Confirmation needed on an upgrade to better tempering using EZtemper

[Sin]

Hi All. Greetings from Indonesia. I came across this forum while searching for the best method for a starter to temper chocolate, and the discussions here have opened my horizon.

 

I am a beginner and have been trying to come up with healthy snacks to feed the family. Oddly enough, I have successfully made fruit-based snacks tempered with dark chocolate that has tested well with my wife and our kids. In light of this small success, I am considering starting a side business selling these snacks. I have been ok in tempering using the microwave, but my process lacks the consistency to produce in larger volume. At times the tempering just wouldn't set that well. I work in the tropics, so the room temperature can get a bit high, and my microwave-tempering skill is not up to par.

 

I was all set to pull the trigger on ordering a Chocovision Rev2, but then I came across the discussions on the EZtemper. So I reviewed through many discussions on the EZtemper, taking notes on the process that Kerry and other members recommended. It also seems that EZtemper will allow me to scale up later on while still being able to continue using the machine in the future, which is a plus.

 

From the various discussions here, it seems that I can get away with only having two machines: an EZtemper to prepare the cocoa butter and a chocolate melter (size to be determined) to melt the chocolate. If I understand correctly, I will be using the silk from the EZtemper to seed the 1% amount of "silk" when the melting chocolate temperature reaches 33.5C.

 

The one answer I have yet to find is whether I should keep the chocolate bath at 33.5C after mixing the silk. I assume that 33.5C is the correct temperature to keep the chocolate melter unit at while I manually enrobe the snacks.

 

Using these two machines will make my life easier, and I can simplify the process. As this is quite an investment, I would appreciate it if anyone could confirm my assumption on whether this process can be this simple and whether 33.5C is the correct standby temperature.

 

I plan a trip to the US soon, so if the process is as simple as I understand, I am keen to place my order with Kerry.

Thank you!

 

[TdeV]

Paging @Kerry Beal.

 

Hello @Sin, hope you find friends quickly here.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by TdeV (log)

[Kerry Beal]

On 1/23/2023 at 11:28 AM, Sin said:

Hi All. Greetings from Indonesia. I came across this forum while searching for the best method for a starter to temper chocolate, and the discussions here have opened my horizon.

 

I am a beginner and have been trying to come up with healthy snacks to feed the family. Oddly enough, I have successfully made fruit-based snacks tempered with dark chocolate that has tested well with my wife and our kids. In light of this small success, I am considering starting a side business selling these snacks. I have been ok in tempering using the microwave, but my process lacks the consistency to produce in larger volume. At times the tempering just wouldn't set that well. I work in the tropics, so the room temperature can get a bit high, and my microwave-tempering skill is not up to par.

 

I was all set to pull the trigger on ordering a Chocovision Rev2, but then I came across the discussions on the EZtemper. So I reviewed through many discussions on the EZtemper, taking notes on the process that Kerry and other members recommended. It also seems that EZtemper will allow me to scale up later on while still being able to continue using the machine in the future, which is a plus.

 

From the various discussions here, it seems that I can get away with only having two machines: an EZtemper to prepare the cocoa butter and a chocolate melter (size to be determined) to melt the chocolate. If I understand correctly, I will be using the silk from the EZtemper to seed the 1% amount of "silk" when the melting chocolate temperature reaches 33.5C.

 

The one answer I have yet to find is whether I should keep the chocolate bath at 33.5C after mixing the silk. I assume that 33.5C is the correct temperature to keep the chocolate melter unit at while I manually enrobe the snacks.

 

Using these two machines will make my life easier, and I can simplify the process. As this is quite an investment, I would appreciate it if anyone could confirm my assumption on whether this process can be this simple and whether 33.5C is the correct standby temperature.

 

I plan a trip to the US soon, so if the process is as simple as I understand, I am keen to place my order with Kerry.

Thank you!

 

Sorry I missed this earlier - 

 

You can keep your melter at 33.5 after mixing in the silk - you will notice that once it is added that the temperature of the mass of chocolate tends to drop by about 1º C due to the latent heat of crystallization but you can certain then reheat to 33.5. 

 

Over time the chocolate will over temper in the melter and become thicker. I usually suggest that depending on how quickly you will use up the melter full of chocolate that instead of tempering the whole melter - you take out as much as you want to work with into a bowl, temper that and when you have used that up - add more untempered chocolate to the bowl and add the silk. I generally keep the melter at about 34º C - by the time you move to the bowl and let sit for a few minutes it drops to 33.5. 

 

You want to be sure your thermometers are truly accurate - if the chocolate is too hot - the form V crystals will melt and you won’t achieve temper. 

 

[Sin]

Thank you for chiming in, @Kerry Beal. Noted on moving the melted chocolate to the bowl and adding the silk within the bowl instead of the melter. This method will also allow me to save chocolate as, at the moment, I work in small batches. I can't wait to get your machine to streamline my process.

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Sin said:

Thank you for chiming in, @Kerry Beal. Noted on moving the melted chocolate to the bowl and adding the silk within the bowl instead of the melter. This method will also allow me to save chocolate as, at the moment, I work in small batches. I can't wait to get your machine to streamline my process.

In that case you might want to skip the melter for now and just use the microwave to melt the chocolate in the bowl. 

 

Only time I use melters are for trade shows where I use a small one that I travel with - or something like the Luxury Chocolate Show that I used to attend in Toronto where I would have 6 kg melters of milk and dark and a 3 kg melter of white which I would transfer to a bowl and temper al la minute for demos. 

[Sin]

3 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Over time the chocolate will over temper in the melter and become thicker.

Out of curiosity, how long will the tempered chocolate thicken if left in the melter?

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Sin said:

Out of curiosity, how long will the tempered chocolate thicken if left in the melter?

Starts in a couple of hours or sooner typically - especially if you are dumping tempered chocolate back into the melter. 

 

There is a fine art to managing tempered chocolate in a melter - once it gets over tempered - heating up the maximum tolerated temperature, adding fresh melted untempered chocolate... 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Sin]

Thank you, @Kerry Beal. First, I will try your method of putting it in the bowl and mixing the silk there. Then, when production ramps up, I may be able to measure just the right amount of chocolate and introduce the silk in the melter, and work no more than 2 hours or less. Then, the leftover can be put into some mold to minimize the waste. Do let me know if this is not realistic.

 

37 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

heating up the maximum tolerated temperature, adding fresh melted untempered chocolate... 

Correct me if I am mistaken, but are you referring to the typical seeding method for chocolate? So if there is already some tempered dark chocolate in the melter, it's better to heat it to 50C and then bring it down to 32C by adding fresh chocolate or can I heat it to 50C and bring it down to 33.5C and then add more silk?

[Kerry Beal]

Nope - talking about maintaining the melter when there is tempered chocolate in it. When it gets too thick you can heat it to maximums (34.5 for dark) or you can add untempered chocolate to 'dilute' out the crystals.