Wednesday, 1 February 2023

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Healthier & More Nutritious "Tapioca Pearls" for Bubble Tea

 

Please note that my bubble tea's "tapioca pearls" aren't made of tapioca, but made with a combination of glutinous rice flour and brown rice flour. It gives a chewy texture rather similar to tapioca pearls, which Little FECS likes. The brown rice flour and condensed milk are available from Føtex supermarket.

"Tapioca" Pearls:

1. 3/4 cup glutinous rice flour
2. 1/4 cup brown rice flour
3. 10g Matcha powder
4. 2 TBS condensed milk (optional)
5. 70-75ml water

Brown sugar syrup

1. 4 TBS brown sugar
2. 1 cup water

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, add glutinous rice flour, brown rice flour and matcha powder and mix well.

2. Add condensed milk (optional) and cold water and knead into a dough. You will find that the dough breaks easily, and that's alright, as you haven't added in the gluten yet.

3. Make your own gluten by taking a small amount of dough (approx. 10g) and roll it into a ball, then flatten it. Make another piece.

4. In a pot of boiling water, add the two flat dough pieces and boil until cooked. When they float on the water, they are done.

5. Drain the cooked dough and add them into the raw dough, knead and combine well. You will find that the dough doesn't break, much more elastic and easy to handle now (crediting my friend Da Jie who taught me this method of adding gluten into the dough and making it very elastic). If the dough sticks to your fingers, when you handle it, it means your dough is too wet. Adjust by adding a bit more glutinous rice flour or brown rice flour little-by-little and knead to combine well. When the dough no longer sticks to your fingers, it is good now.

6. Wrap the dough in food plastic and let it rest for 30 minutes (optional, the dough will be easier to work on)

7. Place the dough on a table/large chop board between two baking papers.

8. Roll out the dough into one using a rolling pin big flat piece of 5mm thick.

9. Remove the top baking paper and cut the dough into small square by slicing the dough horizontally and then vertically. Separate them into square pieces, and you now have your pearls :-) At this point, you can cook them, even though they are square shape pearls ;-P I usually just cook them as they are to save time.

10. But if you would like your pearls to be round, take each one of them and round it into a pearl. This will be quite a time consuming task of course.

Cooking the pearls:

1. Bring to boil a pot of water (or if you are using brown sugar, in a pot of water, brown sugar and bring to boil until dissolved.)

2. Add the pearls into the pot and cook. The pearls are done once they float to the top.

3. Drain them out into a bowl of cold water to cool them and stop the cooking. Your pearls are ready to be used :-) Add them into your bubble tea :-)

Making the Bubble Tea

1. Make a cup of Chinese Jasmine tear or a tea of your choice with 4 tea bags or two tablespoons of tea leaves plus boiling water. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Then sift out the used tea leaves and discard the leaves.

2. Add as desired store-bought syrup or the brown color syrup you made earlier to cook the pearls.

3. Stir and mix well. Now it is done, Bubble tea with matcha pearls :-)

Additional information:

J loves bubble tea. Today I tried to make matcha flavor bubble tea pearls myself. The flour proportion is the same way as I make tangyuan too.

The last time I made these pearls for J, I actually used 33% brown rice flour and they all turned out very chewy to the liking of J:

- 2/3 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1/3 brown rice flour

J loves it. This is even a more nutritious version with 33% brown rice flour. The other ingredients remain unchanged.

References:


Above are the ingredients to make the pearls. From left: glutinous rice flour, brown rice flour, matcha powder, condensed milk (optional) and brown sugar (optional). You can buy brown rice flour and condensed milk from Føtex Supermarket.

In a mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup of glutinous rice flour.

 Add 1/4 cup of brown rice flour.


Add 10g of matcha powder.


Mix well.

Add 2 TBS condensed milk (optional)

Add 90-100ml of cold water

Mix well.

 Make your own gluten by taking a small amount of dough (approx. 10g) and roll it into a ball, then flatten it. Make another piece.

In a pot of boiling water, add the two flat dough pieces and boil until cooked. When they float on the water, it means they are cooked.

Drain the cooked dough and add them into the raw dough, knead and combine well.


Knead and mix well.



You will find that the dough doesn't break, and is easy to handle now. If it stick to your fingers when you handle it, adjust with kneading in a bit more glutinous rice flour or brown rice flour until the dough doesn't stick to  your fingers.

Wrap the dough in food plastic and let it rest for 30 minutes (optional, the dough will be easier to work with after resting)

Place the dough on a table/large chop board laid with baking paper 

and cover the top with another baking paper.

Roll out the dough into one big flat piece of 5mm thick.

Cut into square pieces horizontally and

then vertically and then separate them. 

At this point, you can cook them, even though they are square shape ;-P 
I usually just cook them in these square shape, as it saves time.

But if you want your pearls to be round, roll one-by-one into a pearl, but this is quite a time consuming.

Bring to boil a pot of water (or if you are using brown sugar, bring to boil a pot of water with the brown sugar, boil and stir until the brown sugar has dissolved.)

Add in the pearls. The pearls are done once they float to the top.

Drain them out into a bowl of cold water to cool them and stop the cooking. Your pearls are ready to be used :-) Add them into your bubble tea :-)

Scope a spoonful into a glass

Make a cup of Chinese Jasmine tear or a tea of your choice with 4 tea bags or two tablespoons of tea leaves plus boiling water. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Then sift out the used tea leaves and discard the leaves.

Add as desired store-bought syrup or the brown color syrup you have just made earlier for cooking the pearls.

Add tea and then fresh milk.

Stir and mix well.

Now it is done, Bubble tea with matcha pearls :-)

24 Jan 2023 (13Y): Little FECS enjoying his homemade Bubble Tea with matcha pearls :-)

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