GM soap - Lye mixing

[laut]

I know this sounds like a dumb question... but I'm going to fire it anyway.
I LOVE Goat Milk soap. However, mixing lye into frozen goat milk is... well.... time-consuming and lots of elbow grease. Just keep mixing x 5000
I have a kitchen aid mixer at home. I wonder if I can use that for goat milk and lye mixing...

Has anyone done that? If so, any recommended hooks/ attachments?
OR any tips to mix lye and GM that will be less labor-intensive. I would LOVE any tips!

 

[Kari Howie]

I’d be afraid the lye might damage my KitchenAid, plus send lye solution flying everywhere. Perhaps you could use your immersion blender to mix the frozen goat milk and lye in a tall container. That being said, I never found hand mixing with a spoon to be that onerous.

 

[AliOop]

I agree with @Kari Howie and also think that even an immersion blender is a risky proposition for mixing lye solution. One tilt of the blender shaft could send caustic spatters in every direction - including your face, and other surfaces where you may not see the spatter until the lye has damaged the surface.

One recommendation I have is to freeze the milk in larger containers instead of ice cube trays. If you know how much milk you need for each batch, freeze that exact amount in your container of choice. That way, you aren't going through the laborious process of pouring the milk into small ice cube tray openings. To me, that is far more tedious than the process of dissolving the lye in the frozen milk. Also, when you are ready to soap, no measuring is needed. Simply remove the single frozen chunk from the freezer, and start the process of dissolving the lye. One YT soaper who uses single packages of frozen milk in this manner is Oh Yyonne.

 

[cmzaha]

Another suggestion, if you do not have goats, use dry GM powder. No issues you just mix the gm in your water then add in your lye. Otherwise, use the 50/50 method instead of 100 gm. Personally, I found GM powder so much easier to use.

 

[Maple_Street_Bath]

My thought: use only a portion of the GM as frozen and the remainder as cold GM (maybe 75/25?). This would still keep temperatures cool, but having a bit of liquid already available may help start the process.

 

[Savage Daughter]

I know this sounds like a dumb question... but I'm going to fire it anyway.
I LOVE Goat Milk soap. However, mixing lye into frozen goat milk is... well.... time-consuming and lots of elbow grease. Just keep mixing x 5000
I have a kitchen aid mixer at home. I wonder if I can use that for goat milk and lye mixing...

Has anyone done that? If so, any recommended hooks/ attachments?
OR any tips to mix lye and GM that will be less labor-intensive. I would LOVE any tips!

Personally, I would not use a mixer of any type used for baking. Even when making something like muffins, things can splatter due to the lower sides of the bowl & the larger size of the attachments which come too far up the sides of the bowl. Even with the plastic covers for the bowls, things splash.

I don't find this process very time consuming, to be honest. It really doesn't take that long for everything to melt down. I do find though that sometimes little bits of lye can crust up on the bottom of my lye pitcher.

@AliOop advised against using a stick blender. I disagree on that one as once my lye is fairly well dissolved, I do exactly that to dissolve lye crystals which adhere to the bottom of my pitcher. After scraping that as well as I can, I simply keep the blender on the bottom of the container & mix well using my stick blender. This also gives me a nice, homogenous mixture as my goats milk tends to separate while cooling. I give it a good buzz again right before combining my lye & oils.

I use a large pitcher with very high sides to avoid splashing. Much higher than the level of my lye solution. I do the same with my coconut milk / lye mixture before adding it to my oils. This also results in less stick blending once I have combined my lye solution / oils, which makes it easier for me to get to *just* the emulsion stage, giving me more time to work with colorants, essential oils & so on. This is important for me as I only use natural colorants, which can sometimes be challenging.

Anyways, using common sense, protective gear, and some appropriate equipment, it CAN be done without injuring yourself. That said, I am not responsible for any personal errors in judgement or lack of precautions you might make / not take

 

[KiwiMoose]

How much are we talking here? A huge quantity? Mine takes only minutes to mix. I use 320g of goat milk frozen, and 140g of lye.
I freeze my goats milk 'flat' into ziplock plastic bags (snack or sandwich sized only). When i take it out of the freezer I smash it on the side of the kitchen sink a couple of times to break it up and also chip away at any large chunks (once it's in the mixing jug) with a sharp knife. I end up with some chunky ice and 'snow' into which i put about half of my lye and mix it in until it's a bit more sludgy, then add the balance of the lye and keep stirring until it's all dissolved. It goes immediately into a cold water bath once dissolved while I continue melting my oils etc.

 

[dmcgee5034]

Lots of good advice here. I use GM powder. I used to premix it and then freeze into cubes and do what you do, mix and mix with my bowl over an ice bath.

Making a 50/50 lye solution and letting it cool completely and then mixing my additional liquid and GMP has saved me a ton of time.

 

[Marie_with_an_e]

I generally use a 50/50 lye mixture with distilled water, then add the cold (not frozen) GM to my oil/lye mixture at trace. When I do a batch with full GM, I add the lye to my frozen GM cubes and blend with a whisk in a plastic container with sides much higher than my mixture. I would be so skeered to use any kind of blender .

 

[dmcgee5034]

When I mixed my lye into frozen GM cubes, I did give the mixture a final whirl with my SB at the end. It helped break up and dissolve any final lye chunkies and keep the mixture thin. I also made sure to always strain my lye as I poured it into my oils to be sure no undissolved lye remained since you cannot see through it.
I believe I picked up the SB trick from @TheGecko - I was always careful but never afraid. Keep the blender down and be sure it’s come to a complete stop before you lift it.