Recipe Development for Chocolatiers - Caramel and Caramelization
The Master Chocolatier Recipe Development Masterclass is an online two week program of intensive, interactive training. It includes live demonstrations of best practices/techniques, live group discussions and supervised recipe development in your own kitchen. By the end of the program, you'll learn to perfect your recipes for caramel and sugar-based fillings. The program will also address vegan/nondairy recipe alternatives.
Next Session: August, 2026 Dates TBC
Those of you who know us know that since 2003, Ecole Chocolat has been committed to providing online professional chocolate learning experiences that are not just a chef doing a demonstration, but focused on engaging, interactive and ongoing dialogue between the instructor and student.
To that end, this Chocolate Masterclass Program includes:
4 live, interactive instructional sessions scheduled on Tuesday and Friday over two weeks. Each live session will be two hours long. All live sessions are recorded, so if you have to miss a live session, don't worry!
Live session dates: 2 Tuesdays, 2 Fridays - Dates TBA in Spring 2026.
All sessions will take start at 8:00AM PDT. Please adjust for your local time zone in your calendar.
Approximately 6 hours of guided kitchen homework activities and assignments.
Students should be ready to commit to approximately 14 hours of work to complete the program.
A downloadable recipe book
Registration fee: $975.00 US
The minimum number of students for the program to run is 6 to a maximum of 12 - we are restricting the number of students in order to make sure each students leaves the program with the tools and advice they need to succeed in making great recipes in the future.
When you're ready to pay your registration fee of $975.00 please click here: REGISTER NOW
What Will I Learn?
Two week online program
This program is not just about making caramel and sugar-based fillings. It’s about understanding caramel and sugar work at a scientific level and collaborating LIVE with your instructor, Rich Tango-Lowy and your fellow students to find the best solutions to caramel and sugar-based filling challenges. We will also explore caramels without butter or cream, including fruit juices, tea etc.
Please see Your Learning Experience below for a full description of what you will learn.
What are your biggest caramel challenges? Is your caramel too hard? Too soft? Too runny? By the end of the program you will have developed caramel recipes that meet all your specific flavor, production and keeping limit requirements.
Pre-requisites: Good understanding of chocolate flavor, chocolate work, and basic making of caramel and other sugar-based fillings.
Your Learning Experience
Our Instructor, Richard Tango-Lowy, has been working with chocolate since 1996. He opened Dancing Lion Chocolate in 2007 and was known for the quality of his bonbons and confections. He was also known for never having the same bonbon recipe in his case twice, so when it comes to recipe development, he is an expert! He retired in October 2025. Learn more about him from a colleague in A Curious Mind.
Rich will use a number of learning activities to help you identify your challenges including: live demonstrations of best practices and techniques, live group discussions and supervised recipe development time in your own kitchen. And each live online session will end with some "homework" for you to do in the next two days between live online sessions. All live sessions are recorded, so if you have to miss a session, you can catch up with the recording.
Live Session 1 - Caramel Theory & Basic Caramel Technique
Understanding the science behind making caramel; caramel for flavor extraction and shelf-life; wet vs. dry caramel
2 hr Kitchen Homework Assignment
Live Session 2 - Altering Caramel to Suit Your Needs
Adapting caramel to your flavor, texture & recipe specifications, e.g. with vs. without dairy; using tea, fruit juice etc.
2 hr Kitchen Homework Assignment
Live Session 3 - Caramelization Techniques for Fillings
Understanding the science of caramelization to create perfect fillings
2 hr Kitchen Homework Assignment
Live Session 4- Caramel in Truffles & Bonbons
Ingredients; shelf-life water activity; flavor release and development; learning to experiment
IMPORTANT NOTES:
This program is delivered in English.
Again, please note that this program is focused on recipe development for fillings - not chocolate work. So there will be no instruction on tempering, enrobing, molding or decorating bonbons. We expect you to already be experienced in those skills.
Prerequisite:
An understanding of basic chocolate work including tempering, molding, enrobing as well as having made caramel.
Master Chocolatier Program certificate:
Students completing the Masterclass with a 70% or more on assignments will receive a digital Ecole Chocolat Master Chocolatier Certificate of Achievement.
What our graduates have to say
"The program exceeded my expectations. The program in general gave a bigger and better understanding of caramel making, and implementing some of the basic examples given to us to be able to expand ideas. The validation to step out of the comfort zone of making caramel and experimenting out of the box formulations opens up endless ideas. The program gave a better understanding of caramel properties and how to manipulate and change the caramel properties."
Linda, 2025 Program
"As always, it was a great learning experience. I was fairly inexperienced with caramel and this gave me a good understanding of the basics. Getting into details of how the sugar, fats and liquids respond and interact has given me a good basis for working with different flavor combinations and developing my own recipes. In general I find the Ecole Chocolat classes invaluable and look forward to taking more. I have my eye on the tasting flavor class."
Patrizia, 2025 Program
"A real strength of the caramel class was in teaching us how to think about it, how to approach it, and ultimately how to evoke our own creativity. I know that I can dream up something ridiculous, approach test 1 with a fair amount of confidence, but even better, know how to troubleshoot the issues so that crazy idea can be realized."
Curtis, 2025 Program
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Cancellation policy
You can cancel from the Recipe Development Program up to five days before the registration deadline. A refund of your registration fee, minus a 10% administration fee, may take approximately 10 working days to process. Because our programs are usually full, and in order to make sure all students are committed, on the start date of your program your registration fee becomes non-refundable and non-transferable to another session (except in extraordinary circumstances).
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Photography by Jessica Washburn, Bliss Chocolatier and Ecole Chocolat
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Contact Us
Email: info@ecolechocolat.com
Visits by appointment only:
505 Montgomery
San Francisco, CA U.S.
1-213-291-8309
Canadian or International
1666 West 2nd Ave
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
1-604-484-1872
Ecole Chocolat is a woman-owned and operated chocolate education organization. Founded by chocolatier, Pam Williams, we are the professional school of chocolate arts for both chocolatiers and chocolate makers. We also donate our time, leadership, expertise and funds to preserve the fine chocolate industry and save fine cacao.
