Cooked cold process soap

[Walrus]

Made only my second batch today and tried to be clever and gel in the oven rather than wrap or wait.

30 minutes later the soap in the mould resembled cakes. Well risen!

I’ve removed them from the oven and the bars are still staying very warm but are no longer risen.

Will these be OK or will I have to rebatch?

 

[Megan]

Sounds like they overheated. If there is severe tunneling, there may be separation and will not be useable. If they are just cracked they should be fine.

 

[amd]

Made only my second batch today and tried to be clever and gel in the oven rather than wrap or wait.

This process is called CPOP (cold process oven process). When you do it, the correct way is to preheat your oven - usually to the lowest setting it will go, mine is 170 or 180 F, when the oven is to temp TURN OFF THE OVEN and then place your soap in.

How hot was your oven? Did you have the oven on for the 30 minutes that your cake, er I mean soap, was rising?

As Megan said, if the bars are separated they won't be usable as is, but you will be able to rebatch them. We can walk you through a good process for that - but you should be able to easily search the forum as well for the topic. I suspect you will need to rebatch, but I've also never tried to cook my soap like a cake

 

[Walrus]

Thanks for the replies, just been reading the rebatch thread

I’ll leave it over the weekend and decide then whether to get the milk and grater out.

 

[cmzaha]

That is also called a beginning volcano, from overheating. You are fortunate it did not spill over into your oven. I am betting it will be like a very cooked hp and okay since it did not separate in your mold but overheated and caused a near volcano. If it is still in the mold let it harden and de-mold, it should look like a rustic hp or re-batch soap.

 

[Walrus]

My main concern would be what effect this would have on saponification. Could it stop it completing?

 

[amd]

My main concern would be what effect this would have on saponification. Could it stop it completing?

No. This is just a speed up "putting the soap to bed" process. By adding heat you're increasing the saponification process, much like HP (hot process) soap cooks the soap through saponification before it is molded.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

This process is called CPOP (cold process oven process). When you do it, the correct way is to preheat your oven - usually to the lowest setting it will go, mine is 170 or 180 F, when the oven is to temp TURN OFF THE OVEN and then place your soap in.

How hot was your oven? Did you have the oven on for the 30 minutes that your cake, er I mean soap, was rising?

As Megan said, if the bars are separated they won't be usable as is, but you will be able to rebatch them. We can walk you through a good process for that - but you should be able to easily search the forum as well for the topic. I suspect you will need to rebatch, but I've also never tried to cook my soap like a cake

If you are forcing the gel phase, what temperature do you want to try and keep it at?

 

[amd]

If you are forcing the gel phase, what temperature do you want to try and keep it at?

Warm enough to heat through... but not enough to blow up in your face?
Here's a few articles that may answer your questions:
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/when-to-insulate-handmade-soap/
https://www.lovinsoap.com/2016/10/gel-phase-soap-making-preventing-forcing-gel-phase/
https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/troubleshooting-partial-gel-soap/

A Google search for Kevin Dunn's Gel Phase experiments may turn up some interesting things as well.