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

[Tri2Cook]

9 hours ago, Bentley said:

I think I would do a lot more chocolate work if I didn't have to spend so much time tempering chocolate. 

You will. I've probably done more chocolate work since I've had the EZtemper than I'd done in the 5 years combined before I had it. I've become so comfy with it that I quite often completely forget to check the temper before I start working and it's still never failed me. Of course, now that I've put that out there to draw the attention of the chocolate gods, I'll probably suffer for my arrogance...

[Kerry Beal]

3 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

You will. I've probably done more chocolate work since I've had the EZtemper than I'd done in the 5 years combined before I had it. I've become so comfy with it that I quite often completely forget to check the temper before I start working and it's still never failed me. Of course, now that I've put that out there to draw the attention of the chocolate gods, I'll probably suffer for my arrogance...

Indeed - the chocolate - she is a cruel mistress!

[Daniel D]

15 hours ago, Bentley said:

OK I think I am going to get an EZtemper as a gift to myself.  My wife won't let me put a bank of Selmi machines in the kitchen, so this maybe the next best thing.  I think I would do a lot more chocolate work if I didn't have to spend so much time tempering chocolate.  I always put off making chocolates because I have to temper chocolate for the shell, then temper a different chocolate for the filling, then retemper the first chocolate for capping.    So much time just spent pushing chocolate around the marble.  Not to mention the mess I alsways seem to make putting it back in the bowl.

 

@Bentley Did you pull these thoughts right out of my brain?!  I just ordered the EZ Temper on Monday because I was tired of the fuss of tempering by hand as well.  After tempering with MyCryo a few times it makes tempering by hand a real drag. Can’t wait for the machine to arrive next week!

 

And as always, @Kerry Beal is amazing and responded to me within minutes of inquiring. Thanks Kerry, you rock!

[Kerry Beal]

On 10/18/2017 at 5:57 PM, Kerry Beal said:

So - the bowl measures about 9 inches by around 8 1/4 inches. I could get about 2.4 kg heaped in it (similar to what I can put in the 3 kg mol d'art). Extra chocolate could be added as it melts and I'll bet you can get over 3 kg in there. I left about 1 kg of chocolate in the machine and turned it to the highest temperature which is around 115º F. The dial is in ºF. 

 

The instruction manual suggests that 30 minutes with a couple of stirs will get you melted - I didn't read that until about 1 1/2 hours had gone by - so I wandered down into the lab and gave it a stir - and indeed it was already melted.

 

 

So I've left the 1 kg of chocolate in the melter since the 18th. I checked on it daily - temperature held perfectly. I turned it up for a bit, then turned it down for a bit - again responded just as it should (do wish the dial was in ºC however). Today I finally got around to using it - made some apple/caramel bark. 

 

Apparently the distributor for Canada and the US is the american outfit. Now just waiting to hear back from them if they have anyone in Canada who sells. I'd rather not become a middle man myself. 

[patris]

9 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

So I've left the 1 kg of chocolate in the melter since the 18th. I checked on it daily - temperature held perfectly. I turned it up for a bit, then turned it down for a bit - again responded just as it should (do wish the dial was in ºC however). Today I finally got around to using it - made some apple/caramel bark. 

 

Apparently the distributor for Canada and the US is the american outfit. Now just waiting to hear back from them if they have anyone in Canada who sells. I'd rather not become a middle man myself. 

 

I e-mailed them and they told me that it will be available in the US in mid-December - I already have one melter courtesy of a kind and generous friend, but this one is pretty tempting!

[Kerry Beal]

Just now, patris said:

 

I e-mailed them and they told me that it will be available in the US in mid-December - I already have one melter courtesy of a kind and generous friend, but this one is pretty tempting!

That's interesting - because it was released at a show in Chicago last year I thought - wonder what is taking so long?

 

 

[CacaoC]

 

I gifted myself an EZ Temper unit last December just before holidays and wow, I was very happy to do not have to deal with the stress of last minute confection making and tempered chocolate issues.  ( Ah work and life...! )

 

I started doing chocolate bonbons many years ago (mostly for Christmas gifts and sometime for Valentine, I would sell about 60% of my production to parent's colleagues, friends and such, cuz ingredients can be expensive!) and I would like to think that I mostly did well in the tempering department once I started buying good quality chocolate couverture. The seeding method was always either a hit or miss. So I resorted mostly to the tabling tempering method (it worked well 95% of the time, but very messy and I was always paranoid that something could contaminate the chocolate and the ganache) and the ''bain marie'' method. I even used the MyCryo, but it was always an hassle to deal with unmelted cocoa butter particles once the chocolate was well tempered...  As everybody know, even if you master all those methods, sometime chocolate has a mind of its own.  Using the cocoa silk just make things easier and more enjoyable while doing small chocolate production. 

 

 

I also have moved in a smaller place with a very narrow kitchen and with the the help of my MoldArt melter, I don't need as many tools that I normally would . Definitely less messy and an huge time saver. 

 

Plus it's easier to transport an EZ Temper unit than a big Selmi machine! 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2017 by CacaoC (log)

[Kerry Beal]

1 minute ago, CacaoC said:

 

I gifted myself an EZ Temper unit last December just before holidays and wow, I was very happy to do not have to deal with the stress of last minute confection making and tempered chocolate issues.  ( Ah work and life...! )

 

I started doing chocolate bonbons many years ago (mostly for Christmas gifts and sometime for Valentine, I would sell about 60% of my production to parent's colleagues, friends and such, cuz ingredients can be expensive!) and I would like to think that I mostly did well in the tempering department once I started buying good quality chocolate couverture. The seeding method was always either a hit or miss. So I resorted mostly to the tabling tempering method (it worked well 95% of the time, but very messy and I was always paranoid that something could contaminate the chocolate and the ganache) and the ''bain marie'' method. I even used the MyCryo, but it was always an hassle to deal with unmelted cocoa butter particles once the chocolate was well tempered...  As everybody know, even if you master all those methods, sometime chocolate has a mind of its own.  Using the cocoa silk just make things easier and more enjoyable while doing small chocolate production. 

 

 

I also have moved in a smaller place with a very narrow kitchen and with the the help of my MoldArt melter, I don't need as many tools that I normally would . Definitely less messy and an huge time saver. 

 

Plus it's easier to transport an EZ Temper unit than a big Selmi machine! 

 

 

 

But don't worry - you won't have to bring your EZtemper to the workshop in May - we'll have one there!

[patris]

17 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

That's interesting - because it was released at a show in Chicago last year I thought - wonder what is taking so long?

 

 

 

So out of curiosity (and impatience), I checked their website just now and it appears to be available for purchase... so I bought one. At $160 US it was not resistible, and the size is really great for my typical smaller-volume home projects. The actual transaction was difficult - evidently both of my visa cards strenuously object to overseas merchants - but eventually it went through, and gave me some confidence in my financial institutions' fraud alert systems along the way.

 

Remains to be seen when it will ship, but I'm hopeful to have it well in time for the holidays!

 

Edited to keep this on-topic: I fear for my waistline and those of my friends and colleagues, as this, in combination with my EZTemper, is likely to make me extremely productive.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2017 by patris
Keep things on topic! (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Just now, patris said:

 

So out of curiosity (and impatience), I checked their website just now and it appears to be available for purchase... so I bought one. At $160 US it was not resistible, and the size is really great for my typical smaller-volume home projects. The actual transaction was difficult - evidently both of my visa cards strenuously object to overseas merchants - but eventually it went through, and gave me some confidence in my financial institutions' fraud alert systems along the way.

 

Remains to be seen when it will ship, but I'm hopeful to have it well in time for the holidays!

Excellent - I will follow with interest your experience in purchasing it.

[CacaoC]

I had some old bloomed single origin chocolate pastilles that I needed to use.  Usually, I would have put up a fight with it...especially that one was hard to work with, so I had a nice first challenge with the EZ Temper. ( I had made the mistake of storing some unopened chocolate packages in a unstable temp storing place - laundry closet...I should have know better, but sometime it's had to find a place to store 50 kg of chocolate in an apartment!)

 

 

As you can see, mucho bloom:

 

 

 

 

And using a new chocolate bar mold for the first time ( it does have release marks and smalls bubbles, also bad lightning with the cellphone , mostly all due to operator errors!):

 

 

 

But hey, it did release easily from the mold and still tasted good after all! 

 

 

 

 

[CacaoC]

59 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

But don't worry - you won't have to bring your EZtemper to the workshop in May - we'll have one there!

 

Ah yes, I still need to works on the dates. I'll check the other thread!

 

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

Apparently the distributor for Canada and the US is the american outfit. Now just waiting to hear back from them if they have anyone in Canada who sells. I'd rather not become a middle man myself. 

Don't blame you. You have a full plate with a few more full plates balanced on top of it as it is.

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Don't blame you. You have a full plate with a few more full plates balanced on top of it as it is.

And no place to store things - I abuse my friend's basements as it is

[Kerry Beal]

Join EZtemper in Paris - here

[patris]

22 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Excellent - I will follow with interest your experience in purchasing it.

 

Welp, my dream is dashed for the moment - after the difficult process of actually ordering and paying for the thing, I got a note this morning indicating that they don't have them in stock after all, and suggesting I check back in January!

[Kerry Beal]

Damn!

[Bentley]

If I have a ganache recipe that calls for a quantity of cocoa butter (for textural reasons), can I just add the specified quantity of silk?  Will that also temper the ganache? It's usually around significantly more than 1%. 

[Kerry Beal]

25 minutes ago, Bentley said:

If I have a ganache recipe that calls for a quantity of cocoa butter (for textural reasons), can I just add the specified quantity of silk?  Will that also temper the ganache? It's usually around significantly more than 1%. 

I might just add the 1% at a temperature lower than 33.5 and add the rest melted as you usually do. Although a little experimentation is clearly in order. The silk will temper the ganache as long as it's not too hot when added. You'll be able to cut sooner if it's a slab and back off very quickly if it's a piped piece.

[Jim D.]

To second what Kerry said, if you add the full amount of cocoa butter in the form of silk, it tends to make the ganache too firm, decidedly so for use with a guitar.

[Bentley]

My EZTemper arrived 2 days before I thought it would!!!  It's all plugged in, loaded with cocoa butter and now I wait!

[Kerry Beal]

31 minutes ago, Bentley said:

My EZTemper arrived 2 days before I thought it would!!!  It's all plugged in, loaded with cocoa butter and now I wait!

Patience grasshopper

[Bentley]

Got my EZtemper  up and running with a couple canisters of silk. Going to try making some chocolates tomorrow.  I did have a couple questions:

 

Is it ok if there is a small amount of liquid cocoa butter on top of the silk?  It doesn't seem excessive at all and stirs back in, but I just want to make sure I don't have to turn down the temp.  

 

Also, how long can silk stay in the machine?  I don't produce a lot of chocolates so the two canisters of silk will last a long time.  Does it go bad?  Does it need to be stirred every so often?

[Kerry Beal]

13 hours ago, Bentley said:

Got my EZtemper  up and running with a couple canisters of silk. Going to try making some chocolates tomorrow.  I did have a couple questions:

 

Is it ok if there is a small amount of liquid cocoa butter on top of the silk?  It doesn't seem excessive at all and stirs back in, but I just want to make sure I don't have to turn down the temp.  

 

Also, how long can silk stay in the machine?  I don't produce a lot of chocolates so the two canisters of silk will last a long time.  Does it go bad?  Does it need to be stirred every so often?

Nope - a little liquid is fine - turn it down 0.1 or 0.2. That silk  won't change unless you take it out and let it harden completely and put it back in. But the next canister you put in will be less liquid.

 

I have had silk in the machine for more than six months, it does not go bad. Nor does it need any attention. 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Kerry Beal
to remove the soap from my machine! (log)

[Tri2Cook]

3 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

I have had silk in the machine for more than six months, it does not go bad. Nor does it need any attention. 

 

I really wish I'd asked the question that answer pertains to a long time ago. I've been way too paranoid and conservative with my silk canister rotation. Chocolate life just got a little bit easier!