Teach Soap

Good day,
1.Will tinned coconut milk at trace curdle?

2.How should I mix Goat's milk powder and when do I incorporate it in my recipe? What quantity for a 32 oz. batch.

Kind regards
Carol-Ann

If you soap cool, tinned milk should not curdle. Mix the dry milk with water to make a paste. You can add this paste as soon as your oils and lye water are mixed together. For a 2lb. batch, I would mix 2 TBS. of powder to a small amount of water.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

When I make GMS, I just literally reconstitute the GM powder according to the directions and use that to replace for the water in the recipe. Some people mix it in at thin trace but I find that this just adds to the soapmaking process because now you're dealing with your fragrance, your color, any additives AND the GM powder so I just like to mix it into my water and then mix my lye with the goatsmilk.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

If you add canned coconut milk at trace, it won't curdle at all. No need to freeze it.

Do be sure and check the ingredients on the can - some brands have all kinds of stuff added, and those additives can make strange things happen.

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I dunno about Carol-Ann, but I don't have time to add cm at trace, unless it slows trace down. Good point about the additives in some coconut milk. The label on the cheapest brand indicated that it was actually a coconut milk "juice" with other juices, sugar, guar gum and some other stuff that I don't remember.

eta: I think the cheap brand was Goya. I bought the Thai brand.

actually, yes, it does slow trace down - similar to adding extra water. You can always add the CM to your oils before you add the lye water, if you're concerned.

I've never had trouble with guar gum, but the added sugar in some brands - wow, will THAT overheat and stink and possibly sieze your soap.

The worst stuff I ever got, back before I learned that labels are there so you will read them, was made for bartenders, and was pretty thick sugar syrup with coconut flavoring. Stirred that in, and BLAMMO. Cement on a stick. Had to wait for gel, in the darn bucket, so I could get my stickblender out.

I have to learn everything the hard way, darn it.

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Another question on CM. .. .I have used for a couple of batches because I love what it does to the lather for me. But in each one, I actually refridgerated the batch vs. insulating or CPOP'ing. But because this isn't a milk, couldn't I CPOP it? What would happen?

Yep, you can CPOP it. It works fine. Unless it's the terrible kind with the added sugar, lol.

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So I CPOPd a coconut milk and lavender/spearmint soap. Oddly enough, and it may not be due to the coconut milk, I got a weird texture at the bottom (lower 1/3 of the bar slice) of the soap when we cut it. It looks like it was cut with a serrated knife (kind of like it has white scratches in it) but it wasn't. This has only happened once before to me. Can anyone think what that might be? I know the soap cutter was clean and it happened on about 3-4 bars out of 11.

Lisa

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

That's odd. Can you show us a picture?

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I will take a photo tonight and post it! I am really hoping you all think it is soap cutter error and not a flaw in the soap. That soap also has little tiny tiny white/clear dots on the top, in the first few millimeters of the soap. Could be airbubbles. Doesn't seem like lye crystals because I licked it.