Using chocolate in soap: How much cocoa butter in black chocolate?

[Anstarx]

I've been planning to make a chocolate themed soap and I want to use actual chocolate in it. I have some really nice black chocolate left over from New Year and will never be able to finish them so I wan to try use them in soap as partial replacement to cocoa butter. However, I can't find detailed information on how much cocoa butter there is in black chocolate. The chocolate I have is 85% cocoa content but that include both cocoa butter and cocoa solids.

I did some research and found that there is around 35%~40% cocoa butter in a regular black chocolate. However, the source of this information is not very reliable and it did not state what kind of black chocolate it is. 60%? 70%?
On the other hand, white chocolate- which is mostly cocoa butter, milk, and sugar- has 38%-41% cocoa butter content. So i figured around 35-40% will be a good number to go

My plan so far is to just use 35% as the cocoa butter percentage in chocolate and substitute half of my cocoa butter with chocolate. The extra will go to superfat so I'm using a 4% superfat. Do you think this will be a decent number?

Also, my recipe so far:

I want to use more cocoa butter as I can get them at a decent price here but I don't know how far I can go? This will be a single color pour w/ out any fragrance so I won't worry about acceleration. This is meant to be a super luxury and moisturizing facial soap that I can give out as Christmas gifts this year so I'm using a lot of luxury oils. Really don't wanna mess it up

 

[szaza]

Your idea sounds lovely! I've used up to 40% cocoa butter in my soaps and somehow rice bran oil is giving me more acceleration than cocoa butter (just last week I did a really complicated soap with a 30% cocoa butter and it stayed at emulsion for over an hour).

As for the amount of cocoa butter in dark chocolate, I'd look at the label. The fat content of your chocolate can't really come from anything else than cocoa butter as the only ingredients in 70% dark chocolate are cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar and soy lecithin to emulsify everything. So I'd just take total fat % for the replacement of cocoa butter

Oh I just saw yours chocolate is 85%, not 70% sorry! It has the same ingredients as regular and 70% dark chocolate, just a bit less sugar.

'Regular' dark chocolate is mostly about 53% cocoa (butter+solids) so it contains a lot more sugar than 85%.

Also, check your label to see if your chocolate contains palm oil. It's often used because it's cheaper than cocoa butter. I don't expect it with a 70% chocolate (mostly it's used in cheaper chocolates) but I'd check to be sure.

 

[Misschief]

I make a chocolate soap that's been quite popular. The bottom (base) is coloured with cocoa powder. The top section has a single square of melted baking chocolate in it. I made no changes in the recipe as I figure that the little amount of cocoa butter in one square of baking chocolate isn't going to make a huge difference. There's also a copper mica line between the two layers. It's fragranced with Chocolate Fudge.

 

[Anstarx]

Your idea sounds lovely! I've used up to 40% cocoa butter in my soaps and somehow rice bran oil is giving me more acceleration than cocoa butter (just last week I did a really complicated soap with a 30% cocoa butter and it stayed at emulsion for over an hour).

As for the amount of cocoa butter in dark chocolate, I'd look at the label. The fat content of your chocolate can't really come from anything else than cocoa butter as the only ingredients in 70% dark chocolate are cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar and soy lecithin to emulsify everything. So I'd just take total fat % for the replacement of cocoa butter

Oh I just saw yours chocolate is 85%, not 70% sorry! It has the same ingredients as regular and 70% dark chocolate, just a bit less sugar.

'Regular' dark chocolate is mostly about 53% cocoa (butter+solids) so it contains a lot more sugar than 85%.

Also, check your label to see if your chocolate contains palm oil. It's often used because it's cheaper than cocoa butter. I don't expect it with a 70% chocolate (mostly it's used in cheaper chocolates) but I'd check to be sure.

Wow looking at the fat content is such a great idea!
How did I not think of that lol. But yeah the chocolate I had is a fancy artisan kind so it only has cocoa butter as fat.