Homemade Tapioca Pearls (Vegan Boba Recipe + Matcha Option!)
Oh wow, I don’t even remember for how long I wanted to try this. Homemade tapioca pearls or boba for bubble tea! And when I say ‘homemade’, I mean homemade. Because the little, chewy pearls, which are commonly used in Taiwanese Bubble Tea or Milk Tea beverages, happen to be made out of only 3 simple ingredients: water, sugar and tapioca starch. Sounds irresistibly easy, right? Well, basically it really is that easy. The only thing, that will probably still be stopping me from indulging in a homemade tapioca pearl beverage on a daily basis is the amount of time it takes to make these little pearly gems.
Because, as you might already guessed it, you have to roll each individual boba into shape by hand. Plus, they also have to be small enough to fit through the straw you’re using, because let’s be honest here: that’s half of the fun when drinking a bubble tea, isn’t it?? I also have to say though: the little pearls freeze well! So if you do have the time and patience to try out this recipe, you can just freeze some of them and treat your future self to a more effortless experience the next time you’re craving them! (And in case you need a little drink inspo: how about my vegan strawberry milk boba?)
and now here’s the basic recipe for these:
Homemade Tapioca Pearls (+ Matcha Option!)
Ingredients (for 2-3 servings / beverages):
for the regular tapioca pearls:
100g tapioca starch (+ a little extra to dust the pearls pre-cooking)
65g water
3 tbsp maple syrup (or sweetener of choice)*
2-3 tbsp coconut sugar (or sweetener of choice)*
additionally for the matcha option:
about 1-2 tsp matcha powder
Instructions:
To make the base for the regular tapioca pearls, heat up the water and 3 tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of choice in a small sauce pan.
Add about 1/2 of the tapioca starch and stir frequently over low to medium heat until it reaches a sticky consistency.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining half of the tapioca starch. Stir everything together, then transfer the mix to a clean surface and knead it until it forms a soft dough.*
To make the matcha option, add the matcha powder and knead it into the dough until you’ll get to a soft green color.
Now make little rolls out of the dough and cut them into small pieces (about 0,5cm thick).*
Then roll each piece into a little ball and place them into a bowl with some more tapioca starch. To prevent the boba from sticking together, gently shake the bowl from time to time, so that the tapioca pearls are covered with a thin layer of tapioca starch each. Once you’re done rolling the boba, transfer them to small strainer to remove excess tapioca starch.
Now bring some water to a boil, add the desired amount of tapioca pearls and boil them for about 20 minutes. (Freeze the remaining, uncooked pearls which you didn’t need this time!'*)
After 20 minutes of simmering, turn off your stove and let the tapioca pearls rest for another 15-20 minutes inside the pan covered with a lid without removing the water.
Then drain the pearls, place them back into the pan and add the 2-3 tbsp of sugar. Heat the mix up again until the sugar starts to melt while stirring frequently to prevent anything from burning. Once the sugar turned into a sticky, caramelized syrup, remove everything from the heat.
Stir again until all of the tapioca pearls are covered in syrup and let them cool slightly before adding them to the beverage* or dessert of your choice! Done!
I still have some leftover boba in the freezer and I love this new outlook on life this gives me.
*Notes:
You can basically use any kind of sweetener you want for the tapioca pearl base. Maple syrup or agave work just as well as regular granulated or coconut sugar. I used maple syrup, but in case you want to use a dry / granulated sweetener and you notice your dough seems to be a bit too dry in the end, you can also add another 1-2 tbsp of water to balance things out.
For the syrup coating of the cooked tapioca pearls brown sugar is commonly used. I used both granulated coconut sugar and coconut blossom syrup once and both worked fine as well! So I’d say you can just choose your sweetener depending on your preferences here as well.
Once you’re adding the remaining half of your tapioca starch to the sticky dough base, it will look like it is way too much starch and it will never come together at first. This is totally normal though, because while kneading it, the dough will soak up a lot of moisture, so don’t worry here! The consistency of the finished dough should resemble something like play-doh.
While cooking, the tapioca pearls will increase in size a little bit, so keep that in mind while rolling them! You should really roll them small enough, especially when you want to add them to a beverage and eat them through a straw.
The shaped and uncooked tapioca pearls freeze very well. If you want to use them for future beverages or desserts, you can use them straight out of the freezer and precede like written here in the recipe.
I used my homemade tapioca pearls for an iced matcha latte here! For that I simply combined 1 1/2 tsp of ground matcha with about 80ml of hot water, stirred that until slightly foamy and let it cool down for a few minutes. Then I added ice cubes to a jar, as well as some oat milk and the tapioca pearls and lastly poured over the matcha. Give it a good stir, so that the syrup of the tapioca pears dissolve into the latte and you’re done!
Did you make this recipe?
leave a comment or tag me on Instagram @choartemi