EZtemper - The Help You Need to Achieve Perfectly Tempered Chocolate FAST!

[Kerry Beal]

25 minutes ago, John DePaula said:

So I have some Cacao Barry cocoa butter that has been sitting around for a couple of years.  It looks fine; it smells fine. It has been stored, sealed at cool room temperature. But as I said, it has been sitting around a while.  I placed a portion in my EZtemper and used the factory setting of 33.7 ºC.  After a few days, I got back to checking it. When I stirred it, the consistency is like thick frosting and it seems that there may be a few unmelted grains floating around.  I’ve read that for Cacao Barry, some people are finding that 33.8 ºC works best.  I’ve adjusted the setpoint of the EZtemper up by 0.1 ºC to 33.8 ºC. I’ll check it again in a few hours; however, is that sufficient?  Or do I need to bring the CB up to 60 ºC and allow to set at room-temperature before proceeding? And if I do that, should I start over at the factory setting of 33.7 ºC?
 

 

Check again. It's only if it remains grainy when the background is silky that it needs to get melted back out.

[John DePaula]

On 3/12/2019 at 2:57 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Check again. It's only if it remains grainy when the background is silky that it needs to get melted back out.

Well that worked out most excellently! Just finished a batch of ~300 milk chocolate shells - all beautifully in temper thanks to EZtemper. The hardest part was waiting for my chocolate mass to cool down to 33.5°C. Toward the end of the run, I noticed that the chocolate temperature had somehow spiked at 33.8°C or so.  I got it stirred well and once the temperature had cooled down a few tenths of a degree, I added a dollop of silk just as insurance.  Worked beautifully.

[Kerry Beal]

18 minutes ago, John DePaula said:

Well that worked out most excellently! Just finished a batch of ~300 milk chocolate shells - all beautifully in temper thanks to EZtemper. The hardest part was waiting for my chocolate mass to cool down to 33.5°C. Toward the end of the run, I noticed that the chocolate temperature had somehow spiked at 33.8°C or so.  I got it stirred well and once the temperature had cooled down a few tenths of a degree, I added a dollop of silk just as insurance.  Worked beautifully.

And now to make your life even easier - don’t bother taking it all the way up and cooking back to 33.5 - just get it melted (likely will happen at around 34 or so) and cool down from there.

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

And now to make your life even easier - don’t bother taking it all the way up and cooking back to 33.5 - just get it melted (likely will happen at around 34 or so) and cool down from there.

 

 

This is awesome... you just made my life easier as well. 

[patris]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

And now to make your life even easier - don’t bother taking it all the way up and cooking back to 33.5 - just get it melted (likely will happen at around 34 or so) and cool down from there.

 

 

 

Does this mean the original melt, like when you’re starting a run? I thought it had to get up past 35.5, so yay for saving a few minutes here and there!

[Kerry Beal]

10 minutes ago, patris said:

 

Does this mean the original melt, like when you’re starting a run? I thought it had to get up past 35.5, so yay for saving a few minutes here and there!

In the original melt you just need to get it melted. If you don't get above 33.5 it will likely have the same texture as the silk so you need to get a little higher than that.

[patris]

 

2 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

In the original melt you just need to get it melted. If you don't get above 33.5 it will likely have the same texture as the silk so you need to get a little higher than that.

 

Excellent - thanks!

[John DePaula]

I really love being able to work at a slightly higher, and therefore more fluid, temperature. Fantastic!
And another thing: using transfer sheets must be a little easier as well, right? I don't recall seeing any mention of it but the slightly higher temperature should make transfers go more smoothly.

[Kerry Beal]

22 minutes ago, John DePaula said:

I really love being able to work at a slightly higher, and therefore more fluid, temperature. Fantastic!
And another thing: using transfer sheets must be a little easier as well, right? I don't recall seeing any mention of it but the slightly higher temperature should make transfers go more smoothly.

yup!

[Szilvia]

Hi everyone, 

 

I'm new here and really glad that I have found this group. Learned a lot already, thanks for all the useful informations. ☺️

 

Please let me to ask a couple of questions related to the EZtemper. 

 

First of all can someone tell, is there a stockist in the UK or elsewhere in Europe? It would be much easier and cost effective to purchase the machine here. Plus it would be great to have with the 3 pin UK plug version. 🔌

And my other question is could you tell me please which type of cocoa butter would be the best choice for the EZtemper? 

(Just asking because I contacted earlier the company who sells the Magic Temper and they recommended using their machine with blocks rather than the callets.)

 

Thank you very much for your help in advance! 😊

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

41 minutes ago, Szilvia said:

Hi everyone, 

 

I'm new here and really glad that I have found this group. Learned a lot already, thanks for all the useful informations. ☺️

 

Please let me to ask a couple of questions related to the EZtemper. 

 

First of all can someone tell, is there a stockist in the UK or elsewhere in Europe? It would be much easier and cost effective to purchase the machine here. Plus it would be great to have with the 3 pin UK plug version. 🔌

And my other question is could you tell me please which type of cocoa butter would be the best choice for the EZtemper? 

(Just asking because I contacted earlier the company who sells the Magic Temper and they recommended using their machine with blocks rather than the callets.)

 

Thank you very much for your help in advance! 😊

 

 

Szilvia, welcome to eG.

 

There are not units stocked in Europe - I keep them here with me in Canada and ship them when required. I can however send one along with the cord for Europe (the machine itself has an adapter and usually ships with a North American cord that goes from the adapter to the wall. You can either replace that cord or use a NA to Euro wall adapter). 

 

Any cocoa butter is fine in the EZtemper - I prefer the callets just because they seem to be ready to go faster than the big blocks. When I'm doing trade shows with it I'll often use Mycryo. 

 

Feel free to send me a PM - I can check and see if there might be one lonely unit that is still hanging around in Europe after the last trade show. 

 

 

[Bentley]

It was time to buy some more cocoa butter, so I bought a 3.5KG bucket of food grade, deodorized CB (about 50% of the cost of the callets).  This is how I deal with it.  I soften it to make it easy to scoop, then I take out what I think I will need in the near term (a couple of months).  I melt it down (60C) then cool it to 33C and temper it with  silk from the EZ Temper.  Then I pipe it into chocolate molds and let it fully crystalize for 24 hours.  Each tablet weighs about 6g.   Then I put some of the tablets in a jar in the EZ Temper for gorgeous silk, while keeping some of the tablets for recipes.  One great side effect is that the next batch of chocolates made in those molds have ridiculous shine.  

 

My previous cocoa butter required an EZ Temper setting of 33.8.  This new cocoa butter needed 33.6 degrees.  I guess each variety or batch is slightly different.

[Bentley]

Kerry - how precise do we need to be with the 1% silk?   Tenth of a gram?  Nearest gram ? Does going a little over 1% cause any issues?

[Kerry Beal]

15 minutes ago, Bentley said:

Kerry - how precise do we need to be with the 1% silk?   Tenth of a gram?  Nearest gram ? Does going a little over 1% cause any issues?

Vague range in my world! A little more or a little less matters naught - a whole lot more - well it might over temper more quickly.

 

I've reached the point where I can look at the amount of chocolate I have and figure out how big a scoop I want to put in there. I just pretend to use the scale most of the time. 

 

 

[Chocoguyin Pemby]

Hi all - looking at getting an EzTemper and have a question - I don't make chocolates regularily partly because it takes so long to temper the chocolate properly - so I am wondering if after making the silk, can you let it solidify and grate it the next time i need to use it?   I make chocolates a couple of times a month so don't need a lot of silk at this time.  TIA

[Kerry Beal]

Just turn it on 12 hours before you need it. Grated cocoa butter is not as easy to use as silk in its original silky texture. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, Chocoguyin Pemby said:

Hi all - looking at getting an EzTemper and have a question - I don't make chocolates regularly partly because it takes so long to temper the chocolate properly - so I am wondering if after making the silk, can you let it solidify and grate it the next time i need to use it?   I make chocolates a couple of times a month so don't need a lot of silk at this time.  TIA

 

Even though summer weather has slowed my chocolate production considerably, I still leave my EZ temper on 24/7.  To me it's not about volume of silk but having it at my fingertips whenever the mood or need to temper chocolate strikes.  The unit is very quiet and only adds a few dollars per month to my electric bill.

Edited June 18, 2019 by pastrygirl (log)

[felipetruji]

I'm super happy as i finally got my eztemper.

The silk looks right at 33,7, however I'm having this problem when tempering.

Hope you can enlighten me.

[Kerry Beal]

23 minutes ago, felipetruji said:

I'm super happy as i finally got my eztemper.

The silk looks right at 33,7, however I'm having this problem when tempering.

Hope you can enlighten me.

Sounds like we need to address the accuracy of your thermometer. And perhaps your cooling,

Edited July 10, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[felipetruji]

31 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Sounds like we need to address the accuracy of your thermometer. And perhaps your cooling,

 

I have two thermometers, used the silk at around 32C, and got this results.

If it helps I used pure cacao mass out of the melanger, let it cool at room temperature (25C aprox) moving from time to time.

When at 32-33 range I used the silk, then molded and cooled in a fresher room (around 19C) overnight

[Kerry Beal]

32 minutes ago, felipetruji said:

I have two thermometers, used the silk at around 32C, and got this results.

If it helps I used pure cacao mass out of the melanger, let it cool at room temperature (25C aprox) moving from time to time.

When at 32-33 range I used the silk, then molded and cooled in a fresher room (around 19C) overnight

So can you check  The calibration of your thermometers in boiling water and ice water?  Also try putting your moulds in the fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes after you have poured the chocolate into them.

[felipetruji]

5 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

So can you check  The calibration of your thermometers in boiling water and ice water?  Also try putting your moulds in the fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes after you have poured the chocolate into them.

Just checked my thermometer with the EZtemper silk, while the silk is at 33,7C my thermometer showed 33,3C

 Still not enough to justify the result I got yesterday.

[Kerry Beal]

16 minutes ago, felipetruji said:

Just checked my thermometer with the EZtemper silk, while the silk is at 33,7C my thermometer showed 33,3C

 Still not enough to justify the result I got yesterday.

How thoroughly are you stirring before measuring with the IR?

[felipetruji]

6 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

How thoroughly are you stirring before measuring with the IR?

Like a madman!

A lot of stirring, and some more stirring between every couple moulds filled

[Kerry Beal]

So just let me confirm - you took the chocolate out of the melanger, cooled to around 32º C (checked after stirring to make sure that you weren't just getting the surface temperature), added the silk when the chocolate was at 32º C, stirred a bit more, then molded? Then put into the 19º C room to cool?

 

If all that is correct - then the next step is to address the cooling. I wait until I see the molds just starting to crystallize around the edges (go from shiny to glossy) - then pop them in the fridge (wire racks, good air circulation around each mold) for 15 to 20 minutes or so or until I see they have pretty much separated from the molds. What sort of molds are those that you are using? Are you able to see through them to see when they have separated?

 

Once that has happened - then I would leave them in the molds at a cool room temperature if you are able. It's ideal if you can leave them in the molds overnight - but production doesn't allow that for most people. It can take up to 24 hours for chocolate to fully crystallize and be it's most stable so that it is less likely to mark with fingerprints. 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)