32 replies to this topic

[Darienne]

Chef Eddy van Damme has a very nice blog which I have just started to follow...that's what I need...more blogs to follow . Chef Eddy's last post was about tempering chocolate using grated cocoa butter I think I'll try it.

Had anyone tried this technique? Does anyone use this technique regularly? Any opinions, advice, etc? All replies gratefully received.

[dhardy123]

I sometimes use Mycryo which is basically the same. Eddie's procedure is basically the same...1% of weight, 35 degrees, etc.

I have never had any tempering problems using the Mycryo.

[Darienne]

I sometimes use Mycryo which is basically the same. Eddie's procedure is basically the same...1% of weight, 35 degrees, etc.

I have never had any tempering problems using the Mycryo.

Hi David,

Thanks for the answer. Although I have read and heard about Mycryo, I never really addressed my lack of knowledge at the time. The time is now. I do have some LorAnn cocoa butter on hand. Is it good enough to use? Chef Eddy uses Callebaut cocoa butter.


Do you use this method often? All the time? Why or why not?

Thanks.

[RobertM]

Darienne - I know you're still listed as "desperately wanting to" come to the confectionery conference next month - if you can make it, remind me, I have a bunch of Mycryo, I would be more than happy to give you a sample. In the event you can't make it, send me a message with your address, I'll still send you some -

Bob

[Darienne]

Thanks Bob for your offer but I'm sure I can get some in Canada, through Kerry Beal perhaps. Friends and I are taking a chocolate class from Kerry in May.

Do tell me though...how often do YOU use this technique for tempering and why or why not?

Thanks again.

[lebowits]

I sometimes use Mycryo which is basically the same. Eddie's procedure is basically the same...1% of weight, 35 degrees, etc.

I have never had any tempering problems using the Mycryo.

Hi David,

Thanks for the answer. Although I have read and heard about Mycryo, I never really addressed my lack of knowledge at the time. The time is now. I do have some LorAnn cocoa butter on hand. Is it good enough to use? Chef Eddy uses Callebaut cocoa butter.


Do you use this method often? All the time? Why or why not?

Thanks.

It shouldn't matter what cocoa butter you use. Cocoa butter is the component of chocolate which contains the important crystal structures (beta crystals) which are the "good crystals" required to achieve temper and get a nice shine. Mycryo is a brand of cocoa butter which is "flaked" to make it easy to use.

[Darienne]

Somebody PLEASE ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!

How often do you use this method? Why or why not?

[RobertM]

While I have a bunch of Mycryo I haven't yet tried it - possibly because I'm "afraid" to - in that I know how to temper my chocolate, I know it works and I dont want to screw it up - yet, I sit on the product - stupid, huh?

Kerry is coming to the conference - I'll give her some to bring back to you -

[Darienne]

While I have a bunch of Mycryo I haven't yet tried it - possibly because I'm "afraid" to - in that I know how to temper my chocolate, I know it works and I dont want to screw it up - yet, I sit on the product - stupid, huh?

Kerry is coming to the conference - I'll give her some to bring back to you -

I don't know about the 'stupid' part...surely human. Perhaps you could suggest that to Steve Lebovits as a short chocolate project to try.

And thanks about the Mycryo. That's super of you. I've already told Kerry...not letting anyone off the hook.

I am going to try the process with my LorAnn cocoa butter next. If only I could just play at chocolatier all day long...

[RobertM]

How much chocolate (by weight) do you usually temper? I'll make sure you get a good sample to use/try - I've talked to the salesman several times about it - and they tell me using it is super simple and easy - just need to get out of the old comfort zone -

Then he pulled me to the side and said - "Bob - the next time you grill a steak; put Mycryo on both sides of the steak before you grill it - because it makes the best D**n steak you'll ever eat - "

...and now that spring is almost in the air here in DC - well - maybe - ....

Yes - if only we could play in chocolate all day ...

[Darienne]

Yes - if only we could play in chocolate all day ...

Sounds good to me.

Usually temper about two pounds if by hand. (Have a Revolation I and so often temper by machine. )

[dhardy123]

Darienne,

I use it at least 95% of the time. As you know, I do all my tempering by hand so I use this method so I don't have to worry about any unmelted pieces of chocolate. The only time I use the seeding method is when I don't know if I will have enough chocolate to mold, etc so I add the extra pellets to give me more chocolate.

To date, I have not had any problems using either method but using Mycryo (or grated cocoa butter) is alot easier.

Off topic, I have also used Mycryo to saute chicken breasts and they have tasted fantastic.

[Kerry Beal]

While I have a bunch of Mycryo I haven't yet tried it - possibly because I'm "afraid" to - in that I know how to temper my chocolate, I know it works and I dont want to screw it up - yet, I sit on the product - stupid, huh?

Kerry is coming to the conference - I'll give her some to bring back to you -

Don't know if I really want to bring a package of powder on a plane!

[Darienne]

OK. No problem. I'll ask David Hardy for some. He offered to give me some when we come to your class in May. I just turned him down...but now will just turn him up.

[Edward J]

[

I am going to try the process with my LorAnn cocoa butter next. If only I could just play at chocolatier all day long...

Watch out! Mycro is cooca butter, but cocoa butter is NOT Mycro....

To make Mycro you take hot (aprox. 45 C) cocoa butter and spray it on a frozen marble roller in a cold room. In effect, what you have is pure beta 6 crystals.

"Regular" cocoa butter does not go through this treatment and may or may ot be tempered.

I was shown the Mycro technique by Callebaut Pastry Chefs "On tour" here in Vnacouver. It works, and it works quite well, but-tum, erh, well....

You need to have your couverture at almost precisely 35 C, and you need to know your weight of your couverture so you an scale out your 1%.

For me, It' far easier to have my couverture warmed at around 45 C overnight, and when I come in the morning, I seed it and cool it down with regular couverture chips. Very simple, very easy.

I don't know what a kg of Mycro is costing, I'm paying around CDN $15 / kg for "Kessko brand" cocoa butter.

[Darienne]

Watch out! Mycro is cooca butter, but cocoa butter is NOT Mycro....

To make Mycro you take hot (aprox. 45 C) cocoa butter and spray it on a frozen marble roller in a cold room. In effect, what you have is pure beta 6 crystals.

"Regular" cocoa butter does not go through this treatment and may or may ot be tempered.

I was shown the Mycro technique by Callebaut Pastry Chefs "On tour" here in Vnacouver. It works, and it works quite well, but-tum, erh, well....

You need to have your couverture at almost precisely 35 C, and you need to know your weight of your couverture so you an scale out your 1%.

For me, It' far easier to have my couverture warmed at around 45 C overnight, and when I come in the morning, I seed it and cool it down with regular couverture chips. Very simple, very easy.

I don't know what a kg of Mycro is costing, I'm paying around CDN $15 / kg for "Kessko brand" cocoa butter.

Oh... I see... Hmmm.... Thanks, Edward J. Will keep all that in mind. Thanks for your detailed answer.

[Kerry Beal]

[

I am going to try the process with my LorAnn cocoa butter next. If only I could just play at chocolatier all day long...

Watch out! Mycro is cooca butter, but cocoa butter is NOT Mycro....

To make Mycro you take hot (aprox. 45 C) cocoa butter and spray it on a frozen marble roller in a cold room. In effect, what you have is pure beta 6 crystals.

"Regular" cocoa butter does not go through this treatment and may or may ot be tempered.

I was shown the Mycro technique by Callebaut Pastry Chefs "On tour" here in Vnacouver. It works, and it works quite well, but-tum, erh, well....

You need to have your couverture at almost precisely 35 C, and you need to know your weight of your couverture so you an scale out your 1%.

For me, It' far easier to have my couverture warmed at around 45 C overnight, and when I come in the morning, I seed it and cool it down with regular couverture chips. Very simple, very easy.

I don't know what a kg of Mycro is costing, I'm paying around CDN $15 / kg for "Kessko brand" cocoa butter.

But - as I read it - the demo linked to in this thread - is all about using plain old cocoa butter grated to do the same thing as mycryo.

[gap]

As long as the cocoa butter you start with is in temper you will be fine grating it and using it (I think that is what Edward J is getting at). Mycryo is in temper. Other cocoa butter may not be.

More importantly, adding cocoa butter to your couverture will thin it out. This may or may not be desirable (thin shells on mould are good, too thin and they have problems releasing). Repeatedly using this techinuque day in day out means your chocolate has more and more cocoa butter added over time, making it thinner and thinner. May be desirable, but you need to be aware of it.

Also, cocoa butter is expensive, so adding it to the chocoalte you are tempering makes that chocolate more expensive. just worth bearing in mind if you are selling the finished product.

[Darienne]

DHardy is going to give me a sample of his Mycryo which is very nice.

Also, I phoned this candy and supply store in Pickering and they have bars of cocoa butter. Small bars, about $2.50 a bar...probably tiny bars...but bars nonetheless and that should denote tempered cocoa butter. We'll pick some up next trip west.

The whole matter is more experimentation than anything else. Need to try EVERYTHING.

[lapin d'or]

I had forgotten about this option for tempering but used it last night as I really did not want to open a new 2.5kg bag of chocolate just to seed the 1kg I had in the melter. I only had 1 small easter bunny left to make and there was plenty in the melter from the day before to do it; I just needed some way to seed it. I wasn't organised enough at the end of the last session to tip some out while it was still in temper so the whole kilo in the melter had gone completely out of condition.

I do not use cocoa butter a lot so I buy mycryo to save myself trying to prise small lumps out of a very stubborn thick block. Anyway I could remember something from the Callebaut web site that said you should sieve the mycro first to get all the clumps out so I did that and it worked really well.

I used the same method to temper a very small amount of white chocolate for the bunny's eyes and tail and again this worked fine.

So big thank you to Darienne for bringing this up.

Lapin

[Darienne]

And thanks to you, Lapin d'or, for taking us through your process using some Mycryo.

[pringle007]

I found this thread yesterday and just tried this method using grated cocoa butter. I loved it, and as far as I can tell, everything turned out well. This might become my new #1 method for tempering, as its much faster than more traditional means (I still dont have a Rev... )

[Darienne]

Good for you, Pringle. I have the cocoa butter, but haven't gotten around to using it yet. Best laid plans...

I do love my little Revolation.

[pringle007]

Ive tried the grated CB method three times now.. twice it worked amazingly well.. one time, not so much. I think I had the chocolate a bit too cool on that run. It was like 89 degrees here and we were cranking the AC for the first time this season, so things inside were a bit cooler than on previous attempts.

[markwightman]

Resurrecting an old thread. I have been tempering with Mycryo for a couple of years and found it pretty much foolproof... until recently. The last few batches that I have done have been off and I can't figure out why. I am using Cacao Barry Fleur de Cao and CB Lactee Superieure and have had problems with both.

I melt to around 45C (sometimes slightly lower) then cool (stirring occasionally) to 34.5 for dark and 33.5C for milk. Then add 1% Mycryo and stir in thoroughly. Used to work fine but I am now getting streaky dull-looking chocolates. Snaps OK so it seems to be tempered but just doesn't look like it is.

I did find this though when I was looking for help:


With MYCRYO®, 100% pure cocoa butter, tempering becomes an easy task.
(1) Melt the chocolate at 104-113°F/ 40-45°C (microwave, bain-marie or chocolate melter).
(2) Allow the chocolate to cool at room temperature to:
93-95°F / 34-35°C for dark chocolate;
91-93°F / 33-34°C for milk chocolate;
91-93°F / 33-34°C for white chocolate.
(3) Add 1% of MYCRYO® – 10 g for 1 kg.
(4) Mix well until the chocolate reaches its
ideal working temperature:
88-90°F / 31-32°C for dark chocolate;
86-88°F / 30-31°C for milk chocolate;
84-86°F / 29-30°C for white chocolate.
(5) Maintain ideal temperature in order to use
chocolate for final product application.

I haven't been doing step 4, but I would have thought that adding Mycryo at 33.5 - 34.5 and then stirring to mix would have brought the chocolate to pretty near those temps.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. My Xmas chocolates are looking a bit dull and sad!

[DianaM]

Resurrecting an old thread. I have been tempering with Mycryo for a couple of years and found it pretty much foolproof... until recently. The last few batches that I have done have been off and I can't figure out why. I am using Cacao Barry Fleur de Cao and CB Lactee Superieure and have had problems with both.

I melt to around 45C (sometimes slightly lower) then cool (stirring occasionally) to 34.5 for dark and 33.5C for milk. Then add 1% Mycryo and stir in thoroughly. Used to work fine but I am now getting streaky dull-looking chocolates. Snaps OK so it seems to be tempered but just doesn't look like it is.

I did find this though when I was looking for help:


With MYCRYO®, 100% pure cocoa butter, tempering becomes an easy task.
(1) Melt the chocolate at 104-113°F/ 40-45°C (microwave, bain-marie or chocolate melter).
(2) Allow the chocolate to cool at room temperature to:
93-95°F / 34-35°C for dark chocolate;
91-93°F / 33-34°C for milk chocolate;
91-93°F / 33-34°C for white chocolate.
(3) Add 1% of MYCRYO® – 10 g for 1 kg.
(4) Mix well until the chocolate reaches its
ideal working temperature:
88-90°F / 31-32°C for dark chocolate;
86-88°F / 30-31°C for milk chocolate;
84-86°F / 29-30°C for white chocolate.
(5) Maintain ideal temperature in order to use
chocolate for final product application.

I haven't been doing step 4, but I would have thought that adding Mycryo at 33.5 - 34.5 and then stirring to mix would have brought the chocolate to pretty near those temps.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. My Xmas chocolates are looking a bit dull and sad!

If your room was hotter this time, or your bowl was less heat-conductive, or if you tempered a larger mass of chocolate, stirring only to mix in the Mycryo may not have cooled the mass down enough to working temperature. When I temper 300g it takes 5-6 strokes to cool it down, when I temper 4 kilos, takes much more stirring than that.

After adding the 1% I mix almost constantly, not only to bring the temperature of the chocolate down, but also because agitation promotes the formation of the beta crystals you are looking for. I have tempered all 3 kinds of chocolate this way (and I also use Cacao Barry couvertures), and have had very good results. But I use as a guideline for working temperature the info on the packaging, so my ideal temps are the higher ones in the ranges provided: 32 dk, 31 mk, 30 wt.

[Edward J]

You forgot to factor in if the vendor stored the mycro in a warm place prior to sale, or if it got warm during transport, or if it is expired.

I only do about 40 kg a day, but never have used mycro, just plain "seeding" with virgin couverture chips. My logic is that you need just as much effort to get the couverture to 34-35C as you do tp get it to 31-32 C.

[xxchef]

I bought a case of Mycryo about 3 years ago and I used it maybe 4-5 times to temper small (4 lb) batches of dark chocolate. It worked fine but did not seem any faster or easier or better than the seeding method I usually use. I have tried similar with regular cocoa butter and it did not work for me at all. The Mycryo is 100% tempered butter so it is like using pure seed chocolate which I'm sure is the main difference. This season I am tempering more like 20 lbs at a time and haven't used that method at all. I'm probably just use the rest of the Mycryo like regular cocoa butter in a few things to get rid of it (although at the price it will hurt!).

[markwightman]

Thanks for the responses. Apologies for taking so long to reply, I was having problems with my account.

DianaM - I think you nailed it. I thought that I hadn't been doing anything different but I had been tempering larger batches of chocolate, which of course would cool slower. I have taken more care with temps now and the latest batches have been in temper - no more streaks. However I am still noticing a variation in shine - chocolates made earlier in the batch seem to have more shine than those dipped later. So probably still to do with temperature, but getting there.

[Matthew Kirshner]

Hello All,  I recently got a sample of the Mycryo cocoa butter from one of vendors.  I have never used this product before, but reading the past post i have an understanding on how to use this product as tempering agent.  Has anyone used this product for spraying applications.  Normally I would just melt chocolate and cocoa butter together by equal weights and start spraying.  Any suggestion would be great.  Thank You..