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

[Tri2Cook]

I was trying really hard to think of any kind of negative I've experienced with it. Not because I want to say negative things about it, just been so happy with it that I've never thought about negatives. I've become so comfy with the fact that it always does what it's supposed to that I find myself rarely bothering to check chocolate for temper anymore. So I guess I could weakly argue that I've allowed it to make me less careful... but that's not the fault of the machine and it's never once come back to haunt me. It always does what it's supposed to.

[PastryBree]

Thank you all!!! I copied my boss on this thread so hopefully he can read all the awesome stuff about the EZTemper!! 

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, PastryBree said:

Thank you all!!! I copied my boss on this thread so hopefully he can read all the awesome stuff about the EZTemper!! 

The website has video (actually they are the same videos that are posted here). 

[pastrygirl]

OK, I'll admit it, I'm not as in love as I wanted to be.  Probably user error ...

 

I'm having a hard time getting consistent, smooth silk.  I had been using Felchlin CB, which comes in random sized shards of 1-15 mm, upped the temp a bit then corrected it down and it was ok if the CB had already been fully melted.  I just got some Cacao Barry CB that is in uniform mini chip size, and also decided to fully melt it before leaving it overnight.  Hopefully that works, I'll go into the kitchen and check soon.  The kitchen has wide temperature swings, it gets down to the 50's F on cold nights, then up to mid 70's when the other company has a lot of cooking or turns the heat on .  Not sure if that's a factor.

 

Once I have smooth silk consistently on demand I'll be more enthusiastic, hopefully it is as simple as pre-melting the CB.

 

Cocoa butter is an added expense.  The Cocoa Barry was about $10/lb from Peterson, not any worse than couverture chocolates, but it's also not adding flavor and its another ingredient to keep track of.  Felchlin was considerably more $$ form Albert Uster.

 

And chocolate can still be a pain and get over-crystallized or chunky as it does, but I guess you can more quickly melt it out and re-temper as needed if you have smooth silk.  Getting the chocolate in temper is only half the battle, you still have to keep it there.

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

The Felchlin cocoa butter that I have does require being melted down completely and fully hardened overnight at room temperature in a clean container before putting it in the EZtemper. I've found that happens with any cocoa butter that is old or hasn't been stored well.

 

I took a lumpy canister up to Guelph 2 weeks ago and the grad student of my favourite fat chemist tested it for me. The lumps are form VI!

 

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by Kerry Beal (log)

[pastrygirl]

39 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

The Felchlin cocoa butter that I have does require being melted down completely and fully hardened overnight at room temperature in a clean container before putting it in the EZtemper. I've found that happens with any cocoa butter that is old or hasn't been stored well.

 

I took a lumpy canister up to Guelph 2 weeks ago and the grad student of my favourite fat chemist tested it for me. The lumps are form IV!

 

 

Oh melt fully then harden fully, then ez temper?

 

my melted cb from yesterday is still fully melted, but maybe it went in hot. I’ll take a canister out, let it solidify then put it back and see what happens tomorrow. 

 

Is form IV good?

Edited April 10, 2018 by pastrygirl (log)

[Kerry Beal]

39 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Oh melt fully then harden fully, then ez temper?

 

my melted cb from yesterday is still fully melted, but maybe it went in hot. I’ll take a canister out, let it solidify then put it back and see what happens tomorrow. 

 

Is form IV good?

 

Oops that should be form VI not 4 - it contains hard crystals which never incorporate. 

 

Once the crystals are melted you don't get them back unless you cool down to room temperature and solidify. 

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Oops that should be form VI not 4 - it contains hard crystals which never incorporate. 

 

 

They just have to go above & beyond, dont they!

[Kerry Beal]

10 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

They just have to go above & beyond, dont they!

According to my favourite fat chemist - in Germany they are experimenting with tempering with form VI crystals. This could be an ideal situation - because if your chocolate contained mostly this most stable form of crystal - over time it wouldn't change and get dusty looking. But then again because it has a higher melting point - it might not have the same melt in your mouth so might taste waxy. 

 

I did bring home the container with the form VI - I think I'll put it in an EZtemper unit at above 34º C and see if I can create the silky texture with these crystals - then temper some even warmer chocolate with it and see what happens. 

[gfron1]

I've not had the issue that you're talking about but I do open the canister at least once (normally first thing when I come in in the morning), give it a stir and its good to go when I need it a few hours later (I give it the second good stir at that point). I need to do the same to my melting chocolates anyway, so no pain. My cocoa butter is in all sorts of shapes and sizes when it comes out of the bag.

[Tri2Cook]

12 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

I've not had the issue that you're talking about but I do open the canister at least once (normally first thing when I come in in the morning), give it a stir and its good to go when I need it a few hours later (I give it the second good stir at that point). I need to do the same to my melting chocolates anyway, so no pain. My cocoa butter is in all sorts of shapes and sizes when it comes out of the bag.

I've used cocoa butter of unknown-to-me brand name, Mycryo (because I had a bunch of it sitting around that I wanted to use up) and I'm currently using Callebaut, all without incident. But it's nice to know there's a solution if it ever does happen. I give it a good stir the next morning after putting it in the machine the day before and usually don't mess with it after that unless I'm going to be using it that day, then I follow the same routine you use.

[pastrygirl]

Has anyone found their silk-tempered chocolate setting up too fast?   We all have those days where it feels like all we're doing is waiting for chocolate to melt or waiting for chocolate to set, so we usually want it to set as quickly as possible.  However, when I'm making a big batch of molded bars or bonbons, the chocolate already has a tendency to over-crystallize.  Especially if it's cold in the kitchen ... I also got a 24 kg melter in my after-holiday shopping spree, was so excited to have this big vat and the EZ Temper.  But on cold days all that surface area cools and thickens, maybe I don't want 20 kg of chocolate setting any faster than it already does! 

 

And have we already covered if silk affects aW?  If a ganache filling sets up more quickly/firmly, should that help shelf life?  

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

2 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Has anyone found their silk-tempered chocolate setting up too fast?   We all have those days where it feels like all we're doing is waiting for chocolate to melt or waiting for chocolate to set, so we usually want it to set as quickly as possible.  However, when I'm making a big batch of molded bars or bonbons, the chocolate already has a tendency to over-crystallize.  Especially if it's cold in the kitchen ... I also got a 24 kg melter in my after-holiday shopping spree, was so excited to have this big vat and the EZ Temper.  But on cold days all that surface area cools and thickens, maybe I don't want 20 kg of chocolate setting any faster than it already does! 

 

And have we already covered if silk affects aW?  If a ganache filling sets up more quickly/firmly, should that help shelf life?  

 

 

Because it's the perfect amount of crystals for instant crystallization - it does have a tendency to over crystallize. You don't need to use 1% in large quantities - pretty much anything from 0.1% up will work. 

 

I find when I have a big quantity of chocolate in a melter - that it works better for me to remove just as much as I'm going to need for what I want to do at the time - temper that - use it - then pull out some more for the next thing. This happens most often when I'm doing something like the Luxury Chocolate Show and I want to be able to temper chocolate all day without having to worry about warming up and thinning down the over tempered chocolate. I just keep it at around 34º C and untempered - it stays fluid all day. 

 

Silk doesn't change the aW - but tempered ganache is more stable than untempered as described in this article by Greweling. 

[Tri2Cook]

I haven't had any of the issues you've mentioned but you're working in much higher volume than I am so I would assume you encounter different challenges than I do.

[pastrygirl]

14 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Because it's the perfect amount of crystals for instant crystallization - it does have a tendency to over crystallize. You don't need to use 1% in large quantities - pretty much anything from 0.1% up will work. 

 

Great, that'll help.  I want to be able to use the silk instead of seeding and ending up with lumps, but do need time to work sometimes.

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

5 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Great, that'll help.  I want to be able to use the silk instead of seeding and ending up with lumps, but do need time to work sometimes.

 

 

Do a temper test - you'll figure out the minimum required to achieve temper. You are working at higher temperatures I assume?

[PastryBree]

If I have a cold temperature controlled room for chocolate work will it affect how the ez temper works or holds?? 

[pastrygirl]

OK, we're headed towards redemption, no thanks to Felchlin and their non-melting cocoa butter.  The CB that fully melted and fully cooled before spending a night in the EZ was good, sort of a mayonnaise texture - or Miracle Whip if you prefer Now I realize that the one time before that I got good silk was after I'd turned it up and the CB melted completely.

 

Made 5 molds of coconut bars, the white chocolate coconut layer being one of my more maddening formulations, but with a good dollop of silk it set better than it did last time.   The coconut oil makes it thin and reluctant to crystallize, so better is a good step.  And I guess I'll have to make a list of tare weights;  I measure precisely in all my other pastry endeavors, but amounts of chocolate melted or seed added has always been by eye.

 

I think if I'm doing a lot of production I'll want to melt lots of chocolate in the 24kg and hold it slightly warm, then transfer batches to the 6kg and temper as needed.

[Tri2Cook]

33 minutes ago, PastryBree said:

If I have a cold temperature controlled room for chocolate work will it affect how the ez temper works or holds?? 

Not sure how cold you're talking about. My work area stays around 20 C (68 F) for most of the year and it does fine with that. I only cool it down in the hot months when I'm actually going to be working so sometimes it gets pretty warm in the room and I don't have to do any temp adjustments on the machine to accommodate the swings. I honestly wouldn't think cold would be much of a factor in the range that anybody would want to be in the room working but Kerry would be the best person to answer that.

[Kerry Beal]

Cold is not a problem -  machine will work a little harder but that's not a problem.

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

OK, we're headed towards redemption, no thanks to Felchlin and their non-melting cocoa butter.  The CB that fully melted and fully cooled before spending a night in the EZ was good, sort of a mayonnaise texture - or Miracle Whip if you prefer Now I realize that the one time before that I got good silk was after I'd turned it up and the CB melted completely.

 

Made 5 molds of coconut bars, the white chocolate coconut layer being one of my more maddening formulations, but with a good dollop of silk it set better than it did last time.   The coconut oil makes it thin and reluctant to crystallize, so better is a good step.  And I guess I'll have to make a list of tare weights;  I measure precisely in all my other pastry endeavors, but amounts of chocolate melted or seed added has always been by eye.

 

I think if I'm doing a lot of production I'll want to melt lots of chocolate in the 24kg and hold it slightly warm, then transfer batches to the 6kg and temper as needed.

Sounds like a good plan!

[keychris]

 

Looks like a ripoff @Kerry Beal!

[Kerry Beal]

Lol! Guess that's why Valrhona isn't returning my calls.

 

Advantages I see for mine - you can clean the containers - theirs is one big container.  And the cost! Not sure how much it is these days - but when I last looked it was about 7 times the cost.  And mine is mine!

[tikidoc]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Lol! Guess that's why Valrhona isn't returning my calls.

 

Advantages I see for mine - you can clean the containers - theirs is one big container.  And the cost! Not sure how much it is these days - but when I last looked it was about 7 times the cost.  And mine is mine!

 

I just signed up to Instagram to comment.

 

”Looks very similar to the EZTemper, which has been out for a couple of years in North America. Indeed, the description is virtually identical. I love my EZTemper. http://www.eztemper.com/purchase.html”

[keychris]

I posted something about it looking like an eztemper and the comment seems to have disappeared!