Need help with halving recipes

[colesmom1]

I tried to make a half batch of the following:

42 oz beef shortening
16 oz coconut oil
12 oz soybean oil
8 oz lard
8 oz cocoa butter
32 oz water
12 oz lye

1 oz peppermint oil at trace
1/4 cup cocoa powder mixed with a little oil added to part of the batch at trace to make a swirled bar.

Everything went well and I poured it into a newly made wooden mold lined with parchment paper. It was warm for about 24 hours and I did not peak until about 48 hours. I went to unmold it and it was dry looking and cracked on top. It felt oily and was crumbly--only the white part not the part with the cocoa powder mixed in. I read after the fact you have to adjust the water when you decrease or increase a recipe so was that the problem? I was wondering if the moisture could have wicked out into the wood and might of caused the problem. Any help is appreciated!

I rebatched it today with some milk and so far it looks ok.

 

[Guest]

The problem might be more with your recipe maybe it cooled down to fast.

But looking at your recipe you have most of your recipe being beef tallow, lard and coconut oil and cocoa butter which product hard bars. And the porportion of each oil could have been a little different.

So while the numbers aren't off a whole lot, it is likely the combination of oils used when you break them down into the property of each one.

 

[Paula58]

Did you run the reduced recipe through a lye calculator? You can not just reduce the lye by half.