In all my research on cold process soap making, I came across a few articles about the Hot Process method, but didn't really pay much attention until...... DISASTER! Maybe not that bad, but it seemed like it at the time. I was testing a recipe for a shampoo bar when it seemed to go through all of the things you DON'T want your batch to go through. Acceleration, seizing AND ricing! (I don't think it actually did all three it just seemed like it did.) Anyways, as I was bemoaning all the oils/money that I would have to throw away, I remembered, sometimes you can save your bad batch by Hot processing it. It was worth a shot. I whipped out my crock pot turned it on and dumped in my ugly batch. I ran to the computer and read as much as I could about hot processing.
The hot process is similar to cold process except after your batch has reached 'trace' you continue heating and stirring, lots of stirring, until saponification is completed. Your heat can be double boiler, oven, or like me a crock pot. So I cooked and stirred (don't forget the stirring) my soap until it had a nice mashed potatoes look to it, then I glopped it into a mold. I was able to take it out of the mold about 3 hours later, but I left it overnight and cut it in the morning.
After all that I think I'll stick to cold process soap making, I like to pour my soap into my mold. It was fun to try something different and I might do it again one day, hopefully NOT because I'm having a disaster.
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