Build your own chocolate tempering machine

Kerry Beal · September 10, 2018

Just now, JoNorvelleWalker said:

The chocolate got to 120F. Still not liquid. I reduced the temperature to 85F, took two aspirin, and will revisit in the morning.

If I were having this issue at home - I'd add some melted cocoa butter - but I suspect that would be throwing good ingredients after bad in this case.

JoNorvelleWalker · September 10, 2018

47 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

If I were having this issue at home - I'd add some melted cocoa butter - but I suspect that would be throwing good ingredients after bad in this case.

Not that I have any cocoa butter...

JoNorvelleWalker · September 10, 2018

Well, I beat it to within an inch of its life, reheated to 90F, and turned it out onto parchment. The morrow shall tell.

If I may say, Greweling has precious little information on tempering chocolate. For a CIA publication I'd call it a failure. I was better off with the Time Life volume Candy. Thirty some years ago my little son was into making chocolate bunnies. We got some molds and had pretty good results heating run of the mill chocolate in a bain marie.

teonzo · September 10, 2018

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

If I may say, Greweling has precious little information on tempering chocolate. For a CIA publication I'd call it a failure.

Did you get the professional version (first edition has a black cover, second edition has a red cover) or the "at home" version (this has some pretzels on the cover)?

About the old milk chocolate, I would try to add some neutral vegetable oil to make it more fluid.

Teo

Kerry Beal · September 10, 2018

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Well, I beat it to within an inch of its life, reheated to 90F, and turned it out onto parchment. The morrow shall tell.

If I may say, Greweling has precious little information on tempering chocolate. For a CIA publication I'd call it a failure. I was better off with the Time Life volume Candy. Thirty some years ago my little son was into making chocolate bunnies. We got some molds and had pretty good results heating run of the mill chocolate in a bain marie.

I still buy every copy of Time Life Candy that I see to give away. It’s a wonderful book. As is @Chocolot‘s book Candymaking - another I also snatch up if I see.

JoNorvelleWalker · September 10, 2018

4 hours ago, teonzo said:

Did you get the professional version (first edition has a black cover, second edition has a red cover) or the "at home" version (this has some pretzels on the cover)?

About the old milk chocolate, I would try to add some neutral vegetable oil to make it more fluid.

Teo

Pretzels one.

teonzo · September 10, 2018

55 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Pretzels one.

My apologies for not specifying the version to get is the professional one.

Teo

JoNorvelleWalker · September 10, 2018

1 hour ago, teonzo said:

My apologies for not specifying the version to get is the professional one.

Teo

Unfortunately at the library I had no choice. If I get into this I may well buy a copy.

Edit: I just requested that the library get a copy of the 2nd edition.

Edited September 10, 2018 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

JoNorvelleWalker · September 10, 2018

Anyhow...

It snapped. Must say, more appetizing than what I started with. The almonds are chopped up, more like almond meal. Tasted not half bad.

Nice thing about the PHMB, it's basically hands off. No fiddling about keeping temperature. And if you're too lazy to stir it will do that also.

Kerry Beal · September 10, 2018

Just now, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Anyhow...

It snapped. Must say, more appetizing than what I started with. The almonds are chopped up, more like almond meal. Tasted not half bad.

Nice thing about the PHMB, it's basically hands off. No fiddling about keeping temperature. And if you're too lazy to stir it will do that also.

Nice!

teonzo · September 11, 2018

17 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

It snapped. Must say, more appetizing than what I started with. The almonds are chopped up, more like almond meal. Tasted not half bad.

You joined the side of dark chocolate, goooooooooood!

Teo

JoNorvelleWalker · September 11, 2018

2 hours ago, teonzo said:

You joined the side of dark chocolate, goooooooooood!

Teo

The dark side? But actually it was milk.

teonzo · September 11, 2018

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

The dark side? But actually it was milk.

You just don't know it yet, but within a year you will be building dark chocolate lightsabers.

Teo

JoNorvelleWalker · September 15, 2018

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 1:34 PM, teonzo said:

My apologies for not specifying the version to get is the professional one.

Teo

Good news: the library is buying me the professional edition.

JoNorvelleWalker · September 23, 2018

Help! Without detailing the whole procedure, my chocolate is at about 89F 32C and is almost solid. I can't mold it, I would be hard pressed to cut it. The sample I tested was beautiful with a nice snap. I am increasing the heat. My guess is that it is over tempered.

Should I add some cocoa butter?

Kerry Beal · September 24, 2018

3 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Help! Without detailing the whole procedure, my chocolate is at about 89F 32C and is almost solid. I can't mold it, I would be hard pressed to cut it. The sample I tested was beautiful with a nice snap. I am increasing the heat. My guess is that it is over tempered.

Should I add some cocoa butter?

Dark chocolate? Heat up as high as 34.5 and see what happens.

JoNorvelleWalker · September 24, 2018

6 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Dark chocolate? Heat up as high as 34.5 and see what happens.

Short answer, with the bowl set for 34.5 (I'm translating to degrees Canadian here) the edges of the chocolate mass are melting. But the middle of the lump was still around 31 last time I looked.

To back up here was the setup this afternoon:

This is 600 grams of chocolate. The rest of the bag I vacuumed sealed in 500 gram aliquots. With the bowl set for 50C the chocolate melted readily. It never had to get warmer than 47C. However it took forever for the melted chocolate to cool down to 25C. I dared not try an ice bath because I did not want to risk seizing the chocolate. In this case "forever" was about two hours.

The chocolate was fluid at 25C but I'm pretty sure too thick for molding. A dab on freezer paper refrigerated for about five minutes was shiny, crisp, and lovely. But as I stirred and stirred with the bowl set for 32C the mass of chocolate got more solid, not more fluid.

I may keep the bowl at 34.5C overnight to see what transpires. Unfortunately I suspect I may have to melt the whole thing down and start over. If so, what should I do differently? I'm trying alcohol to help. I resisted the urge to add cocoa butter.

Edit: the kitchen was 20C at 45% relative humidity.

Edited September 24, 2018 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

JoNorvelleWalker · September 24, 2018

34.5C wasn't going anywhere fast. I set the bowl back up to 50C and I'll see what it looks like in the morning. Or much more likely, afternoon.

Kerry Beal · September 24, 2018

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Short answer, with the bowl set for 34.5 (I'm translating to degrees Canadian here) the edges of the chocolate mass are melting. But the middle of the lump was still around 31 last time I looked.

To back up here was the setup this afternoon:

This is 600 grams of chocolate. The rest of the bag I vacuumed sealed in 500 gram aliquots. With the bowl set for 50C the chocolate melted readily. It never had to get warmer than 47C. However it took forever for the melted chocolate to cool down to 25C. I dared not try an ice bath because I did not want to risk seizing the chocolate. In this case "forever" was about two hours.

The chocolate was fluid at 25C but I'm pretty sure too thick for molding. A dab on freezer paper refrigerated for about five minutes was shiny, crisp, and lovely. But as I stirred and stirred with the bowl set for 32C the mass of chocolate got more solid, not more fluid.

I may keep the bowl at 34.5C overnight to see what transpires. Unfortunately I suspect I may have to melt the whole thing down and start over. If so, what should I do differently? I'm trying alcohol to help. I resisted the urge to add cocoa butter.

Edit: the kitchen was 20C at 45% relative humidity.

So with the 'wild crystallization' method you are doing here - you cool to 27 for dark chocolate, then reheat to 30-31 to melt out the form IV crystals. Then you test your temper.

JoNorvelleWalker · September 24, 2018

This is testing my temper. I may have been cooling too low. After I wrote my last post I melted the chocolate at 47 and let it cool to 25. It is now a solid lump. I'll go remelt the chocolate again and cool to 27 this time. In the videos it looks so easy.

Would adding cocoa butter be of any help?

JoNorvelleWalker · September 24, 2018

The chocolate is now melted. I've been thinking though...if a piece of chocolate is sitting on the counter at 27 it is solid, not melted. Why should I be surprised that the chocolate in my bowl at 27 is likewise solid?

Earlier in the thread @teonzo suggested I might try a two step tempering method instead of three:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/157239-build-your-own-chocolate-tempering-machine/?do=findComment&comment=2170021

Perhaps I'll try cooling to 29 and test the temper. (By the way, I reset my meter to Celsius.)

teonzo · September 24, 2018

Dark chocolate has different working temperatures than milk chocolate or white chocolate.

The classic simplified explanation is that the tempering window for dark chocolate is between 28°C and 32°C (what I'm writing in this post is not totally accurate, but being accurate would take a lot of words, you'll find them when your library will get the professional book by Greweling).

If you go under 28°C then the chocolate start to crystallize, becoming solid. If you want that chocolate to remain in temper and get back in the fluid state then you can keep it between 30°C and 32°C, but it takes a lot of time (decades ago pastry chef used this method leaving the chocolate for the whole night).

If you go over 32°C then the chocolate melts quicker, but you loose the temper (again, not accurate, this is the safe old explanation).

Since this time you are working with dark chocolate, then I would suggest to melt the chocolate around 38°C-40°C (so you'll have to wait less time for it to cool), then cool it to 31°C, when it reaches 31°C agitate it (with the paddle attachment or a rubber spatula), then check if it's tempered. There's no need going under 31°C for your purposes.

These are the temperatures for dark chocolate. For milk and white chocolate you need to lower them around 2°C (tempering window 26°C-30°C).

Teo

JoNorvelleWalker · September 24, 2018

5 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Dark chocolate has different working temperatures than milk chocolate or white chocolate.

The classic simplified explanation is that the tempering window for dark chocolate is between 28°C and 32°C (what I'm writing in this post is not totally accurate, but being accurate would take a lot of words, you'll find them when your library will get the professional book by Greweling).

If you go under 28°C then the chocolate start to crystallize, becoming solid. If you want that chocolate to remain in temper and get back in the fluid state then you can keep it between 30°C and 32°C, but it takes a lot of time (decades ago pastry chef used this method leaving the chocolate for the whole night).

If you go over 32°C then the chocolate melts quicker, but you loose the temper (again, not accurate, this is the safe old explanation).

Since this time you are working with dark chocolate, then I would suggest to melt the chocolate around 38°C-40°C (so you'll have to wait less time for it to cool), then cool it to 31°C, when it reaches 31°C agitate it (with the paddle attachment or a rubber spatula), then check if it's tempered. There's no need going under 31°C for your purposes.

These are the temperatures for dark chocolate. For milk and white chocolate you need to lower them around 2°C (tempering window 26°C-30°C).

Teo

Teo thank you so much for the timely help! This is dark chocolate. I'll cool to 31 and see what happens.

Kerry Beal · September 24, 2018

31 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Dark chocolate has different working temperatures than milk chocolate or white chocolate.

The classic simplified explanation is that the tempering window for dark chocolate is between 28°C and 32°C (what I'm writing in this post is not totally accurate, but being accurate would take a lot of words, you'll find them when your library will get the professional book by Greweling).

If you go under 28°C then the chocolate start to crystallize, becoming solid. If you want that chocolate to remain in temper and get back in the fluid state then you can keep it between 30°C and 32°C, but it takes a lot of time (decades ago pastry chef used this method leaving the chocolate for the whole night).

If you go over 32°C then the chocolate melts quicker, but you loose the temper (again, not accurate, this is the safe old explanation).

Since this time you are working with dark chocolate, then I would suggest to melt the chocolate around 38°C-40°C (so you'll have to wait less time for it to cool), then cool it to 31°C, when it reaches 31°C agitate it (with the paddle attachment or a rubber spatula), then check if it's tempered. There's no need going under 31°C for your purposes.

These are the temperatures for dark chocolate. For milk and white chocolate you need to lower them around 2°C (tempering window 26°C-30°C).

Teo

You think if she doesn't seed and doesn't take it below 31º C that she is going to get it into temper?

JoNorvelleWalker · September 24, 2018

2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

You think if she doesn't seed and doesn't take it below 31º C that she is going to get it into temper?

Apparently not. I stepped out to the store and when I returned I had lovely fluid chocolate at 30.3. I stirred between thirty seconds and a minute but it flunked the temper test. I stirred again for a few minutes but still no success.

I'm letting the bowl cool down. Not sure yet how far.

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