SO.

I do believe I've figured out how to actually temper with the not-so-precise precise heat mixing bowl. There's a 'chocolate' button on the bowl, but we've already decided it doesn't work the way that it should (since the bowl heats from the bottom and not around the bowl). So on the advice of you fine people here at Discover Chocolate, lol, I decided to play around with the settings to see if i could find something that works. I have, and I will share it with you just in case anyone wants to get one and doesn't want to go through the trials and tribulations of figuring it out   And hey - maybe someone will be doing a google search about it and find this post!

-Starting with a kilo of solid chocolate that has been chopped OR a kilo of chocolate drops/wafers -

1. Add 10% of chocolate to the mixing bowl and manually set the bowl to preheat to 135°F.

2. Melt 2/3 of the chocolate in the microwave.

At this point a some (if not most) of the chocolate in the bowl will have already melted. 

3. Add the chocolate that you melted in the microwave to the PHMB (<--- strong="">Precise H eat M ixing B owl) and set your mixer to stir.

4. Once the PHMB has completly melted all of the chocolate,  turn OFF the bowl as well as the mixer .  Check the temperature with a thermometer you trust.

5. When the bowl hits around 118° for dark, 110° for milk and white, add a handful of seed and wait for it to melt. 

6. One it has, turn the bowl back ON and set the temperature to about 95°F for dark chocolate and about 90°F for milk or white chocolate. 

7. Continue to add your seed chocolate,  a little bit  at a time. 

I've found it helps to be doing something else in the kitchen while youre doing this - haha.

8. Every time you add seed, wait for the temperature on the bowl to drop by...mayyyyybe, 2-3°, before adding the next bit of chocolate.

9. Once the bowl has hit the target temperature of 95° or 90°, check the temperature with your thermometer and (all fingers crossed) you should be in the right temperature zone for tempered chocolate (88-90 for dark and 84-86 for milk and white).

10. Stop the stirring, and only turn it on when the temperature (of the thermometer, not the bowl - because the bowl holds at the temperature you've set it to) of the chocolate (test the 'top' of the chocolate, since this is what cools first), dips below the range for the chocolate youve chosen to temper. The action of the stirring will....kick up, for lack of a better word, the warmer chocolate at the bottom of the bowl, and mix it in with the cooloer chocolate. Periodically stop stirring and check the temp with a thermometer to see if your back in range yet.

Now, I've tried the above method around 5 times, and each time it has worked for me. So HOPEFULLY, it can help someone else!!

Have fun and keep chocolating!!

-Lauren

updated by @krummskreations: 03/31/16 14:12:24

For those who are DIY'ers of the group - you might consider getting some carbon fiber tape, and a few wires and a thermostat and a battery you can make your own controllable heat tape that you can then custom fit around your bowls.  Sure there's heat tracing wire already out there, but it's thicker and, well, if you just bought it - then you're not the DIY type 8-)

I found this review on Amazon which confirms some of my thoughts:

I ordered this bowl to help me temper chocolate, it didn't.

Firstly if you think the heating element runs up the sides of the bowl your wrong, it gets heated by the very very bottom of the bowl, um, so if you were to say place 2 pounds of chocolate in it... maybe the very bottom melts... the rest just sits there, way faster to just place in microwave.

You will have the same problem once you get your choclate into temper the "range" you get doesnt allow you to stay between say 87 and 92 (by 93 your out of temper).

If you take a thermal gun and take readings up the sides of the bowl (even a mere inch off the bottom) the temperature drops off so quickly...

Ridiculous waste off money, sad because I had high hopes...

They need to redesign this thing...

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@DiscoverChoc

Lauren:

I think this is a very interesting product but two of the primary concerns I had about it were temperature range and accuracy. According to Kitchen Aid:

Precision Temperature Technology (?)

Select any temperature from 70 to 220 degrees F (21 to 104 degrees C) in two degree increments.

So the precision is not all that precise ... when it comes to working with chocolate. I can see how it would be great for a home kitchen where tempering chocolate is an occasional thing, but maybe not so much for the professional kitchen. My guess is that it's actually ± 1C, which is 1.9F.

That said, as Brad suggests ... if I already have the right model of Kitchen Aid mixer getting one of these and playing with it is probably worth the investment and I can see it as fast and efficient chocolate melter in conjunction with a scraper blade.

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@DiscoverChoc

Hi Lauren;

Your post got me curious, and I went online to check it out.

Interesting concept for sure! Please keep everyone posted.

At the very least, it would be great for proofing dough for bread at home!  I just might have to order one myself.

Cheers

Brad

Has anyone invested in one of these?

There aren't many reviews out there, and 99% of questions/reviews I HAVE seen for it, haven't been in regards to tempering chocolate - but for all the other uses for the mixing bowl (proofing bread dough etc). So I'm curious to see if anyone has used it before and your thoughts on it.

I did go ahead and order one anyways because, its a MUCH easier way to temper chocolate vs t abliering and takes all the arm cramps out of seeding   Not to mention, cheaper than an actual tempering machine. I've had it about 2 weeks now and I do have a few questions about it, so if anyone has one and can share experiences that'd be great!

Thanks in advance!!

-Lauren

updated by @krummskreations: 03/27/16 16:01:16