New Toy: Breville/Polyscience Control Freak!

[ElsieD]

I bought some chocolate the other day that I am going to temper in the control freak.  I'll report back.

[CanadianHomeChef]

Made some orange chicken tonight. 

[ElsieD]

Had my first perfectly poached egg this morning, cooked at 183F for exactly 5 minutes.  Runny yolk, set but soft white.  Nice to know that I can duplicate this with ease.

[CanadianHomeChef]

11 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Had my first perfectly poached egg this morning, cooked at 183F for exactly 5 minutes.  Runny yolk, set but soft white.  Nice to know that I can duplicate this with ease.

Program it and you never have to remember it again (Although I do find myself remembering very precise temperatures--in both Fahrenheit and Celsius--to achieve certain cooking applications, ever since getting a Control Freak :P)

[CanadianHomeChef]

I'm thinking of taking some slow cooker recipes and cooking them in a dutch oven on a control freak. Look up the protein temperature on sous vide websites... add a couple extra degrees for safety (temperature of the pan bottom might not make it to the top). With the lid on I should be able to have a pretty accurate slow cooker that cooks proteins to a precise temperature? I'll be double checking with a thermapen, of course. Next weekend.

Edited October 15, 2018 by CanadianHomeChef (log)

[ElsieD]

@CanadianHomeChef  You are fearless.  Should work though.

[CanadianHomeChef]

Might have to make adjustments as some recipes require quite the reduction to produce a sauce. Caramelization as well. But it intrigues me.

[CanadianHomeChef]

@ElsieD Have you tempered your chocolate yet? I'd love to hear your review. I've used melted chocolate on the control freak in a brownie recipe, hot chocolate, and a couple other recipes. I did some more reading though and apparently I was "melting" the chocolate, and not "tempering" it. Still the control freak has low enough settings for "tempering", so I'm curious for future applications.  

[ElsieD]

@CanadianHomeChef No, not yet.  I got the dark chocolate a couple of days ago but then I decided I may as well try the milk and white chocolate while I was at it.  Theee two I bought today.  The three require tempering at different temperatures.   I expect I may do some tinkering tomorrow.  I will be posting my results here, for sure.

[CanadianHomeChef]

Looks like Hestan has a full sized induction range now ( https://home.hestan.com/product/36-smart-induction-cooktop/). Still need to use their special pans, so that’s a turn off. Curious if Breville will ever make a full sized control freak. 

[CanadianHomeChef]

Here’s a handy chart from Hestan. Sorry about the low resolution. Said I could get the chart (presumably higher resolution) if I signed up to the mailing list. I did that and nothing in the intro email. 

 

Originally found here: https://www.hestancue.com/cooking-off-the-charts/

Edited October 18, 2018 by CanadianHomeChef (log)

[ElsieD]

Great chart.  I've printed a copy.

[ElsieD]

Used the CF yesterday to temper chocolate, or at least I tried to.  I set the probe temperature to 131F and melted dark chocolate, stirring all the while.  When it hit 131, I removed it from the CF, slowly adding chocolate pieces until the temperature got down to 83F.  I then put it back on the CF and heated the chocolate back to 89F.  I then filled these little molds, and what I didn't use I put on parchment.  The molded chocolate has some nice shiny spots but also a lot of bloom.  I cut one of them open and the bloom runs all the way through.  Water never came anywhere near the chocolate and I stirred it the whole time.  I didn't time it but my guess is it took about 40 or 45 minutes for about 20 ounces of chocolate.  I'm going to melt it all down and try again.  Any suggestions as to how to deal with the bloom will be appreciated.  Oh, I also used my Thermapen and it and the probe temperatures were bang on.

[Kerry Beal]

You will need to start over. Melt - heat to 45C or so. If you are going to seed - then just cool down to around 31 C or so - the seed should be just melting out when you get down to that temperature. You don't need to go cooler then reheat if you are seeding.

[ElsieD]

7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

You will need to start over. Melt - heat to 45C or so. If you are going to seed - then just cool down to around 31 C or so - the seed should be just melting out when you get down to that temperature. You don't need to go cooler then reheat if you are seeding.

 

Thank you so much for responding.  Are you saying that I'd I don't seed, I can just heat to 45C, let cool to 31C and then I can use it?  No reheat necessary?  Reheat only necessary if seeding?  I have your three videos.  I dug them out this afternoon and as luck would have it, the first one is missing.  The case is there, but no video.🙁  Shown below with my sad chocolate.

[Kerry Beal]

13 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Thank you so much for responding.  Are you saying that I'd I don't seed, I can just heat to 45C, let cool to 31C and then I can use it?  No reheat necessary?  Reheat only necessary if seeding?  I have your three videos.  I dug them out this afternoon and as luck would have it, the first one is missing.  The case is there, but no video.🙁  Shown below with my sad chocolate.

LOL!

 

Actually I'm saying if you do seed that you heat to 45 and cool to 31. If you don't seed - heat to 45, cool to 27 then reheat to 31.

 

Send me your address - I'll send you out another volume 1.

 

 

[ElsieD]

21 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

LOL!

 

Actually I'm saying if you do seed that you heat to 45 and cool to 31. If you don't seed - heat to 45, cool to 27 then reheat to 31.

 

Send me your address - I'll send you out another volume 1.

 

 

 

My mistake then was heating, cooling via seeding and then reheating.  Good to know.  I am going to try again.  It has been a long time since I tempered chocolate and i had forgotten what I had been taught.

 

Thanks for your offer.  If I can't find the CD I will accept your kind offer, but only if you let me pay for it.

[ElsieD]

Today I re-tempered the chocolate above using the Control Freak.  It worked flawlessly.  The execution on the molds leave a little something to be desired but I was mainly interested in the tempering procedure.  Last time I tempered anything was around 2007.  So I can call the tempering part a success unless @Kerry Beal you see something wrong?  These little chocolate guys are made with silicone molds and because they are so floppy it is hard to plop them on the counter to get rid of the air bubbles.  Oh, and the bloom on the underside is caused, I'm  pretty sure, by the last of the chocolate I used to smooth out the chocolate in the molds.  It was likely out of temper.

Edited October 26, 2018 by ElsieD
Added picture (log)

[Kerry Beal]

10 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Today I re-tempered the chocolate above using the Control Freak.  It worked flawlessly.  The execution on the molds leave a little something to be desired but I was mainly interested in the tempering procedure.  Last time I tempered anything was around 2007.  So I can call the tempering part a success unless @Kerry Beal you see something wrong?  These little chocolate guys are made with silicone molds and because they are so floppy it is hard to plop them on the counter to get rid of the air bubbles.  Oh, and the bloom on the underside is caused, I'm  pretty sure, by the last of the chocolate I used to smooth out the chocolate in the molds.  It was likely out of temper.

 

Look good to me!

[Okanagancook]

I'd eat one!

[ElsieD]

3 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

I'd eat one!

 

Have two!🙂

[jchap2k]

Just ordered the Control Freak.  Is there a centralized place to share recipe files we end up making? I look forward to making my own. Maybe a singular google drive folder share.  I could host it if anyone else is interested.

[gfweb]

5 hours ago, jchap2k said:

Just ordered the Control Freak.  Is there a centralized place to share recipe files we end up making? I look forward to making my own. Maybe a singular google drive folder share.  I could host it if anyone else is interested.

 

This is exactly what eGullet does well !

 

[ElsieD]

7 hours ago, jchap2k said:

Just ordered the Control Freak.  Is there a centralized place to share recipe files we end up making? I look forward to making my own. Maybe a singular google drive folder share.  I could host it if anyone else is interested.

 

Congratulations!  If you were to host such a site I would certainly follow it, but I'm not sure I would have much to contribute.  But, if I have something, I would be happy to share it.

[NoahWhey]

New Control Freak owner here.  I would love to see a forum/webpage/dropbox for shared recipe files.  I'm actually a little surprised Breville hasn't set something like this up.

 

I bought mine off Ebay.  I got a deal, but not quite as good a deal as CanadianHomeChef did.  I'm still thrilled with the unit!  So far, I've not done anything terribly exotic with it, but just being able to cook things to the exact doneness I want is a wonderful feature.  Looking forward to frying, poaching, butter poaching, making sauces, and all sorts of other things with it.  It's an absolute pleasure to use.