Look what I woke up to!

Shellonian · Jan 4, 2021

So here's my recipe, which is not one I've used before. Fragrances were (as requested) 3g of tea tree and 3g of eucalyptus for 1000g. I've never done a batch this large before either, and it killed my stick blender halfway through. I split and coloured it anyway and waited for it to thicken up a bit, but I'm guessing I ended up with a combination of not really being at emulsion and then getting false trace and now it's split? I left it on the oven over night, now here we are! Do I need to slow cook it?

TheGecko · Jan 4, 2021

When trying a new recipe (or scent or colorant), it is always best to do a small test batch. I have a 4" Silicone Loaf Mold that I use for this purpose (13.5 oz/382.72 g oils).

3 lbs of batter shouldn't have killed your stick blender unless you are using an old one or one of the multi-speed ones and ran it on "1". False trace usually happens when you're soaping too cold using a lot of Hard Oils. One thing you can do is give it a week to see if the oils reabsorb and if not, rebatch it.

Shellonian · Jan 4, 2021

Thanks, Gecko. It wasn't a totally random batch but I should have waited for supplies before scaling up instead of trying to squeak one out!

Yeah, I think my stick blender just had enough. It was old and cheap

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I'm glad there's some hope for it before I have to rebatch. I tried that once before when one overheated and it was not very successful! I'll cross all my fingers and toes and wait

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Many thanks!

cmzaha · Jan 4, 2021

If it is as much oil as it looks I would dump it into a crockpot and hp, since I do not think it will reabsorb. I am guessing it did not come to a stable emulsion with all the liquid oils, but it would not be a false trace without more hard oils such a palm, tallow, soy wax etc. It also could have overheated to further break the shaky emulsion. It certainly was not your Lye Concentration at fault, you did well on that since you are using so many liquid oils.

dibbles · Jan 4, 2021

That looks like a lot of oils to reabsorb to me as well. I agree with @cmzaha - HP would be the best fix.

Dawni · Jan 5, 2021

I've found that a lot of stirring helps with rebatch, like it does regular HP, in terms of fluidity and overcooking/overheating.

I guess the more you're looking at it, the better you can tell when to stop cooking lol