Justing30

Thanks for the tips! My mini rev only has a setting for white, milk and dark. Im going to pick up another thermometer tomorrow and try and see what temps that tells me. I wasnt checking the temper i was just taking the machines word for it essentially. We keep the house at about 65 degree F, but have a light in the kitchen that does put off a lot of heat.

I honestly picked mine up at a local liquidation auction. It was just kind of a lucky thing I was there and it went up for auction. Got it brand new for $80. But I seem to be having issues with it saying my chocolate is in temper but when I mold it and it sits I can see the separation.

So I. Using a Chocovision mini rev to temper my chocolate and it's driving me crazy because it doesn't seem to be in temper. For instance I did a batch the other day that was 80% of a 72% dark couverture and 20% of a 56% dark couverture. When the machine said it was tempered my thermometer showed about 88 degrees ( I have one of those point with a laser thermometers) so with it made about 8 bars and they all had swirl marks on the back but 4 had that Carmel color swirl to them. How can some from the same batch look like it's in temper and others not? Thanks!

Thanks everyone's! Tomorrow is an all chocolate day now!

Thanks so much for the replies! I have only been doing some very small batches in it and it's leaving approx 10-12 disc in the back when it says to seed so I will have to check the temperature. Now with adding the melted chocolate that's what I was wondering. Say I have a batch tempered and the machine is still running. Would I essentially just put some in the microwave to melt it and the put it in the back of the bowl and it will start to slowly mix with the tempered choclate and become tempered itself? Also I was at Trader Joes today and they had some of the pound plus bars. I purchased the milk, dark and 72% dark. The milk and dark both have cocoa butter listed but the 72% dark list cocoa mass and solids. Is that still considered a couverture that would need tempered? Thanks so much again. This learning process is fun and addictive lol

Hello I'm hoping someone can help me out. I recently purchased the small Chocovision tempering machine for an amazing price. I did a couple test batches and they turned out fine. I do have some newbie questions though about this if someone can help me please. 1. When I place my initial amount in there to melt, say it says it's ready to add seed chocolate, can I wait until the rest of it is melted before I add the seed chocolate? 2. After I add the seed chocolate and it says it's in temper, do I leave the machine running to maintain temper or turn it off and just use the chocolate quickly? 3. If I needed more chocolate, do I have to start the whole process over or is there a way to add more chocolate to the already melted and tempered chocolate? Thanks!

Thanks so much for the caramel recipe. I will be trying this tomorrow!

Thanks so much for all the responses. They have helped out a lot. I enjoy buying the couverture but their are so many choices lol. I purchased a small tempering machine and it has made learning so much easier. Since I'm starting out new, what are some good fillings for bars to experiment with that won't need refrigerated and last more then a week or so? I've started experimenting with making caramel but keeps tasting like butterscotch. It is fun and addicting though to make and I'll plow through making 9-10 batches a day. So any insights on some good fillings would be much appreciated. Thanks again!

Thank you! I had a couple more questions if you don't mind. Say you want to mix a dark and milk chocolate together. Since they temper differ do you do them separately and then just pour them together? Also is it wrong to buy a companies brand, melt it down. Reform into your bar and resell it? Thanks

Hello everyone. Quick background on me. As a kid though young adult I hated chocolate. As I've gotten older I appreciate it more and last few months really have gotten into making things out of it. I'm now at the point where I'm ready to use real chocolate and not just the melting stuff you find at grocery stores. So here's my questions I'm hoping I can get help with. What's a good, cost effective couverture to start with? I see Callebaut and Valhrona mentioned a lot and I purchased some variety to try. So here's my question about those. I purchased the Callebaut milk chocolate 823nv. It states its 33.6% cocoa solids and 21.8% milk solids. So does this mean it's a 34% bar? Another I purchased was the Guittard French vanilla dark chocolate. This one states 54% cocoa solids so does that means it's a 54% percent chocolate bar? Do you consider these higher end couverture or lower end? Sorry for all the questions I'm just excited and ready to learn lol Thanks!