Ever had Twice Baked Soap?

So you all know my soaping method of choice is Cold Process Oven Process right? That's where I pour my soap in the mold and instead of putting it away wrapped in a blanket for 24 hours, I put mine in the oven at 170 degrees for 90 mins. I then turn the oven off and let the soap sit in the warmed oven for up to 18 hours. This shaves at least 2 weeks off the cure time which is right up my alley since I'm an impatient individual.

Now, one evening I decided to make a batch of soap. I went through the whole oven ritual as per normal. The next morning I checked my soap log and it was beautiful. Nice and firm and ready to be removed. For whatever reason (possibly laziness), I decided to let it continue sitting in there until later that day when I would have the time to slice it right away.

My mother would have said "Never put off til tomorrow what you can do today" - never a truer word has been said!

Later on that afternoon, to my horror I discovered that husband had decided to make dinner so turned the oven on full hilt to get it warmed up (of course he didn't open it to check 1st). I didn't even remember my soap until I smelled something funny coming from the kitchen. I ran like I've never run before, flung open the oven door to discover it was a little smokey in there. The wax paper lining the mold was a little burnt and worst of all my soap log had reverted back to the gelling stage. It was soft and mushy'ish. I wanted to cry.....I mean really really cry. This was a batch of plain unscented oatmeal soap and you all know how hard it is for me to make "unexciting" soap. I sat my burned up soap to the side and removed myself to the bedroom where I could mourn the death of my log in peace.

Fas forward to the next day......I went to check on the burnt up log and to my surprise, it not only looks normal but is ROCK HARD. I mean it's as hard as it would have been if it had been curing for a month. I did the zap test and it passed. I sliced a piece off and immediately washed my face with it. If anything was wrong with it my face would certainly tell me. NOTHING! The soap was perfectly fine.

So once again another lesson has been learned. Twice baked soap is OK. I guess it's no different to hot processing!

Next time I'll try it with a scented batch just to see if double cooking affects the fragrance at all.