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Rebatching/Hand Milling Soap Instructions - Oven Method

What You Need...

• 4 lbs. of Rebatching Soapbase (not melt and pour)
• Cheese Grater
• 2 1/2 to 3 teaspoons essential or perfume fragrance oil
• Soap Color/Dye Liquid or Powdered Oxide Mixed With Water (dye is optional)
• 1 - 4 lb. Loaf Soap Mold
• Roasting Pan with Lid
• Oven Mitts

How to do it...

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F. Grate soap into small shreds using your cheese grater. The smaller the pieces the faster your soap will melt. Place the grated soap in roaster, cover and place in the oven for an hour.

Once the hour is up, take the roaster out of the oven and begin mixing the soap with a large plastic or metal spoon. It should start to appear somewhat transparent and be thick like brownie batter.

Some pieces may be mostly white just as when you first grated the soap. Mix it around. Once the soap is mostly translucent you can move onto the next step. If it isn't, put the lid back on and place it in the oven for another 15 or 20 minutes. Check again. Note: if you are melting more than 4 pounds you may need to add another 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time.

Once the soap is fairly translucent and sticking together in large blobs (love the terminology), you can begin to add your fragrance, dyes, dried flowers, etc. Mix well with your spoon to properly disperse your ingredients. In the example above we added 1/4 cup of liquid honey and 1 cup of ground up long cooking oatmeal. The fragrance chosen was Oatmeal, Milk and Honey to compliment the additives.

Line your loaf mold with plastic before adding your soap.

Pile the soap into your mold and pack down or press into the mold. You may want to use rubber gloves to press the soap into the mold or a piece of wax paper to flatten the top of your bar as shown in the example below:

Let set up for one or two days before removing from the mold and cutting into bars.

Rotate the bars every few days as they're setting up to they don't warp.

Tips:

• If you are using molds with details you may want to coat with vegetable shortening before molding your soap.

• If melting smaller batches of soap you may want to use a smaller roasting pan and check the soap fir the first time in 30 to 40 minutes.

• If soap begins to harden as you are adding your ingredients you can pop it back in the oven to reheat so you can keep working with it.

• You can add other items such as ground oatmeal, poppy seeds and cornmeal for an exfoliating soap.

• To add fresh fruit such as strawberries, crush 1/2 cup of berries for very pound of soap you are melting. Add 1/4 teaspoon of germal plus or other preservative to the fruit and mix well before adding to the soap. You can also use cucumbers, kiwis, bananas, etc.,  but be sure to use a preservative to minimize the possibility of spoilage.

• Up to 1/2 cup of liquid milk can be added to each pound of soap. Longer drying times will be needed for the soap to set up as the excess moisture evaporates from the bars.

• Up to 2 teaspoons of melted butters such as cocoa butter, mango or illipe can be added to 1 pound of soap. This will change the lather to a more thick, luxurious lather instead of a big, fluffy bubbly lather. Also, if you use too much oil, you can end up with a "slick" bar.

• If you have melted more soap than you have molds ready you can make soap balls. Just check them every 20 or 30 minutes after they've been formed to make sure they're still round and reform them if necessary.