handcrafted recipes - #2 Whipped Body Butter

 Years ago when this recipe was created, shea butter was pretty new on the market and there weren't a lot of options.  It was that or cocoa butter, and the two of them are vastly different in hardness.  Shea butter has an unfortunate characteristic to the home crafter in that it becomes grainy with the changes of temperature in creating this product and just in everyday life.  I tend to avoid it now because that aspect defeats the purpose in my opinion.
Here is how we made whipped body butter 10 years ago.

Whipped Body Butter - From The Essential Herbal Magazine
1 cup unrefined Shea Butter
1/8 cup Apricot Kernel oil
1/8 cup jojoba oil
20 drops essential oil (rose geranium is great)
Soften the butter in the microwave for 15 seconds. Using a mixer, begin whipping, while slowly adding the liquid oils. Add any fragrance while whipping.

If you've ever made whipped body butter, you'll know that the "using a mixer, begin whipping..." part there is actually pretty humorous.  A stand mixer is just about a necessity for this recipe and it may take upwards of 15 minutes or more before the liquid oils and the butter blend perfectly to a whipped confection.  
I would also add that the butter is heated only to soften.  If it is liquefied, the whipping will take forever.

How my thoughts on this recipe have changed...

There are a lot of new butters on the market.  Some of them include Aloe, Avocado, Coffee Bean, Hemp, Mango, Pistachio, and Almond.  One of my favorites is mango butter because it is much creamier and isn't prone to that grainy feeling.  Because it isn't quite as hard as shea butter, the liquid oils could be decreased by a tablespoon or so.
I haven't tried this yet, but I would like to use cocoa butter.  Cocoa butter is very hard at room temperature, so that means the liquid oils would be increased - perhaps by as much as 100%, so that the combined liquid oils would total 1/2 cup.  The cocoa butter would also need to be liquified, blended with the liquid oils, and allowed to cool thoroughly before whipping.

Although this is a very time consuming and somewhat messy project, it is well worth it.  A nice whipped butter is sheer luxury.

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