Mix it, Stir it Up

[ferret]

How do you use your hand held blender. Yesterday I made a batch of lavendar- lemongrass 50%coconut 10%olive 40%palm. And I blended with 5 second bursts and hand stirred. I seem to have a history of getting a false trace or my soap overheats and/ or separates, so I'm trying to cut that out.

When I tried using 10 second bursts I think I had a false trace, so I'd like to hear how others mix/ stir to ensure a good stable trace.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I burst and stir. I think the overheating might be down to the amount of co in the recipe

 

[hmlove1218]

When you say hand blender, do you mean a stick blender/immersion blender or a hand mixer like with beaters? A mixer won't properly emulsify the batter and can also whip in air.

Anyway, to answer your quedtion, I do similar to TEG and blend for a few seconds, stir, blend, stir... until I get the desired trace. I just hand stir with the stick blender until I reach the trace I want so that I'm not constantly taking it out of the soap batter. Once I'm done, I'll take it out and give it a few stirs with my spatula just to make sure everything got mixed in well.

 

[DeeAnna]

With that much coconut, you should get to a real definite trace real fast, especially with a stick blender. If you are getting false trace, that is more due to soaping at low temperature, not to mixing too much. That much coconut coconut will saponify quickly so I agree overheating is a likely issue.

If your batter is separating, it sounds like you may be using too much water in your recipe. So ... what is your recipe -- weights please for all ingredients? What are you doing to the soap after it is in the mold? What type of mold are you using -- loaf, slab, individual bars, ???

 

[LittleCrazyWolf]

I stick blend to emulsion (takes very little time for my small batches). After emulsification, I alternate 5 second bursts with using the SB to hand stir until I reach a very light trace. I almost never use my stick blender after reaching light trace because every single time I do I end up plopping my batter into the mold. If I'm using more than one color then I split my batch soon after emulsification and SB in the colors.

I've never experienced separation thankfully. However, the other day I made a batch of salt bars with 80% CO and it was taking forever to hit trace due to the FO. I kept alternating bursts with the SB and stirring by hand. I even did a couple more bursts after trace just to be sure it was a true trace.

 

[not_ally]

I wait until it is clearly emulsified before I split colors too. I think that almost always the soap will trace/saponify if you blend even to the lightest looking trace after that point though, it seems to want to most of the time. Usually if it doesn't it is b/c of something else (temp) rather than the amount of stirring.

 

[ferret]

This particular recipe didn't overheat or separate. I think because of how I used my stick blender (hand blender).

My temp was 120 degrees F. I think before my temp was higher- around 130 degrees F (and a different recipe). This time I used a mold that does individual bars instead of a loaf mold. So, the type of mold used has an effect on overheating..I didn't know that.

Is a sign of emulsification when the mixture turns cloudy and then a solid color?

This current batch seems to be fine (no overheating or separating) but if I have another recipe that does something funky I will post on here about it! (with my exact weights and all)

Thanks for all your suggestions and questions!!