like friends do, when a howl coming from the north porch shocked everyone. It was like nothing any of us had ever heard before. I suddenly remembered the lye and knew immediately what had happened, and it broke my heart. Thankfully my cat Willow was okay, although she disappeared under the house for a couple of days. She had a habit of dipping her paw into water and licking it off. That’s why I knew what had happened. Anyway, I was lucky because Willow was fine when she showed up again. It could have been so much worse. I vowed that nothing like that will ever happen again on my watch. So be careful. Ok, now that I’ve got you good and paranoid about making soap, I will lighten it up a bit and move on to the next step. Really, soapmaking is fun and rewarding. Just pay attention to safety and it will be fine.

Melt the carrier oils

So while the lye is cooling down, slowly melt the coconut oil and butters in the crock pot. I add a small amount of the olive oil to help this process. Turn off the heat, add remaining olive oil and let it finish cooling down while the lye is also cooling. The how-to books always say to use thermometers but that’s ridiculous. When the outside of the lye pitcher feels warm, not hot, it’s ready. The same with the oils. When they are just warm (you know, like a baby’s bottle) then they are ready.

As the carrier oils and lye bath are all cooling down, prepare the mold. Any kind of sturdy box will do, shaped like a square log or thereabouts, just large enough to hold about two quarts. I rub some shea butter or solid coconut oil onto the box interior, then line it with freezer paper with the paper side against the butter and the edges folded down outside the box. 

This is also a good time to weigh your essential oils if you plan on using any, and measure your powdered herb. Now everything is ready.

Blend, stir & cook

When both the oils and the lye bath have cooled down to warm, plug in the stick blender. Gently pour lye into oils while stirring with the stick blender without turning it on. Once the lye has been stirred into the oils, turn the blender on low and move it around gently until you reach trace. This usually happens within a couple of minutes. You’ll know it’s at the trace stage when the texture looks like a thin cake batter and it leaves a slight, raised ridge, or trace, across the top when you lift the stick blender. Can’t miss it.

As soon as your soap reaches the trace stage, stir in the essential oils if using any. Now turn the crock pot on LOW, cover and wait. Within a ½ hour you will notice the edge getting translucent. Gradually the entire pot of soap will turn translucent. That’s when it’s time to pull the plug and dump the soap into the mold. It will be very hot. Slam the mold against a sturdy table to help eliminate air bubbles. Set aside, cover loosely with a piece of wax paper. Hot process soap can be used as soon as it cools, although it becomes milder (lower pH) as it ages. I usually scrape the hardened soap from the crock pot with a butter knife and form it into a little ball.

If you’re interested in making additional soaps from scratch, learn about the qualities and chemical makeup of the carrier oils, including—especially—the saponification number. That number determines how much lye is needed to make a perfect soap. Mountain Rose Herbs is a great place to start because they offer an extensive selection of top quality organic herbs, essential oils and carrier oils, as well as excellent information on all the herbs and oils that they carry. I especially love their commitment to organic and fair trade, and their beautiful, informative little catalogs that even contain an occasional recipe for something like white chocolate candy or luscious body butter. 

Then, to actually formulate your own soap recipes check out this indispensable site: mms.lyecalculator.com

Off the Grid Kitchen - vegetarian burger

As I get older I feel increasingly passionate about animal cruelty. I’m mostly vegetarian these days. The final push in that direction came when I watched a certain YouTube video shot from a hidden camera at a slaughter house for one of the big burger chains. A young guy was brutally, repeatedly slapping a cow across the face, trying to force it into the chute toward its death. The cow moaned in pain, and the camera captured the terror and confusion in its eyes. I broke down from witnessing the immense cruelty and not being able to do anything about it. I later learned that the abuser in the video was fired, but does that end the problem? Who knows what happens to innocent animals on their path from birth to our dinner table?

Nowadays I may still crave a burger but when I go to bite into one I flash back to that video and just start crying and then I can’t eat. That said, out of deference to my hunter friends I will add that I am not judging them for deer hunting to provide venison for their families. The people I know who rely on hunting for a portion of their protein are not trophy hunters, nor are they cruel. That puts me on the fence about the hunting issue. So, I’ll just move this along to my black bean burger recipe.

Vegetarian burgers don’t always taste appetizing, IMO, usually because of the mushy texture and flat, beany taste. But I have a burger recipe that is so good, at least one meat-eating friend swore it was the real thing. My secret ingredient? Two things, actually: oats for texture and a lot of seasoning for taste. Try it for yourself. Spice it up with your favorite flavors or try something new like, maybe some pesto, or a touch of horseradish…

Vegetarian Burger

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp cumin (or try substituting a bit of tamari sauce or Worchestershire)

1 ½ cup cooked black beans, lightly mashed

1 cup oats (old fashioned provides more texture)

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/3 cup chopped, fresh herbs (whatever you have in the garden; oregano, thyme, basil, savory and parsley all work great for me)

½ tsp dried herbs (same as above)

1 lg egg, beaten

Chill, covered 1 hour to up to 1 day before grilling. Fry 4 to 6 minutes each side.

Makes 4 burgers

Earth Oven Bakery - Handcrafted Pizza

 (See my earth oven under construction)

I’m still working on the perfect timing for both the fire building and dough rising. To avoid the frustration of not having the oven hot enough when it’s time to bake, I start pizza fires before I make the dough because both the rising and the baking go quickly with pizza. Giving the fire 1 ½ hours before removing the hot coals is just about right. The initial oven is very hot, over 500. Wait till it drops to around 450 before the first baking, without toppings. Watch closely; pizza can turn to char quickly. I find 3 minutes is about right in a very hot oven. That way I can partially bake several pizza crusts, one at a time, and still have enough heat to finish baking the pizzas with their toppings. 

Spinach, onion & cheddar on whole wheat

Rosemary, onion & mozzarella pizza

Fresh tomato & basil with Parmesan makes a simple but wonderful pizza.

Although I am beginning to explore gluten-free pizza crust, at this point my favorite for texture and taste is, hands down, a 75/25 blend of unbleached bread flour and whole wheat flour. To make a thin crust that is tender yet crispy, skip the kneading. Mix a soft dough, cover and let rise until double, about an hour. Punch down and let rest 10 minutes, then shape onto pizza pans that have been spread with olive oil and sprinkled with corn meal (optional). Cover loosely and let rise for ½ hour. 

Ingredients for one 12-inch pizza

(Easily multiplied for two or more pizzas)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup plus 2 tbs unbleached bread flour

½ tsp active yeast

½ tsp salt

½ cup water

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp honey

Start with these measurements and adjust as you like after trying the recipe. Bake at app. 425 degrees F for about 3 minutes. Remove from oven, remove from pizza pan and place on pizza peel if you have one. Coat top of crust with olive oil, spread favorite toppings and then cover with shredded cheese. Place in the oven by gently pushing it off the peel, and bake 5 to 10 additional minutes, depending on the heat in the oven.

I like to cut everything chiffonade, or tiny strips. Roll up the greens into somewhat tight little bunches and slice thinly. I also thinly slice (as in slivers) onion, pepper, tomato and anything else I use for a topping. 

Some combinations that have become my favorite earth oven pizzas:

·         Fresh basil and spinach with onion, pesto and mozzarella

·         Onion, spinach and cheddar

·         Sweet bell pepper, holy basil, spinach and mozzarella

·         Tomato, rosemary, onion and feta

·         Tomato, basil and Parmesan

I 

Friends Randy and Melody Strickland came over to taste test some earth oven pizza. Randy’s a carnivore so I made one with thinly sliced ham. We also ate my one-and-only watermelon, from a seedling Melody had given me back in the spring. Turns out to be a good combination, savory pizza with light & sweet watermelon for dessert.