Coconut Butter in soap?

[redhead1226]

Hi all - I have a question that I really have not found an answe to here.

I made some Coconut butter ( blending shredded coconut until it turns into a butter) Its delicious! But too fat laden for me to keep eating it. So I wanted to try it in soap. Has anyone used it? Since I have no SAP numbers I would have to add it to the batter I guess as I dont think Ill find a way to include it as an oil.

Anyone here ever do this? I think it might be nice!

 

[Quanta]

If you add fat to your batter, that is the same thing as including it as an oil. It will saponify with the rest and the extra oil will increase your superfat if you don't account for it in your lye calculator. If you add a small enough amount to not have to worry about that too much, you might not even notice its presence in the finished soap. Remember that a superfat difference of just a few percent is noticeable. Coconut oil will increase the cleansing value of your soap so you might not want to add very much anyway, especially if your recipe already includes coconut oil.

Since you don't have a SAP value for it, you might need to do some experimenting to see how much you can get away with adding. You will need to know what percentage of the butter is actually coconut oil. If this is packaged coconut you bought, there should be nutrition information on the packaging and you should be able to figure it out by looking at the fiber and fat content. If it's fresh coconut, maybe the nutrition information is online somewhere?

I would be interested in hearing how this works out if you try it. I wonder what the addition of coconut pulp will do for soap.

 

[amd]

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/coconut-butter.81605/this previous thread may be of some help. Earlene gave a well thought out post. (as usual, truly an amazing member)

My thought for using it would be to use it at a small amount (maybe 1 or 2%) and decrease the SF, depending on where you normally SF. For example... I use 3% as my default. I'm ok with a slightly higher SF for a "one off" batch, so I probably wouldn't change it. However if I already SF at 5%, I'd consider lowering it to 3%. (Not that I think that the coconut butter in small amounts would push it back up to 5%, I haven't attempted any maths to make that assumption, but simply because 3% is a nice middle ground between 0 and 5.) This is just what I would do.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Oh, I know so well how fine this stuff is! Knead in powdered sugar (excusable because this lowers the exorbitant fat content!) until it has a clay-like texture, and it'll be like marzipan, gianduja nougat, or halva – just with maximum coconut kick!

Back to soapy topic. Coconut milk is essentially this “coconut butter” dispersed in a bit of water, and the insoluble stuff strained off.
So a first lead would be to treat it as “coconut milk, just about twice as strong”. Tons of coconut milk recipes out there, just replace it by half of your coconut butter and half extra water/liquid. You can easily deduce the extra lye needed to saponify the additional coconut oil from the fat content of the copra you used (about 70%).

 

[Marsi]

the SAP value of your coconut butter is
the ordinary SAP value of coconut oil (ie. 0.183)
multiplied by the fat content of your coconut meat (use 2/3, or 0.667, if you are unsure)
multipied by the percentage coconut shreds in your butter (example percentage I use is 23%, or 0.23)

as a mathematical sequence, your calculation will looks like this example:
0.183 x 0.667 x 0.23 = 0.028

Your coconut butter SAP value (in my example calculation, see below for your own calculations) is 0.028


tl;dr
coconut fat content varies according to the coconut variety and age of the coconut

package fat content (specific), if you have made the butter from packaged, dry coconut
and you have access to your coconut shreds packaging
you can take the total fat content directly from the nutritional label

or, for a general fat content (general):
coconut shreds are generally described as having a fat content of two thirds of the dry coconut weight
(taken from 10g of fat in 15g of coconut shreds, as described in this link Unsweetened Shredded Coconut (15g = 3 tbsp) Nutrition Facts & Calories)

calculate the percentge coconut shreds in your butter:
your butter weight is your coconut shreds weight plus the water weight to make the butter
the percentage of coconut shreds in your butter is the coconut shreds weight divided by coconut butter weight multiplied by 100
(I have used 23%, or 0.23, in the example below - replace this with your calculated number)

 

[redhead1226]

Thank you all for your input. I am going to give it a try. I made it to bake with but I never got around to it and frankly its very high in fat which I dont need! lol

Ill post here after I make it. Again thanks!

Sherry

 

[AliOop]

Thank you all for your input. I am going to give it a try. I made it to bake with but I never got around to it and frankly its very high in fat which I dont need! lol

Ill post here after I make it. Again thanks!

Sherry

It can be lovely when added in small amounts to curry soups. Adds depth and flavor and a bit of thickness, without too much extra fat per serving, since it is often just 2 T added to a large pot of soup.

 

[Tara_H]

It can be lovely when added in small amounts to curry soups. Adds depth and flavor and a bit of thickness, without too much extra fat per serving, since it is often just 2 T added to a large pot of soup.

Oh you're making me hungry now!!

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

It can be lovely when added in small amounts to curry soups. Adds depth and flavor and a bit of thickness, without too much extra fat per serving, since it is often just 2 T added to a large pot of soup.

That sounds so yummy'