akseattle
Well-Known Member
What do you do when your batter seizes?
What will be the impact of all this water?
and, do some FO's react poorly with ground oatmeal?
Well, it looks like I haven’t learned my lesson(s).
The lessons being 1) to try to go with the flow instead of trying to force batter to do what I wanted it to do, when it’s clear it wants to do something else. 2) when my batter seizes, just smash in it!! 3) look at my journal from time to time to refresh my memory!!! 4) give thought to ALL additives, don’t be casual about ANY!!
I made a Hazelnut Coffee and Vanilla Sugar batch (blend of FO’s) with ground oatmeal (not colloidal oats) and espresso grounds this weekend. I thought I’d do a 3 color swirl. Adding ground oatmeal to part 1 that had no colorant was a decision made on the fly.
I had tested this Hazelnut Coffee FO on one single cavity bar. It seemed uneventful. Later, it occurred to me I hadn’t done a test batch of the vanilla sugar FO
Things were going slowly and swimmingly with my high lard & tallow recipe. I divided it into 3 parts, added espresso grinds to 2 of the parts, added colorants to those 2 parts, hand stirred. All was still good. Then, I decided to add finely ground oatmeal (not colloidal) to uncolored part 1. I hand stirred that and then divided the FO blend evenly between the 3 parts.
I had barely added the last drop of FO when the oatmeal part began to thicken and swell right in front of my eyes. I considered just scooping it into the mold but it was very grainy and like swelled- up baby cereal. I wasn’t sure if it had saponified. But, it got pretty rock hard. So, no scooping was possible.
I couldn’t say for sure, but I thought I read a thread in the last couple months where someone’s batter had done this and someone said add a little water, stir, and it will smooth out. So, I quick boiled some water in the microwave. I added water and stirred by hand until I’d added about ¼ cup. It wasn’t smooth but at least I could move it around (think of a butter, sugar & egg mixture before it's beaten to smooth and creamy... except brown.) It took kind of a while and I noticed the other two parts were looking like they were starting to swell. I started to stir them by hand and they also started to seize. Basically, I spend about one hour stirring and adding water to each part. I finally got it all (a rare, big-for- me 1000 gram batch) into a mold. I put it on a heating pad and about 30 minutes later, decided to peak at it.
It was pretty squishy (as it was when I smashed it in). If I pushed on one side, it rose up on the other side…. I dug into it and saw their were syrupy, liquid rivers in there. So, I took it back out of the mold and put it back into the bowl and hand kneaded it just like you would a cookie dough. When the syrupy rivers seemed to be incorporated, I smashed it back into the mold. Put it back on a 1 hour timed heating pad, covered it and about 20 hours later, I cut it.
It was wet, but it actually sliced really easily; except that little wet, crumbly pieces fell off.
It looks quite a bit like a really lardy meatloaf. I gathered the crumbly pieces and rolled them into a ball. I’ve put the sliced soap into a wooden crate where I cure my soaps. I’m not going to look at them again until I need to make room for another batch…
I looked at my journal today (at batch #6- coffee and vanilla loaf with expresso grounds). That batch had accelerated and I noted that many soapers on forums had warned about coffee FO’s accelerating. One review for the Vanilla Sugar FO says it seized in CP. It’s so rare that I don’t test an FO before making a whole batch, I regret I didn’t go back to read my notes on the FO I hadn’t tested.
But, what I’m wondering is: Other than to turn my soap into a not so great looking meatloaf, what is the effect of all that water (I’m sure I added at least one whole cup) in my batter? The bars were pretty much sticking together when I put them in the crate, but I wonder it if they will get really crumbly as they dry out? I used a 40% lye concentration and 5% superfat. If it does not zap (I’m in no hurry to look at or zap this batch…) can I assume that it is safe to use?
Unless it turns out to feel absolutely amazing when I finally get around to testing it ( in a couple months), I think I will give it to a shelter – it actually smells fine. I don’t know if the fragrance will evaporate away with the extra water?
What do other do when your soap seizes?
Do some FO's react poorly with oatmeal?
It seems that the 1 part with the ground oats seized the worst. Same batter, same FO. No coffee grounds. I added 2 heaping teaspoons of ground oatmeal to 455 grams of batter.
Was this just too much on the high side? I used only a rounded teaspoon of expresso grounds in each of the other 455 gram parts.
I feel like I should have had a better plan.
What will be the impact of all this water?
and, do some FO's react poorly with ground oatmeal?
Well, it looks like I haven’t learned my lesson(s).
The lessons being 1) to try to go with the flow instead of trying to force batter to do what I wanted it to do, when it’s clear it wants to do something else. 2) when my batter seizes, just smash in it!! 3) look at my journal from time to time to refresh my memory!!! 4) give thought to ALL additives, don’t be casual about ANY!!
I made a Hazelnut Coffee and Vanilla Sugar batch (blend of FO’s) with ground oatmeal (not colloidal oats) and espresso grounds this weekend. I thought I’d do a 3 color swirl. Adding ground oatmeal to part 1 that had no colorant was a decision made on the fly.
I had tested this Hazelnut Coffee FO on one single cavity bar. It seemed uneventful. Later, it occurred to me I hadn’t done a test batch of the vanilla sugar FO
Things were going slowly and swimmingly with my high lard & tallow recipe. I divided it into 3 parts, added espresso grinds to 2 of the parts, added colorants to those 2 parts, hand stirred. All was still good. Then, I decided to add finely ground oatmeal (not colloidal) to uncolored part 1. I hand stirred that and then divided the FO blend evenly between the 3 parts.
I had barely added the last drop of FO when the oatmeal part began to thicken and swell right in front of my eyes. I considered just scooping it into the mold but it was very grainy and like swelled- up baby cereal. I wasn’t sure if it had saponified. But, it got pretty rock hard. So, no scooping was possible.
I couldn’t say for sure, but I thought I read a thread in the last couple months where someone’s batter had done this and someone said add a little water, stir, and it will smooth out. So, I quick boiled some water in the microwave. I added water and stirred by hand until I’d added about ¼ cup. It wasn’t smooth but at least I could move it around (think of a butter, sugar & egg mixture before it's beaten to smooth and creamy... except brown.) It took kind of a while and I noticed the other two parts were looking like they were starting to swell. I started to stir them by hand and they also started to seize. Basically, I spend about one hour stirring and adding water to each part. I finally got it all (a rare, big-for- me 1000 gram batch) into a mold. I put it on a heating pad and about 30 minutes later, decided to peak at it.
It was pretty squishy (as it was when I smashed it in). If I pushed on one side, it rose up on the other side…. I dug into it and saw their were syrupy, liquid rivers in there. So, I took it back out of the mold and put it back into the bowl and hand kneaded it just like you would a cookie dough. When the syrupy rivers seemed to be incorporated, I smashed it back into the mold. Put it back on a 1 hour timed heating pad, covered it and about 20 hours later, I cut it.
It was wet, but it actually sliced really easily; except that little wet, crumbly pieces fell off.
It looks quite a bit like a really lardy meatloaf. I gathered the crumbly pieces and rolled them into a ball. I’ve put the sliced soap into a wooden crate where I cure my soaps. I’m not going to look at them again until I need to make room for another batch…
I looked at my journal today (at batch #6- coffee and vanilla loaf with expresso grounds). That batch had accelerated and I noted that many soapers on forums had warned about coffee FO’s accelerating. One review for the Vanilla Sugar FO says it seized in CP. It’s so rare that I don’t test an FO before making a whole batch, I regret I didn’t go back to read my notes on the FO I hadn’t tested.
But, what I’m wondering is: Other than to turn my soap into a not so great looking meatloaf, what is the effect of all that water (I’m sure I added at least one whole cup) in my batter? The bars were pretty much sticking together when I put them in the crate, but I wonder it if they will get really crumbly as they dry out? I used a 40% lye concentration and 5% superfat. If it does not zap (I’m in no hurry to look at or zap this batch…) can I assume that it is safe to use?
Unless it turns out to feel absolutely amazing when I finally get around to testing it ( in a couple months), I think I will give it to a shelter – it actually smells fine. I don’t know if the fragrance will evaporate away with the extra water?
What do other do when your soap seizes?
Do some FO's react poorly with oatmeal?
It seems that the 1 part with the ground oats seized the worst. Same batter, same FO. No coffee grounds. I added 2 heaping teaspoons of ground oatmeal to 455 grams of batter.
Was this just too much on the high side? I used only a rounded teaspoon of expresso grounds in each of the other 455 gram parts.
I feel like I should have had a better plan.
