Diane's Naturally Handcrafted Soap - Natural handmade soap for sensitive skin

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Hot Soap and Rebatch (3)

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Hot Process Soap, Oven Method

This method was given to me by Nancy in Cincinnati. She was given it by someone else.

I love the double boiler but the oven sure is handy.

What I do is... while getting the lye/caustic and oils mixed I turn on the oven so it will be 125ºC/240ºF by the time I have the soap to trace.
I make sure that I am working with oils and lye/caustic water with temps of around 46Cº/125ºF absolute maximum.
I usually go lower than that with any oils i cook. This is due to my belief that cooked soap does best at lower temperatures, both for the starting temps and the cooking temps.

Then I put the traced soap into the oven and turn it off. I leave it alone and dont mix for an hour.
I watch it to see that it dosnt bubble up. If it does I tend to let a bit of heat out of the oven.
At the end of an hour most soaps are done.
Larger batches over about 8 pounds/4 kg..... I tend to add a bit of heat to at the end to make sure they are done.

This soap does not get boiled and bubbled to bits. It does not go thro "stages". It sits there and does its thing and turns into cooked soap. There may be some small bubbles on the surface it you look at it. It does not run over the sides or volcano.
At the end of the cook it may be a whole lot cooler than soap cooked other ways/with more heat and that is useful as it makes the soap more ready to accept the FO/EO and other additives.

I find that I can tell that this soap is cooked by the way it sort of slides off the spoon. I dont do the tongue test but others do.

You will only need to do a batch or two and you will know what to do and expect.
Bear in mind that ovens do vary in their heat retaining ability so use this as a guide to start with.

If you want to do your oven soap with the oven turned on it will take a bit less time.
I suggest that you start with your traced soap and put it into an oven at around 100ºC / 200ºF.
This may well bubble and do "stages" so i would look at having less soap mix in the pot for this method till you work it out for each recipe yourself.
Keep your eye on it and stir it down if it bubbles. At 3/4 of an hour I would check it as it will be getting near cooked, depending on the oven and the oils. I would look at something under one hour myself for my oven.

For both methods..... add fragrances and colours you want at the end of the cooking.
Stir the soap and let it cool as much as you can to conserve the fragrances which may be volatile.
I can cook ultramarines that are green and violet, but not the pink and blue (ie I add them at trace and they go in the oven). Some people just prefer to add them at the end of the cook along with all the other botanicals etc. that they may use.

In my experience true Castile soap, which is made with Olive oil only, needs to cook longer than soaps made with a mix of oils. I personally add add some heat to my "turned off oven" method after the first hour for about 1/2 hour and then find that it has cooked off most of the water I am after loosing.
For the "turned on oven" method i would test it at an hour and a half, and it should be done around then.

Please note hese are guides only and everyone will find that for them one thing or another works better with their ovens.