Oven HP Directions, ©2001 (Lezlee Williams)
Follow your normal recipe and precautions when
making your soap. When making
Oven Hot Process (or any hot process for that matter) you do not
need to wait
for your melted oils/fats and your lye water mixture to cool
down, but you
can if you wish.
Turn your oven on to Warm (170-190 degrees). Stir your soap to
trace. It's
important that your traced soap not fill more than one half of
your pot.
Your soap will creep up the pot a bit as it cooks. You want to
insure you
have room in your pot for your soap to stretch and grow a bit.
If you need
to transfer your soap to another container in order to achieve
this, make
sure that your pot is lye safe. Personally, I use the same pot
for the
entire process.
Place a lid on your soap pot and place it into your preheated
oven for 30
minutes (set the timer). At this point, pull out your soap pot,
lift the lid
and stir your soap very well. Your soap will look like cookie
dough at this
point. It will be much thicker than before the cook, and
somewhat difficult
to stir. You need to make sure that you incorporate the bottom
portion
(which is most likely gel) into the rest of your soap.
Put the cover back on the pot and place back into the oven for
another 15
minutes (set the timer). Take the soap pot out and stir very
well. Your
soap should look transparent and somewhat like applesauce or
mashed potatoes
at this point. Stir well, fragrance and color, if desired. I
usually let my
soap sit with the lid off for a few minutes at this point to cool
off. Don't
wait too long as your soap will harden quickly. Usually 2-3
minutes will
cool it down quite a bit and enough so that the heat won't
evaporate your
fragrances. REMINDER: When making hot process soap of any kind
you can get
away with using half of your normal fragrance rates. Your soap
will not be
pourable as with soap that has not been cooked. You can add a
touch of water
before fragrancing and coloring, if you wish, to smooth out your
soap some.
Remember that any water that you add at this point will add extra
time to the
drying/curing process of your soaps.
I've been told that during the first 30 minutes you are
completing the
saponification process and during the last 15 minutes you are
cooking out the
extra water. Glop this soap into a PVC pipe, PVC downspout or a
HP-safe
mold. If using a PVC pipe, scoop a few cups of soap and tap the
pipe on the
floor to work out any air bubbles. Continue the soap, tap
routine until
you're finished filling the mold. If putting into a tray or log
mold you can
use Saran Wrap or freezer paper to place on the top of your soap
and use a
spatula to smooth out the top. I keep the Saran Wrap or freezer
paper on my
soap until it's cooled enough to remove without pulling up the
soap with it.
There is no need to insulate your molded hot process soap. Once
the soap is
cool (usually 4-6 hours), unmold and cut. Your soap is ready to
use at this
point, but I usually let mine sit 7-14 days. As with any soap,
the longer it
sits the better it is.
Clean up is very easy. Add water to your soap pot .. and ala
Peanut Butter
Sandwiches .. you have soapy water! No oily slimy mess!
Editor's Note: Depending on the size of your batch, your soap may take longer than noted in all categories. Some soapmakers have noticed that in hot process methods, larger batches may need to cook longer.
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