How to make coffee body butter

This post will guide you through how to make a delicious coffee body butter.  If you'd rather buy it, the link to purchase is at the bottom of this post

To make this recipe, you'll need:

6 oz coffee butter (or other soft butter like mango or avocado)

6 oz Shea Butter

1.5 oz oil ( I used half sweet almond and half argan oil)

Fragrance oils- I used vanilla and a hint of caffe latte (coffee butter has a strong fragrance already)

2 heaping tablespoons-Arrowroot powder, cornstarch or modified tapioca starch

Preservative (if for other than personal use)

Double boiler or glass bowl and pot

One of these: Immersion blender(stick), stand mixer, hand mixer OR fork

Before you begin you want to disinfect your equipment and workspace.  It's best to use a solution of bleach and water or if you don't have that on hand you could spray everything down with isopropyl alcohol and let it sit for a while then wipe with clean paper towels. I use a new role of towels for each project. 

First you want to melt your butters and oils in a double boiler. If you don't have one, that's okay. You can just use the heat safe glass bowl set on top of a pot with water in it on the stove. Stir over low heat until everything melts together. Don't put butters in the pot directly over heat or microwave them. They can burn and Shea can become grainy if overheated.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it pre-melted.

After you've melted your ingredients, remove the bowl from heat and place it in an ice bath. As you can see, I have my glass bowl inside an ice bath in a larger bowl. My ice bath is mostly ice and a little bit of water. Be careful not to get water into your oil mixture. It can cause dangerous bacteria and mold growth. Even though it's not necessary to preserve in a recipe only containing oils, I always use a preservative, because of the possibility of contamination.

Now you want to continuously stir your mixture to cool it down. When it starts to cool but it's not yet solid, you can add your preservative and fragrance. Make sure to use the manufacturers instructions for percentage of preservative and fragrance in your products.  You can also add your arrowroot powder, tapioca starch or cornstarch at this point (I used arrowroot powder). It helps make your finished butter less greasy

As you stir, the mixture will start to thicken against the sides.  I use my spatula to scrape into the center and continue to stir.

When it starts to look like custard, it's time to get out your blending tool of choice. I like to use an immersion blender because it gives me just enough control. Some people like to use a stand mixer or handmixer.  If you don't have any of these mixers on hand it's okay to use a fork but you'll need to remove the bowl from the bath to whip by hand. When I use my blender, I mix in pulses an make sure to regularly scrap the sides. It should take just a few minutes to get to the right consistency with a blender or up to 20 minutes by hand. It is possible to over whip your butter, so make sure to stop when it looks right. It will start to get fluffy and peaks will form when you dip a spoon in. 

Congratulations! You just made your own amazing coffee body butter. Package your butter in clean jars and enjoy. This recipe made three 4 oz jars. When I scraped all my equipment in an effort to get some for me to keep, I got an additional 2 oz, so make sure to scrap. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please let me know how it goes when you try it or if you have any questions. If you'd rather buy than make, this butter is available in my etsy store.