Monday October 20, 2014
Actually we didn't start out with a batch of pumpkin bread in mind. We began today's project with the idea of re-batching some Pumpkin Spice soap that we had made a few weeks ago.
You may look at the picture below and say, why re-batch? It looks great.
The problem with this batch lies in the amount of FO we added; it was too much. When we use FO's that have strong spices like clove, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, etc., we have to scent lightly because many people are sensitive to these spices.
Our plan was simple. We would make another batch of the pumpkin soap and leave the scent out, naked soap essentially. While it was cooking we would grate the scented 1st batch of pumpkin spice soap, melt it down, and then add it to the unscented batch. This new batch would have scent, but it would be 1/2 as strong.
(the bonus today was a batch of pumpkin bread made with the pumpkin we didn't use in the new batch of soap, but I'm getting way ahead of myself)
Our 1st batch of beautiful but overly scented
pumpkin spice soap. Bye bye.....
After 15 minutes with the Cuisinart, we scraped
the mushy parts off the lid and added them to....
the large cooking bag full of grated pumpkin spice soap. Just grating the soap
made the kitchen smell so unbelievably wonderful!
We secured the end of the bag and placed it in a large pot of simmering water.
An hour in, we added 1/2 cup of distilled water which made the soap more pliable.
Meanwhile back at the crock pot, Alison had mixed all the ingredients: coconut, sustainable palm, olive, palmolein and castor oils, 6 ounces of pureed pumpkin, and lye/water. We were letting the unscented batch cook.
We decided to add TD to this batch so we would have an "in the pot swirl" effect once we mixed the two batches together.
The TD lightened up the batter considerably.
When both batches were done we removed the scented soap from
the boiling bag and washed and dried the pot. We placed the
non scented batch from the crock pot into the large pot.
Then we added the grated and melted (scented) batch to the pot by squeezing it out the hole we had cut in the bag.
(We know it looks gross, but trust us, it smells like a pumpkin pie exploded in my kitchen.)
We scraped every single drop out of the bag.
Originally, we planned to aim for an "in the pot swirl;" however, we realized that we needed to thoroughly, THOROUGHLY mix the scented batch into the unscented. We didn't want any pockets of heavily scented soap or any large areas that were completely unscented, so we mixed it until the light and dark colors blended.
Alison had the fun job of plopping the batter into two molds.
One mold on left, one on right. She was trying to keep the batches even.
Here is the first batch,
And here is the second, they look practically identical.
The finished soap.
It still has a nice pumpkin scent, plus we have 18 more bars.
Oops! How did this picture get in here?
The last two mini loafs of the pumpkin bread.....soooo good!
This soap looks so good you might want to take a bite, but we do not suggest it. Sniff instead, or if you really want something good with pumpkin try the recipe I used.
The neat trick for this recipe is to cover the bread with foil after it has been out of the oven for about 5 minutes. I wondered if it would work, and boy did it! This pumpkin bread was VERY moist and yummy.
If you are observant you will notice that there is a large chunk of pumpkin bread missing in the bottom picture. Just sayin'....it's great.
The soap will be ready to use in a week.
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