I’ve been missing bubble tea so much lately but haven’t been going out for it so why not try and make my own! I have bought pre-made tapioca pearls before but I thought they took too long to cook. That is why this time I decided to make my own tapioca pearls!
Lil’ bun and I have tried to make tapioca pearls using the dry pre-made ones in-store before but it took a good 2 hours to boil them until they were chewy so we decided to make our own from scratch. It turns out they were easier to make than we thought.
How to make tapioca pearls
To make tapioca pearls all you need are 3 simple ingredients: tapioca starch, water and dark brown or muscovado sugar.
The most important part of this whole process is to make sure you use hot water and make it on a stove top. I’ve made it in a bowl with hot water before and it did not turn out well.
Once you make the dough, you can roll it out into a rope and cut them into smaller pieces before rolling them by hand into round pearls. You can also keep them square if you don’t want to do this step. It’ll just be harder for them to fit through the straw.
Cooking tapioca pearls
Once you’re done rolling, you can cook them right away in a pot of boiling water for 10-15 minutes or until the float. If you have any extra, you can store them in an air-tight container for up to a week or freeze them until you are ready to use them again.
Once your pearls are cooked, you need to scoop them out of the water and transfer them into a bowl of maple syrup, or sugar solution. This prevents them from sticking together before they are ready to serve. The tapioca pearls are best consumed after resting for 1 hour but you can have them right away if you wish.
I love having mine with a matcha latte! I’ve been experimenting with all the flavoured matcha from Davidstea lately and it’s been so much fun to test out the different flavour combinations!
If you feel like being creative with your pearls, you can swap the water for tea to infuse the pearls with some flavour too!
Tapioca Pearls Recipe
Tapioca pearls (4 servings)
1/3 cups water
1/2 cup brown sugar, coconut sugar or muscovado sugar
1 cup tapioca starch, plus more for dusting
Braising syrup
1 cup water
½ cup brown sugar, coconut sugar or muscovado sugar
Method
- Sift the tapioca starch and make sure there are no lumps in it.
- Pour the water and sugar into a small saucepan on low heat, and bring it to a boil. Once all the sugar has melted, add in 1/4 cup of the tapioca starch and stir until combined.
- Add in the remaining 3/4 cup tapioca starch and mix until a sticky dough forms. Continue to heat the dough on low eat for 3-5 minutes. You will need to keep stirring to prevent the dough from burning.
- Transfer the dough onto a heat-safe surface. I like to use a silplat. Knead the dough when it is cool enough to touch. The dough should become less sticky with time. If it continues to be sticky, add a bit more tapioca starch at a time until it is workable.
- Divide the dough into 4 equally sized portions and covered the rest with a cloth to prevent them from drying out. Roll each portion into a long rope and cut them into 1/4 inch pieces. Then roll each piece so that they become little pearls. Continue with the rest of the pearls.
- Dust the pearls in tapioca starch to prevent them from sticking together.
- Prepare the pearls by boiling a pot of large water and adding the pearls. Cook the pearls for 10-15 minutes or until the float up. Make sure you stir the pearls so they do not stick together.
- Once the pearls are cooked, transfer them into a cold ice water for them to cool down.
- While the pearls are cooling, prepare the braising pearls. Add water and muscovado sugar into a small pot and bring it to a boil. Add the chilled tapioca pearls in and allow the pearls to simmer in the liquid for 20 minutes or until the sugar syrup becomes thick
- Serve with a tea of your choice
Love Taiwanese desserts? Try my Taiwanese QQ ball recipe!
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