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

[pastryani]

Hi Kerry - I've read through the forum posts and watched your videos but I still have a few questions (okay, more than a few!!) to better my understanding of how to use your machine (you've likely already addressed these questions in one form or another, but it would be helpful if you could clarify).  Thanks!
 
1a.  Do you melt all types of chocolate (white, milk, and dark) to 35-45C (95-113F)?  
 
1b.  What if you melt to a higher temperature, say 120-140F?  Is that detrimental to the process/end result, or does that just mean that you have to wait that much longer for the chocolate to cool down?
 
2.  Do you add the silk to all 3 types of chocolate (white, milk, and dark)  at the same temperature of 33.5C (92.3F)?  (Or do you add the silk at different temperatures depending on what type of chocolate it is?)
 
3.  After adding the silk, do you have to wait for the chocolate to cool to its normal working temperature to use them in perfect temper?  (ie:  84-86F for white and milk, 88-90F for dark?). Or can you start working with it right away?
 
4.  Does the silk extend the working temperature range of the chocolate  from its usual working temperature to 92.3F?  (ie:  does the working temp range for white an milk extend from 84-86F to 84-92.3F, and does the working temp range for dark extend from 88-90F to 88-92.3F?)
 
5a.  To create the silk, do I start with solid cocoa butter?  
 
5b.  Does the cocoa butter have to be in temper?  What if it is not in temper?
 
5c.  Can one start to make silk with melted cocoa butter?
 
6a.  If the machine is not in constant use and is off for some time, do I just turn it on again and use the cocoa butter that's already hardened up in the jars, or do I have to use fresh cocoa butter?
 
6b. What is the minimum amount of time before the silk will be ready for use?
 
7.  I know you mention in your video that you can change the incubation temperature by a degree or two depending on your cocoa butter.  How do you know that you need to change the temperature from it's default setting?  Is there a guide that lists various brands and the temps they should be at to create the silk?
 
8a.  If you put solid (tempered) chocolate in the EZ temper, will it too become like the consistency of the  silk?  
 
8b.  Can you "hold" chocolate in the EZ temper machine overnight so that it's ready (and in temper) the next day?
 
8c.  How much (volume) can be placed in the machine without overloading it? (Or how many jars can you put in, and can they be stacked?)

[Kerry Beal]

31 minutes ago, pastryani said:

Hi Kerry - I've read through the forum posts and watched your videos but I still have a few questions (okay, more than a few!!) to better my understanding of how to use your machine (you've likely already addressed these questions in one form or another, but it would be helpful if you could clarify).  Thanks!

1a.  Do you melt all types of chocolate (white, milk, and dark) to 35-45C (95-113F)?  

 

Yup - you can melt all types of chocolate to the point where all crystals are gone and then add the silk. I'm currently working on some experiments to determine what happens if you just get it above 33.5 then seed and see what quality the temper has.
 
1b.  What if you melt to a higher temperature, say 120-140F?  Is that detrimental to the process/end result, or does that just mean that you have to wait that much longer for the chocolate to cool down?

 

Doesn't hurt to go higher - unless you succeed in denaturing the chocolate or burning it - but as you noted - you wait a lot longer for it to cool down to the point where you add the silk.
 
2.  Do you add the silk to all 3 types of chocolate (white, milk, and dark)  at the same temperature of 33.5C (92.3F)?  (Or do you add the silk at different temperatures depending on what type of chocolate it is?)

 

Yup - 33.5 will temper white, milk and dark! Now if you are finding that the chocolate is too fluid at that warmer temperature and is flowing out of the molds as you are working - you may want to add it when it is a bit cooler - but it is not necessary to do so.
 
3.  After adding the silk, do you have to wait for the chocolate to cool to its normal working temperature to use them in perfect temper?  (ie:  84-86F for white and milk, 88-90F for dark?). Or can you start working with it right away?
 

Nope - stir for about a minute and you are ready to go!

4.  Does the silk extend the working temperature range of the chocolate  from its usual working temperature to 92.3F?  (ie:  does the working temp range for white an milk extend from 84-86F to 84-92.3F, and does the working temp range for dark extend from 88-90F to 88-92.3F?)

 

Since you are starting at a higher temperature particularly when working with white and milk - it does extend the range as you noted. And you can reheat to 33.5 as it cools.
 
 
5a.  To create the silk, do I start with solid cocoa butter?  

 

Yup - any quality cocoa butter, added to the container when solid, will make silk. If you find that the cocoa butter is old (and ends up lumpy likely secondary to form VI crystals) then melting, allowing to harden at room temperature and putting back in the EZtemper will correct lumpy silk.
 
5b.  Does the cocoa butter have to be in temper?  What if it is not in temper?

 

You don't need to do anything to the cocoa butter aside from adding it to the container, putting it in the unit and giving it a stir after 12 hours. 
 
5c.  Can one start to make silk with melted cocoa butter?

 

No - melted cocoa butter will not form silk.
 
6a.  If the machine is not in constant use and is off for some time, do I just turn it on again and use the cocoa butter that's already hardened up in the jars, or do I have to use fresh cocoa butter?

 

You can turn off the unit when not in use, just make sure you turn it on at least 12 hours before you need it again. 
 
6b. What is the minimum amount of time before the silk will be ready for use?

 

About 12 hours.
 
7.  I know you mention in your video that you can change the incubation temperature by a degree or two depending on your cocoa butter.  How do you know that you need to change the temperature from it's default setting?  Is there a guide that lists various brands and the temps they should be at to create the silk?
 

You will change by 0.1 at a time - based on the consistency of the silk - if you find it too firm - then up by 0.1 at a time, if too much liquid on top - down by 0.1.

8a.  If you put solid (tempered) chocolate in the EZ temper, will it too become like the consistency of the  silk?  

No - it won't get the consistency of silk. My trials on this failed to prove that it would make good seed either.

 

31 minutes ago, pastryani said:

 

 
8b.  Can you "hold" chocolate in the EZ temper machine overnight so that it's ready (and in temper) the next day?
 

Not really - however if you go further back in this thread you can see where I put some jars of tempered chocolate in the EZtemper then used them to paint the inside of 3D molds the next day.

8c.  How much (volume) can be placed in the machine without overloading it? (Or how many jars can you put in, and can they be stacked?)

You can put 6 containers - 3 stacked on 3 - mason jars will fit if your health department allows them. Given that each holds about 150 grams (sufficient to temper between 15 and 30 kg of chocolate) you may find that 6 containers aren't needed.

[Kerry Beal]

Just before Christmas I finally purchased a Tricor temper meter so I could get some more evidence about the quality of temper that the silk is able to produce.

 

I'm learning about temper curves - apparently a negative slope means over tempered, a positive slope is under tempered. The big question  yet to be answered is what sort of distance away from zero means what. I'm dipping an offset in each sample at the same time I add the sample to the temper meter to determine the quality of temper the old fashioned way.

 

I wrote a nice long post about it last night - then my screen shut down and all was lost! 

 

What I hope to test is the quality of temper with silk of different textures; comparing adding 0.5% silk to 1% silk; where the temper is at after 1 minute, after around 7 minutes (each temper test takes 5 minutes so can't test too quickly); the differences if I heat the chocolate to 40C or so and cool before seeding,vs just heating above 33.5 and seeding; adding silk to chocolate that is at 33.5 vs 34.5 C - and at lower temperatures as well.

 

I have some organic, fair trade (keep wanting to call it free trade) chocolate that I purchased a few years back. Anna and I were helping the 'organic girls' to make some evil herb filled chocolates to help with 'female troubles'. I don't think that the product ever came to market - but I ended up with a case of milk, dark and cocoa mass of some rather nice swiss chocolate. The milk went the way of all flesh but the dark and the cocoa mass are still fine. 

 

I was approached by one of the docs in Dunnville where I work in the ER - he runs a cafe called The Minga  which sells politically correct plant based, locally sourced, organic food - asking if I wanted to sell chocolate there. Great opportunity to get this chocolate used up.

 

So my first experiments have involved this chocolate - it does not contain lecithin - just organic cane sugar and some extra cocoa butter for flow. It's not difficult to work with.

 

So 1% silk applied to chocolate that was only heated to 37C and seeded at 33.5C gave me a slope of +0.35 at 1 minute and +1.06 at about 7 minutes.  The same chocolate heated to 40C and seeded at 33.4C gave slopes of +0.67 and +1.06.  Both manual tests showed good temper. 

 

0.5% silk, chocolate heated to 39C and seeded at 33.4C - slope was +1.28 and +1.71 - manual temper was only fair. 

 

Milk chocolate heated to 38, seeded at 33.6 - slope +2.15 and +2.08 - manual tests both looked great.  

 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Kerry Beal
fix link to look better (log)

[gfron1]

I didn't even know such a thing existed. Let me guess...not cheap.

[Kerry Beal]

So not cheap! Chocolot says I win!!!

[pastryani]

Thanks for your detailed responses, Kerry!!  Very helpful.  

[Kerry Beal]

Need a little help. Alleguede, Chocolot and I are heading to the Fine Chocolate Industry Association Elevate Chocolate - Winter 2016 event next week and we are going to be demonstrating the EZtemper.  Kind of a mini trade show. We will probably man our table for about 4 hours. 

 

We haven't done anything quite like this before - we've done lots of one on one demos where we have stuff available as needed but there will be limitations due to how much stuff we can take along, no ability to wash equipment as we go along, limited refrigeration...

 

Our current thought is to take along a Mold'art melter, heat gun, some bowls and a couple of tasting sized bar molds. We will hold melted chocolate in the Mold'art, move it to a small bowl, temper with the EZtemper silk, pipe into molds and knock out of molds to show the excellent temper. I hope the hotel will be able to provide a bar fridge that we can put under the table to cool the molds while the chocolate is rapidly crystallizing.

 

Ideas? Thoughts on how else we could show how well the EZtemper works given the limitations of the equipment and the venue? 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Kerry Beal (log)

[curls]

Could you bring a mini confectionery guitar and show them how quickly meltaways set up? Perhaps demo finicky white chocolate ganache fillings that are super simple with EZtemper silk?

If you have room -- maybe you could have your EZtemper videos running on a laptop or tv screen at your table.

[pastryani]

To add to the AV element, you could print out some of the before and after pics in this thread (or your own) and display those in poster form. 

[Kerry Beal]

20 hours ago, curls said:

Could you bring a mini confectionery guitar and show them how quickly meltaways set up? Perhaps demo finicky white chocolate ganache fillings that are super simple with EZtemper silk?

If you have room -- maybe you could have your EZtemper videos running on a laptop or tv screen at your table.

There will be videos - we did some more filming the other day. Wish I had a bigger screen though.

 

Think even small guitar might be a bit big for the luggage - but it's on the video. While we were filming the ganache set up in less than 5 minutes - it was a titch cool in the room!

[curls]

36 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

There will be videos - we did some more filming the other day. Wish I had a bigger screen though.

 

Think even small guitar might be a bit big for the luggage - but it's on the video. While we were filming the ganache set up in less than 5 minutes - it was a titch cool in the room!

Sounds good. Too bad about the guitar... maybe you could ship it to your hotel?

 

If you haven't already, perhaps you could ask your customers what most impresses them about the EZtemper and find a way to demo those items along with your standard demo.

[Kerry Beal]

Shipping something worth that much across the border will just complicate life too much I expect.  

 

I wish I could get one of my customers (who keep telling me privately how helpful the EZtemper is) to write up a nice report that I could put on my website and use in the FCIA's newsletter - but I kind of think that it's one of those dirty little secrets. "When people are looking I temper the old fashioned way cause that's what expected, and when no one is looking I use my EZtemper cause it's cheating"

[Tri2Cook]

21 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

"When people are looking I temper the old fashioned way cause that's what expected, and when no one is looking I use my EZtemper cause it's cheating"

Screw that... I don't get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floor because a mop is cheating.

[Kerry Beal]

On January 8, 2016 at 1:14 AM, pastryani said:

To add to the AV element, you could print out some of the before and after pics in this thread (or your own) and display those in poster form. 

It occurs to me I should ask the AudioVisual dept at the hotel if they have a big screen I could put on my table - would save me lugging my bigger (heavier) laptop along.  

[Chocolot]

You would need a projector also:)

[gfron1]

I keep trying different strategies to see which is the best use of the EZ in my set up. Today, I turned on my Bakon temperer and warmed 4kg chocolate to 34º. It didn't quite melt so I upped it to 36º. That did the trick. I turned the wheel on to get some last chunks (I also did strain a few at the end). Then I added the silk and poured my molds. Worked perfectly. So that was success #1. Then I wondered if I could just leave the wheel running, but take off the pour spout. So I made my fillings and set them up in my wine cooler. 8 hours later they were set enough that I could cap my molds. 15 in the freezer and had 100% pop-out! Success #2!

 

In the past I've heeded Ruth's advice to just eyeball the silk, but today I measured. Well sort of. I use the extra silk holder to zero out my scale, the I weigh the original to get my cocoa butter weight, the I do an educated eyeball of the amount.

 

Just a small report. 

[Kerry Beal]

If your filling is a ganache - add 1% silk to it at about 28º C - and pipe pretty much right away. You should be able to back off even sooner.

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

Couple of pictures of our setup at the FCIA - we didn't need the hotel's monitor - it was not much bigger than the computer screen.

[gfron1]

6 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

If your filling is a ganache - add 1% silk to it at about 28º C - and pipe pretty much right away. You should be able to back off even sooner.

I keep forgetting to use it in my ganache.

[pastryani]

5 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

If your filling is a ganache - add 1% silk to it at about 28º C - and pipe pretty much right away. You should be able to back off even sooner.

 

Kerry - is there a reason to not add it at 33.5 C when adding to a ganache?

 

[Kerry Beal]

We've found that adding it cooler means you can pipe it pretty much right away and you are ready to back off sooner than if you add it at 33.5.

 

 

[confiseur]

On ‎21‎.‎05‎.‎2015 at 2:13 AM, Jim D. said:

Thanks, Kerry, for the information.  When you say the "technology is used currently in industry," could you give some examples?  Are you, for example, referring to something like mass-produced chocolates?

http://en.magic-temper.com/le-magic-temper-fonctionnement/

 

This piece of kit has been on the market some time in Europe , since 2013 I believe  and is widely used by professional artisan chocolatiers ...both large and small..in France and Switzerland.

[gfron1]

Step by step I'm learning how to use the EZt. So I did the same process I mentioned above, except this time I added the silk to my ganache. I sprayed and shelled at 11am. Finished my five ganaches by 1pm and backed off at 2:30. That's damn fast. 3.5 hours to knock out 400 bonbon start to finish.

 

I do have a question and I don't remember seeing it above, but surely its been answered - on formulas that call for mycryo, can I simply sub with silk in the same proportion, or if not, why can't I?

[Kerry Beal]

7 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Step by step I'm learning how to use the EZt. So I did the same process I mentioned above, except this time I added the silk to my ganache. I sprayed and shelled at 11am. Finished my five ganaches by 1pm and backed off at 2:30. That's damn fast. 3.5 hours to knock out 400 bonbon start to finish.

 

I do have a question and I don't remember seeing it above, but surely its been answered - on formulas that call for mycryo, can I simply sub with silk in the same proportion, or if not, why can't I?

I'd add 1% - not sure how much mycryo is called for?

[ChocoMom]

I knew I wanted an EZ Temper after reading about it, but it would require a bit of saving.  But now, after just reading how Rob cranked out 400 pieces in 3.5 hours....I've moved it to the very tippy top of the birthday wish list (which I shall leave in hubby's briefcase).

 

With the amount of time saved (not to mention stress), it seems crazy not to get one!  It seems more paramount after my experiences the past 4 weeks.  I've had an incredible number of short orders this holiday season-  called in at 10 or 11 am, and want to pick the order up in 5-6 hours. That doesn't leave much time for the packaging and ribbon wrapping they want, also.  I am simply astounded at how much time is saved with the EZTemper!  I'd imagine that my family would be happier too, seeing me far less stressed, with a bit more free time.  And, I fully intend on using that as a selling point, when the hubs questions me about it. =)