Guar gum
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Obsidian
Well-Known Member
Yes guar gum is just a thickener and won't hurt your soap.
Iv
What’s your technique?
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
Finely shred your coconut, massage it in a bowl to release the juice. If its a bit dry, add a little of the coconut water.
Once its all juiced up, put it in some cheese cloth or a jelly bag and squeeze the heck out of it.
I put shredded coconut in my blender with hot (not boiling) water and blend it for several minutes until it's thick & creamy. Then pour it through a very fine mesh strainer and squeeze the rest through or towel of several layers of cheese cloth. I use shredded unsweetened coconut that I buy from the bulk store. I freeze it right away and use as needed. I use 1 1/2 to 2 cups coconut to 4 cups water.
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
Thats a whole lot easier then my way, lol
Can't imagine grating a fresh coconut! I was leery at first but it turned out great! Just make sure it's unsweetened.
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
Fresh coconut is easy to grate with a cheese grater and it doesn't take too long. I'd prefer to take a bit of time doing it that way, you never know how old the bagged stuff is.
Save you coconut meal to put in baked goods or smoothies.
Save you coconut meal to put in baked goods or smoothies.
If you use a blender you don't need to grate the fresh coconut. Just chunk it up and chuck it in. I like the idea of using dried though.
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
Its very possible. I recently made salt bars that were 80% coconut oil and used fresh coconut water. That batch heated up like mad. I used individual molds, if it was a loaf it would have split or maybe even volcanoed.
The FO was naughty too though and that increased the heat.
Soap your coconut batch cool and use a very well behaved FO. Have room in your fridge in case you need to get it cooled down.
I'm all about fresh but for soap I'm good with the dried. Besides I don't see fresh coconut where I live very often. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw a fresh coconut.
Mine's in the freezer... I'm thinking about using it as an exfolient in one of my coconut soaps.
cedarstar
Well-Known Member
guar gum in canned coconut milk won't hurt your soap but it will speed your batter up really quick, really really quick. Guar gum is a thickener. I learnt the hard way. I now read all my cans and only buy coconut milk that only coconut and water are ingredients
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Adeliepenguin
Member
I use coconut milk instead of water and I make ice cubes with it and mix it with my sodium hydroxide really slowly bit by bit, this keeps the temperature down and stops it from scorching. I’ve done a salt bar with 50% coconut oil and it was fine, I was thinking about putting it in the fridge but wanted to experiment so left it on the side with no lid on and in an hour I was able to unmold and cut, I normally leave it until the next day with normal soap but I was so glad I cut it after an hour as I would never have been able to get through it! I have been looking for a coconut milk that is 100% but in the U.K. it’s so hard so I’ve settled with one that has only guar gum, rather than a load of Other stabilisers as some have. It’s nice to soap with!
I've never had that happen and always use canned coconut milk and it has guar gum in it. I have nothing but time with my recipe. Sometimes I have to leave it sit on the counter for a bit to thicken.
Have you ever had volcanoes or heating up when soaping with canned coconut milk?
Adeliepenguin
Member
Just want to say I’ve made about 30-40 loafs of soap using 100% canned coconut milk as my liquid and had no volcanoes or heating issues. My soap goes through partial gel phase, left on the side uninsulated, but the ring disappears the next day and you would never know. I put one of my first loaf of soaps in the freezer as I was worried about this and it was the only incident of soda ash I’ve had (not sure if it had anything to do with it but process of elimination points to that)
