Mrs. Zing's Famous Holiday 3-Layer Bar

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TheGecko

TheGecko

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aka Napoleon Cremes aka Christmas Crack

I haven't made it yet. I was just so astonished at the knock at the door being my Bramble Berry order, that I just had to post. To understand my astonishment...I've been ordering from Bramble Berry since June 2019; prior to Covid, wait time between order and delivery was at least a week to 10 days, and after Covid, it was at least three weeks. Mind you, I'm close enough that I could easily drive there and back with breaking a sweat. So anyhoo...I finally gave up ordering anything from them a few months back, but put in an order on Sunday afternoon because pretty much everything on my "Wish List" was on sale and the shipping was cheap. And with Christmas shipping in full swing...I was expecting to get a package from them until the new year. So yeah...I'm pretty shocked to be receiving my order less than 72 hours later!!!

So...I think I will be making soap tonight. Will post pictures tomorrow.
 
Now you have no excuse. Which will it be? Your soap versus guaranteed deliciousness? No pressure or anything.
 

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Zing said:
Now you have no excuse. Which will it be? Your soap versus guaranteed deliciousness? No pressure or anything.
Click to expand...

Since it's soap as opposed to candy, no pressure at all.

It was a close call last night...lots of decisions to be made:

Do I make a single batch and then divide for colors? My recipe has lots of play time which is good for swirls, but I haven't tried layers since a massive failure back in the early days (I used 3 tablespoons of dry TD in 33 oz of oils...you don't want to do that). Or should I divide my batch into three, blend to medium trace and let the first two layers set up? Neapolitan candy had coconut in it...do I even have a bar of unscented soap, much less a bar of white unscented soap that isn't Goat Milk Soap? Turns out I did have a single bar of unscented, uncolored bar and after grating it up, found it was much to soft to chop up into the bits I needed. One one hand I was disappointed that it wasn't going to work, but on the other hand I was happy to see that my soap wasn't a brick after well over a year. Also, I hadn't calculated the additional soap.

Mixed the first layer with TKB Dark Brown Oxide (dispersed in water) and BB Chocolate Ganache to a medium trace. Oh my...it looked and smelled like you'd want to grab a spoon and dig in, but I just poured it into the mold (9-bar). Time for the layer...melted the oils, added in 1 tab dispersed TD, a couple of quick bursts to blend, add in the lye, couple of quick bursts to mix, add in BBStrawberry FO and.....................NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Okay...don't panic, you know you have a well behaved recipe and thus plenty of time to fix this. Grab more oils (thank Gawd for master batching), pour the lye, add TD, mix, add the lye, mix, add RE Vanilla Bean...mix to medium trace and oh boy, must have warmed the oils more than 120F because its heading to pudding fast. Got the white layer in, smacked it really, really good on the kitchen floor flatten it. WHEW! Time for the last layer.

Grabbed the bowl...batter is still very fluid, added in the dispersed RE Fantasia Pink Mica....hmmm, much too light. Grabbed the jar and was just going to add some straight in when I considered that I would need to stick blend or whisk well and that's not really good idea as there is TD in there and I want the top layer to be as fluid as possible. Pour a small amount of Olive Oil in the cup, toss in the mica...stir stir stir...that will work. Pour some into the batter and stir. Hmmm...still too light...do I just dump in the rest? No...don't want to chance it being too dark and having to add more TD. So a little more, and a little more and....perfect. Color is fairly close and batter is still fluid enough to pour. Okay...done, give it a couple of smacks...time to put in the dividers and oh no...how far are these suckers going to go? First time using this mold (BB 9-Bar Birchwood w/Liner and Dividers) and I went with someone's suggestion of 40 oz of Oils, but spaced out on lye solution and fragrance oils. It was close...the dividers stopped about an 1/8 of an inch from the top of the soap.

Looks good, but it needs a little something something. Ah yes...just a touch of sparkle. So I grab my puffer bottle with BB Snowflake Sparkle Mica. I don't want a lot, just a little to catch the light. Perfect! Put the top on the mold, covered with a towel and left it on my cart.

Just checked it. The Pink looks the same as I poured it (ya never know) and there is that tiny bit of sparkle. Touched the top just a tad to see what it was...pretty firm for 9 1/2 hours and a bit lukewarm. It may or may not have gelled...we'll see what late afternoon brings.
 
TheGecko said:
Since it's soap as opposed to candy, no pressure at all.

It was a close call last night...lots of decisions to be made:

Do I make a single batch and then divide for colors? My recipe has lots of play time which is good for swirls, but I haven't tried layers since a massive failure back in the early days (I used 3 tablespoons of dry TD in 33 oz of oils...you don't want to do that). Or should I divide my batch into three, blend to medium trace and let the first two layers set up? Neapolitan candy had coconut in it...do I even have a bar of unscented soap, much less a bar of white unscented soap that isn't Goat Milk Soap? Turns out I did have a single bar of unscented, uncolored bar and after grating it up, found it was much to soft to chop up into the bits I needed. One one hand I was disappointed that it wasn't going to work, but on the other hand I was happy to see that my soap wasn't a brick after well over a year. Also, I hadn't calculated the additional soap.

Mixed the first layer with TKB Dark Brown Oxide (dispersed in water) and BB Chocolate Ganache to a medium trace. Oh my...it looked and smelled like you'd want to grab a spoon and dig in, but I just poured it into the mold (9-bar). Time for the layer...melted the oils, added in 1 tab dispersed TD, a couple of quick bursts to blend, add in the lye, couple of quick bursts to mix, add in BBStrawberry FO and.....................NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Okay...don't panic, you know you have a well behaved recipe and thus plenty of time to fix this. Grab more oils (thank Gawd for master batching), pour the lye, add TD, mix, add the lye, mix, add RE Vanilla Bean...mix to medium trace and oh boy, must have warmed the oils more than 120F because its heading to pudding fast. Got the white layer in, smacked it really, really good on the kitchen floor flatten it. WHEW! Time for the last layer.

Grabbed the bowl...batter is still very fluid, added in the dispersed RE Fantasia Pink Mica....hmmm, much too light. Grabbed the jar and was just going to add some straight in when I considered that I would need to stick blend or whisk well and that's not really good idea as there is TD in there and I want the top layer to be as fluid as possible. Pour a small amount of Olive Oil in the cup, toss in the mica...stir stir stir...that will work. Pour some into the batter and stir. Hmmm...still too light...do I just dump in the rest? No...don't want to chance it being too dark and having to add more TD. So a little more, and a little more and....perfect. Color is fairly close and batter is still fluid enough to pour. Okay...done, give it a couple of smacks...time to put in the dividers and oh no...how far are these suckers going to go? First time using this mold (BB 9-Bar Birchwood w/Liner and Dividers) and I went with someone's suggestion of 40 oz of Oils, but spaced out on lye solution and fragrance oils. It was close...the dividers stopped about an 1/8 of an inch from the top of the soap.

Looks good, but it needs a little something something. Ah yes...just a touch of sparkle. So I grab my puffer bottle with BB Snowflake Sparkle Mica. I don't want a lot, just a little to catch the light. Perfect! Put the top on the mold, covered with a towel and left it on my cart.

Just checked it. The Pink looks the same as I poured it (ya never know) and there is that tiny bit of sparkle. Touched the top just a tad to see what it was...pretty firm for 9 1/2 hours and a bit lukewarm. It may or may not have gelled...we'll see what late afternoon brings.
Click to expand...
Love it' as you're describing each & every step & your emotions & thought process lol. Looking forward to seeing it...
 
Well...they clean up nice and weigh well over 6oz. I've decided that I'm going to give them away since I'm not set up for bars of that size at this time. I'm going to have to get one of those loaf cutter thingies for the future.
 

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