Oats, Goats & Honey.

Last time I tried to make Oatmeal, Milk & Honey in the summer, I had a huge disaster on my hands.  After the process of mixing the lye-water and oils, the emulsification heats up and turns into soap.  Several factors can accelerate and intensify this process; milk, honey and some fragrance oils will do this as well as pouring the oils and lye-water when they're still a bit too warm can compound the situation along with warm air temperature.  Well... this one time, in my kitchen, I had all of these factors going for me and found myself with a volcano on my counter.  This thing went in to instant gel, which normally takes an hour or two.  I stuck that puppy in the freezer but it was too late.  The inside got very hot and started to expand and broke through the more solidified surface creating a big, ugly, hollow log of usable but ridiculously ugly soap.

Needless to say, I sort of chickened out from making another for a while.  On the first cool night of the fall, I froze some goats milk before adding the lye and gave the oils and water substantial time to cool down to my satisfaction.  Everything went as planned and I stuck the big ol' batch under the fan and all was well.  As these bars have cured, they've gone a nice rich brown and they look beautiful.  I'm so proud... *sniff*  These puppies will be ready for sale in just a couple more weeks.