This recipe is for a solid soap with a superfat of 5%
Ingredients:
2.04 oz Lye
5.28 oz Water
16 oz Olive Oil
[Total Batch Yield: 23.32oz]
What you'll need:
Molds of some kind that can hold our total batch yield
Thermometer (a candy thermometer or an instant-read would work great)
Mixing bowl (not metal)
Cup
Tool for mixing (an immersion blender works the best but you can do this by hand)
Cooking Pot
Digital scale
Rubber Gloves
Safety Goggles/Glasses
Instructions:
Go ahead an slip on your safety gear before you begin!
Measure out 2.04 oz of lye and set it aside in our mixing bowl, then measure out 5.28 oz of water into a cup. You'll want to take these two items outside to mix them together in your mixing bowl. Go ahead and either place your thermometer in the liquid or have it ready.
THIS MIXTURE WILL GET EXTREMELY HOT AND WILL SMOKE -- stay clear of the smoke and just keep an eye on the temperature we want a temperature of around 120-130°F.
While this is cooling you will want to place 16 oz of olive oil in the cooking pot and set it on medium/low. Our goal is to bring this up to around the same temperature as the lye water (120-130°F).
Once everything is at the right temperature go ahead and combine them in the mixing bowl and begin mixing. Now there is nothing wrong with hand mixing - it will just take more time. Our goal with stirring it to bring the soap to medium trace (e can be described as the mix being like a thick cake batter or thin pudding consistency).
Once trace is reached we will just need to place our mix into our molds - I personally used silicone bread molds.
Now that we have our mix in the molds they will need to rest for at least 24 hours - once that time is up, pop your soap out of the mold and cut it to size if needed.
For pure olive oil soap, in particular, keep in mind that it will do better with age -- initially it won't be as sudsy as you are used to but over the course of 4-6 months of aging it will get there.
This is how I let my soap age, for the first couple of weeks:
It was a really fun experience! I don't think I will ever be buying regular soap bars again. :)