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

[Kerry Beal]

On September 1, 2016 at 9:41 PM, curls said:

Were you there to loan him your chocolate temper meter?

Selling him the used one I purchased because I couldn't resist the price. Didn't need a second one - though it was handy when I was doing my initial tests to have two on the go. I am trying to unload things that I don't need - I'm a total packrat but there is only so much room!

[adey73]

I have an entirely heterosexual man crush on Laiskonis! 

....he'd always mail back no matter how bad my questions from his blogs.

seems like a great fella.

 

is there more coming about his use of the Eztemper?

[Kerry Beal]

58 minutes ago, adey73 said:

I have an entirely heterosexual man crush on Laiskonis! 

....he'd always mail back no matter how bad my questions from his blogs.

seems like a great fella.

 

is there more coming about his use of the Eztemper?

I'm sure there will be - so far he's been using it to temper his small batches of bean to bar chocolate - finds it a huge time saver.

[Kerry Beal]

 

So - my 25 year medical school reunion is coming up next weekend - I figure we need a bonbon for it! This is Tachycardia - there is a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup squirt in the bottom, backed by a very coffee ganache. Decorated as per Morato with a spray of diluted dark chocolate, gold powder, orange spray behind the gold powder.

 

Took me about an hour altogether because I tempered the chocolate, the coloured cocoa butter and the ganache with the seed from the EZtemper.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Anna N]

@Kerry Beal

 

Wow!   No plans for next weekend so perhaps you could smuggle me into the reunion?

[Bentley]

2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

So - my 25 year medical school reunion is coming up next weekend - I figure we need a bonbon for it! This is Tachycardia - there is a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup squirt in the bottom, backed by a very coffee ganache. Decorated as per Morato with a spray of diluted dark chocolate, gold powder, orange spray behind the gold powder.

 

Took me about an hour altogether because I tempered the chocolate, the coloured cocoa butter and the ganache with the seed from the EZtemper.

 

Shiny!  How do you temper the colored cocoa butter?  Is it the same 1% seed.  Do you add it to the bottle or do take out the CCB that you will need and just add it to that? 

[Tri2Cook]

Those are beautiful and they sound really tasty too. I still don't know enough about this stuff to picture in my head how you did that decorating even with the explanation included but I like the way it looks.

[Kerry Beal]

3 hours ago, Bentley said:

Shiny!  How do you temper the colored cocoa butter?  Is it the same 1% seed.  Do you add it to the bottle or do take out the CCB that you will need and just add it to that? 

Depends - in the bottle I'll add about a knife's tip of seed.

[Kerry Beal]

15 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

Those are beautiful and they sound really tasty too. I still don't know enough about this stuff to picture in my head how you did that decorating even with the explanation included but I like the way it looks.

Mix of 70% dark chocolate and 30% cocoa butter sprayed into mold. It won't form a thick layer. Once dry - gold powder into mold with plushy makeup brush (Dollarama) - then a thicker layer of colour behind. 

[Tri2Cook]

Quote

Mix of 70% dark chocolate and 30% cocoa butter sprayed into mold. It won't form a thick layer. Once dry - gold powder into mold with plushy makeup brush (Dollarama) - then a thicker layer of colour behind.

Interesting... thanks for the additional information!

[sote23]

Hi,

Kerry's machine is very intereststing to me. I have an automatic continuous tempering machine that I use for most things, but there are some bars I make with just my mol d' art melter because I don't want to contaminate the tempering machine (nuts etc.). I routinley make 20kg batches. Is anyone out there using it for larger batches. Kerry, do you know if there is a limit on the amount that it can temper?

 

I've also read in this thread that you don't have to heat all the way to 45, but to 35c. I'd love to hear if that's what others are experiencing.

One other question I have, what are the steps if you added the silk and for some reason it didn't temper?

 

Luis

[Kerry Beal]

Luis - I'll let some other people who use it for bigger batches tell you about their experience. The only limit on the amount you can temper is really the amount of cocoa butter with the silk texture in the machine at any given time.

 

If you seed chocolate that has been taken to 35 rather than 45 C - I have found you still get excellent temper - it does tend to thicken up more quickly than the chocolate taken to 45 in the melter. 

 

If for some reason it didn't temper and your silk appears to be the right texture - then likely your thermometer is the problem and your chocolate is warmer than it measures.

 

 

[Chocolot]

Sote23, I have tempered as much as 40# at a time. The only issue is guessing how much chocolate I have in my machine.  I will put silk in small bowl and add chocolate to mix well before adding to large batch. It works well for me. 

 

[sote23]

On 9/24/2016 at 6:04 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Luis - I'll let some other people who use it for bigger batches tell you about their experience. The only limit on the amount you can temper is really the amount of cocoa butter with the silk texture in the machine at any given time.

 

If you seed chocolate that has been taken to 35 rather than 45 C - I have found you still get excellent temper - it does tend to thicken up more quickly than the chocolate taken to 45 in the melter. 

 

If for some reason it didn't temper and your silk appears to be the right texture - then likely your thermometer is the problem and your chocolate is warmer than it measures.

 

 

Kerry, any guess as to how quickly it thickens?

[sote23]

On 9/24/2016 at 7:53 PM, Chocolot said:

Sote23, I have tempered as much as 40# at a time. The only issue is guessing how much chocolate I have in my machine.  I will put silk in small bowl and add chocolate to mix well before adding to large batch. It works well for me. 

 

awesome, so you add it to a smaller amount and then add the whole thing to the larger amount of chocolate.

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, sote23 said:

Kerry, any guess as to how quickly it thickens?

Well if normally it would be a couple of hours before you start to notice a lot of overcrytallization - probably about an hour. A lot depends on your room temperature etc.

 

 

[Jim D.]

26 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Well if normally it would be a couple of hours before you start to notice a lot of overcrytallization - probably about an hour. A lot depends on your room temperature etc.

 

 

I have learned that overcrystallization can be delayed by cutting the amount of silk in half (that is, using .5% rather than 1%).  As the directions say, I wait until the temp is down to about 92.3F/33.5C before adding it; by the time the temp is down to 90F/32C, the chocolate tests as in temper.

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, sote23 said:

awesome, so you add it to a smaller amount and then add the whole thing to the larger amount of chocolate.

Yup

[Kerry Beal]

Exciting happenings! 

 

So Good Online

[Tri2Cook]

3 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Exciting happenings! 

 

So Good Online

That's awesome. I probably can't even imagine the hours and effort that went into getting it to the point where we first learned about it and you've documented some (but probably not even close to all, most likely just the bits you thought would make interesting posting) of the work and travel you've put into it since that point. I'm really happy to see it doing so well. That doesn't always happen even with good ideas or products... but you made it happen.

[sote23]

On 9/28/2016 at 8:54 AM, Kerry Beal said:

Exciting happenings! 

 

So Good Online

 

Awesome, I've met Ramon and he's a very nice guy.

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, sote23 said:

 

Awesome, I've met Ramon and he's a very nice guy.

 

He is a sweetie isn't he? I was particularly impressed by the way he treated his assistants.

[Kerry Beal]

Doing a locum for the first time in ages - they know I make chocolate so have expectations!

 

Grabbed some Oreo thins and some Trophy brand Butter Toffee Peanuts at the Giant Tiger this am - it's an interesting shop that Anna and I frequent when we are up north but rarely down here. But they sell Sterling butter for about half the price of the grocery store and today it was $1 less. 

 

 

 

Dipped cookies and clusters - should keep my reputation intact. And of course it took me less than an hour to temper, dip and cluster with the EZtemper!

 

Couple of eG'ers that didn't have one before - who have one now - be interested to see what they can do with it and hope they report here.

[CacaoC]

I've been reading the whole thread for the last hour, I'm fascinated and very impressed about what this device can do!

 

A few questions, sorry if I missed them before-

 

I understand that the cocoa butter need to stay for a maximum of 12 hours in the EZtemper before being ready to temper melted chocolate and ganache, but if in the middle of this process there is a power outage, let's say for 20-30 min, would that affect the cocoa silk before resuming the rest of the 12 hours cycle?  Or we would need to take out the whole silk jar and let it stay at room temp for a whole day ( 24 hrs)  before putting in back for another cycle of 12 hours?

 

 

Can the added silk help to prevent the tiny bubbles that I sometime struggle with some chocolate couverture ? ( I'm aware that it's usually caused by humidity and sometime over-crystallization)

 

 

A few posts back, it was mentioned that filled and capped molded chocolate shells are usually ready to be unmolded after 30 min from the start, how long does it take with molded chocolate bars?  I'm thinking that with larger surface, quicker cooling, it should be faster to unmold!

[Kerry Beal]

7 hours ago, CacaoC said:

I've been reading the whole thread for the last hour, I'm fascinated and very impressed about what this device can do!

 

A few questions, sorry if I missed them before-

 

I understand that the cocoa butter need to stay for a maximum of 12 hours in the EZtemper before being ready to temper melted chocolate and ganache, but if in the middle of this process there is a power outage, let's say for 20-30 min, would that affect the cocoa silk before resuming the rest of the 12 hours cycle?  Or we would need to take out the whole silk jar and let it stay at room temp for a whole day ( 24 hrs)  before putting in back for another cycle of 12 hours?

 

 

Can the added silk help to prevent the tiny bubbles that I sometime struggle with some chocolate couverture ? ( I'm aware that it's usually caused by humidity and sometime over-crystallization)

 

 

A few posts back, it was mentioned that filled and capped molded chocolate shells are usually ready to be unmolded after 30 min from the start, how long does it take with molded chocolate bars?  I'm thinking that with larger surface, quicker cooling, it should be faster to unmold!

CacaoFlower - you have been missed! Was thinking about you the other day when I was searching for something on an old thread.

 

If you have a power outage - just leave the silk in the unit when you resume. 

 

Because you can work at higher temps with milk and white - I suspect your tiny bubble issue might lessen. Humidity issues seem to disappear.

 

Molded bars differ by size and thickness. Usually as soon as they start to crystallize around the edges - I bung them in the fridge just until they completely release - might take 20 minutes or even a bit longer.