Or how I stayed up till 1 am on Mate.
So let me just say this plays off my previous encounter with my new best friend (who's actually adorable and insanely smart). We're planning on opening a food cart for our combined clubs. They agreed to go 70:30 on the profits with my club...the fool! :D
Most department clubs have coffee stands/carts that they keep in their building and their club uses to get monies. My club isn't associated with a department but their's is. Other clubs just sell coffee, tea, and hot cocoa. That got me thinking though. What is a very popular thing you can't get up here but are really popular everywhere else? Boba! The plan is to open our own cart but it will only sell Mate, and milktea and boba. :3
Boba is really easy to make. I looked through a ton of recipes but none seemed to cut it. Most recipes are traditionally made with black sugar, but you can use food dye to either replicate it, or make it any color you like!
1 1/2 cups Tapioca Flour + 1/2 c for lubrication
1/2 cup Water + 1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Brown Sugar, but any sugar should work + 1/4 cup sugar
Food coloring to make it whatever color your heart desires. If you want to make it different colors, you'll need to make multiple batches.
Pour water into a pot/deep sauce pan. Cover to keep in the water and allow to come to a boil or till hot. Add sugar and dissolve. Add your food coloring to the color you want. Once dissolved, add 1/2 cup of tapioca flour and dissolve. It should get more taffy like. Add the rest of the flour and stir a bit more.
Dump out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it looks nice. Take a bite and nod to yourself reassuringly. Make it a nice ball.
If you want tapioca pearls, roll out the dough into long ropes. Cut the pieces into small, equal sections. Roll each one between your hands to make into balls, and drop into a bowl with the rest of the tapioca starch to keep them from sticking to one another.
If you want tapioca squares (see below), form your dough into any shape you want. I made a ball, and then cut that into cubes from there. You could also make a cube, but I'm not that artistic.
When shaping your balls/squares/shapes, make sure they are 2/3 the size of whatever you want them to end up. They get swol when they're ready to eat.
Go clean the pot you used before, and fill it with water. Get it to a raging boil.
Try to shake off most of the excess tapioca from your shapes, and dump your shapes into the pot. Stir for 2 minutes. Put the lid on and let boil for 6 minutes, stirring at every 2 minute intervals.
Remove pot from the stove, and drain the shapes from the pot. Put them in the ice bath for a minute and then move to the dish with the 1/2 cup water. Sprinkle the 1/4 cup sugar on top to turn it into sugar water.
Get your drink, you can use hot tea (preferably caffinated ;)) and add milk to cool it down. Add the amount of boba you want to your drink, and enjoy! :D
From what I understand working tapioca flour, when it's hot, it's chewy, otherwise it's just doughy. The colder it is, the less the chew. Microwave your boba on day two, if you're storing it in the fridge, and put it in the ice bath before serving.
For my diabolical plan, I'm considering making spiked Boba either with caffine pills or some...edible creations. Just adding powder to the Tapioca flour can flavor it. :)
Please try it out and tell me what you think. Were you able to get it chewy?
