Coconut milk bar
A vegan, palm-free bar made with canned coconut milk as all of its liquid and scented with lemongrass. The milk's own fat makes it rich and creamy, which is why the oils carry a lower superfat than usual.
- Skill
- Intermediate
- Method
- Cold process
- Batch
- 1000 g of oils about 1523 g of batter
- Hands-on
- 1 hour
- Cure
- 6 weeks
- Gel phase
- No keep it cool
What you need
For 1000 g of oils, which fills a 1.6 litre loaf mould. Weigh everything, liquids included.
| Olive Oil · 37.0 % | 370 g | 13.05 oz |
| Coconut Oil · 28.0 % | 280 g | 9.88 oz |
| Cocoa Butter · 15.0 % | 150 g | 5.29 oz |
| Sunflowerseed Oil - High Oleic Acid · 15.0 % | 150 g | 5.29 oz |
| Castor Oil · 5.0 % | 50 g | 1.76 oz |
| Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure | 141.8 g | 5.00 oz |
| Coconut milk, canned, frozen in cubes · full-fat; all of the liquid, the lye goes onto it | 361 g | 12.73 oz |
| Lemongrass essential oil · 2.0 % of the oils, at trace | 20 g | 0.71 oz |
- Superfat
- 4.5 %
- Temperatures
- Keep the coconut milk and lye below 30 °C (86 °F) and soap at 27 to 32 °C (81 to 90 °F)
Method
-
Freeze the coconut milk
The day before, shake the can hard so the cream and water mix, weigh 361 g of coconut milk into an ice-cube tray and freeze it solid. -
Get ready
Put on goggles, gloves and long sleeves, work where the air moves, weigh the oils, lye and lemongrass oil, line the mould, clear a shelf in the fridge, and fill a bowl with ice and water for the lye jug to stand in. -
Melt the oils
Melt the coconut oil and cocoa butter gently, stir in the olive, sunflower and castor oils, and let them cool to 27 to 32 °C (81 to 90 °F). -
Add the lye to the coconut milk
Put the frozen cubes in a heat-safe jug standing in the iced water and sprinkle the lye onto the cubes a spoonful at a time, never the milk onto the lye, stirring until each has dissolved before the next. Take 10 to 15 minutes and keep it below 30 °C (86 °F); it turns yellow and thick as the coconut milk's own fat starts to become soap. -
Strain into the oils
Pour the thickened coconut milk and lye into the oils through a stainless steel sieve, pushing it through with a spatula, so no lumps or undissolved lye reach the batter. -
Blend to light trace
Stick blend in short bursts, stirring between them, until the batter looks like thin custard and a drizzle leaves a faint trail. -
Add the lemongrass
Pour in 20 g of lemongrass essential oil and blend for a few seconds to mix it through. -
Pour and chill
Pour into the mould, tap it on the bench to release air, and put it uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours so the loaf stays out of gel. -
Unmould and cut
Let the loaf come back to room temperature before unmoulding, so no moisture condenses on it, then cut it into bars once it is firm, usually 24 to 48 hours after pouring. -
Cure
Stand the bars on a rack with air around them for six weeks, turning them now and then.
Tips
- Use full-fat canned coconut milk. Coconut cream and the light versions carry very different amounts of water and fat, so the recipe would need working out again.
- The coconut milk brings 77 g of fat the lye was not weighed for, which lifts the bar's effective superfat to about 11 %. That is why the oils are set a little lower than usual, at 4.5 %; don't lower the lye any further.
- Coconut milk and lye thicken to a paste faster than dairy milk does. If it gets too stiff to pour, lift the jug out of the ice for a minute and stir, then push it through the sieve.
The oils
| Oil | Share |
|---|---|
| Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil) | 37.0 % |
| Coconut Oil | 28.0 % |
| Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Oil) | 15.0 % |
| Sunflowerseed Oil - High Oleic Acid | 15.0 % |
| Castor Oil | 5.0 % |
How it is made
| Process | Cold process |
| Alkali | NaOH |
| Superfat | 4.5 % |
| Water | lye water at 35 % |
| Iodine value | 56 |
| INS | 152 |
Why make it
A vegan, palm-free bar for people who like the rich feel of a milk soap without dairy. Canned coconut milk replaces all the water and brings about 77 g of fat of its own, so the finished bar carries an effective superfat near 11 % over a balanced base, cleansing 19 and conditioning 57 on our scale. Makers value coconut milk for a creamier, denser lather, much as Casey Makela describes milk making soap creamier and less drying; that is craft experience rather than tested fact. Lemongrass is chosen for its fresh, lemony smell. The caveats: coconut milk and lye thicken fast and scorch if warm, so it needs cold handling, and with that much spare fat the bar can feel a little soft in its first weeks.
Sources
- Making Natural Milk Soap (excerpted from Milk-Based Soaps) · Storey Publishing, 1999
What tradition, makers' experience and research say about soaps like this, each labelled for what it is. It is not medical advice, and no soap treats a skin condition: if you have one, ask a doctor or pharmacist.
What the numbers say
- Lauric acid 13.8 %
- Myristic acid 5.3 %
- Palmitic acid 12.2 %
- Stearic acid 7.8 %
- Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
- Oleic acid 45.4 %
- Linoleic acid 7.2 %
- Other 5.5 %
Saturated : unsaturated 43 : 57
Computed from the fatty acids of the fats above. The bands are what the craft has settled on, not chemistry — a bar outside one is not wrong.
From the guides
All guides
Milk soap: goat milk, freezing and keeping it pale
How to make goat milk soap without scorching it: frozen milk, lye added a spoonful at a time, a cool mould, and a full recipe worked through the calculator.
Palm-free soap: what takes palm oil's place
What palm oil does in a bar of soap, why makers drop it, and how lard, tallow, shea, cocoa, kokum or stearic acid take its place, with worked palm-free recipes.
Superfat and lye discount: why recipes leave some oil unsaponified
What superfat and lye discount mean, how the calculator applies them, where makers set them for each soap, and why oil added at trace isn't the oil left over.
Guides with this recipe
Where these proportions come from
Our own vegan, palm-free blend with canned coconut milk as the whole liquid, the way Corley Barto uses it, but frozen and kept below 30 °C. The superfat is set at 4.5 %, a little under our usual 5 %, because the coconut milk brings about 77 g of fat of its own that the lye is not weighed for.
Formulation adapted from The Natural Soap Chef by Heidi Corley Barto (Ulysses Press, 2012). The method and notes are ours.