ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
Let this thread be the home for the troublesome path to mastering of sunflower kernel purée/solids as a green colourant for soap.
I tried adding sunflower purée more or less incidentally (out of boredom) some two years ago in a HP recipe, and was instantly amazed about its performance to dye soap in a dark fir green/turquoise colour. So far, my attempts to recreate this weren't overly successful.
First some pics, since everyone loves pics:
Adding sunflower slurry to a light HP batter as post-cook superfat (10% TOM, makes 5% superfat and 5% extra protein/fibre) …
… instantly becomes bright yellow, and over the course of a few minutes (and constant stirring) it turns into a pronounced grass green colour. 
A few days later, this straight HP soap (the right one) has turned into a blue-spruce turquoise. (Plz don't judge my unmoulding skills, that batch has had other issues, that I don't want to discuss here).
On the left is the outcome of another session, where I made a rebatch of white/uncoloured soap scraps, and added the same 10% TOM sunflower purée – but it turned into a dirty olive green instead.
In the middle, eventually, my pathetic attempt to the June challenge. The natural off-yellow colour of the HP batter is visible at the rear flower (calendula and safflower); upon addition of the sunflower paste, it turned brown this time
.
Quite similar if added to soap dough, too.
Of course I've tried CP as well; the unsightly success was a questionable brownish grey. HP and its dynamic, fluffy, airy nature really appears more adequate to ensure decent aeration of the soap batter for the colour reaction to take place.
Some side remarks: I split the HP dough in half and added vitamin C/ascorbic acid to one half, and the green colour disappeared within a few minutes. Just to reappear over the days days. When I cut the bar in half, it had a practically colourless core. The discolouration depends on oxygen/an oxidising atmosphere, and is purportedly the well-known reaction of chlorogenic acid to coloured oxidation products in an alkaline medium. Headaches for the one, but a possibly interesting colourant for soap on the other hand – if only it were more reliable/reproducible … be assured, I'm holding on and will try again. I'll just leave it here. Maybe someone has an idea, or gets hooked to give it a try by themselves as well.
ETA: I just discovered that the renowned Nordic Food Lab (R.I.P.
) has a thrilling article about sunflower green too:
https://nordicfoodlab.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/2015-9-26-green-sunflower-seeds/
I tried adding sunflower purée more or less incidentally (out of boredom) some two years ago in a HP recipe, and was instantly amazed about its performance to dye soap in a dark fir green/turquoise colour. So far, my attempts to recreate this weren't overly successful.
First some pics, since everyone loves pics:
Adding sunflower slurry to a light HP batter as post-cook superfat (10% TOM, makes 5% superfat and 5% extra protein/fibre) …
… instantly becomes bright yellow, and over the course of a few minutes (and constant stirring) it turns into a pronounced grass green colour. 
A few days later, this straight HP soap (the right one) has turned into a blue-spruce turquoise. (Plz don't judge my unmoulding skills, that batch has had other issues, that I don't want to discuss here).On the left is the outcome of another session, where I made a rebatch of white/uncoloured soap scraps, and added the same 10% TOM sunflower purée – but it turned into a dirty olive green instead.
In the middle, eventually, my pathetic attempt to the June challenge. The natural off-yellow colour of the HP batter is visible at the rear flower (calendula and safflower); upon addition of the sunflower paste, it turned brown this time
.Quite similar if added to soap dough, too.
Of course I've tried CP as well; the unsightly success was a questionable brownish grey. HP and its dynamic, fluffy, airy nature really appears more adequate to ensure decent aeration of the soap batter for the colour reaction to take place.
Some side remarks: I split the HP dough in half and added vitamin C/ascorbic acid to one half, and the green colour disappeared within a few minutes. Just to reappear over the days days. When I cut the bar in half, it had a practically colourless core. The discolouration depends on oxygen/an oxidising atmosphere, and is purportedly the well-known reaction of chlorogenic acid to coloured oxidation products in an alkaline medium. Headaches for the one, but a possibly interesting colourant for soap on the other hand – if only it were more reliable/reproducible … be assured, I'm holding on and will try again. I'll just leave it here. Maybe someone has an idea, or gets hooked to give it a try by themselves as well.
ETA: I just discovered that the renowned Nordic Food Lab (R.I.P.
) has a thrilling article about sunflower green too:https://nordicfoodlab.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/2015-9-26-green-sunflower-seeds/
