Strawberry Slush Boba (from Scratch!)

I live in a small suburban town by the beach and one of the most popular drinks we have here is bubble tea. However, quarantine has forced all of the restaurants and cafes to close. This means no more bubble tea for me, for at least a couple of months. This was a no go, so I dragged myself to my local Asian market and bought a bag of tapioca starch, then dived into the art of creating bubble tea. Since quarantine started, I have occupied myself in trying to recreate my favorite drink from my favorite local bubble tea shop. After a few trials, I think I found the secret of making strawberry slush bubble tea. Strawberry slush bubble tea is the perfect mix between a smoothie and your favorite Asian drink. It is even more fun when you get to make your own pearls at home. I hope you guys enjoy this recipe!

Step 1: Gather Your Ingredients and Tools

Tools:

Sifter

Blender

Wooden spoon (don't use a plastic one!)

Small saucepan

Your favorite cup

Rolling pin

Cutting board

Strainer

Strawberry jam:

1 cup of frozen strawberries

2 tablespoon of sugar (can be replaced out with honey)

1/3 cups of water

Pearls:

1/2 cup of tapioca starch

1/2 cup of strawberry jam

2 tablespoon of brown sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

Strawberry slush:

1 cup of frozen strawberry

2 cups of milk (any kind of milk is fine and you can also fix this measurement to your own preferences)

1/2 cup of strawberry jam

Step 2: Making the Strawberry Jam

Dump all of your frozen strawberries, sugar, and water into a small saucepan and put it on low/med heat. Mix the strawberries, sugar, and water together then use the back of your wooden spoon to crush the strawberries.

After 10 minutes, they should have a somewhat smooth consistency like the one in the picture. If they don't, keep crushin' em!

After they have been fully crushed, give it a little taste test. If it's not sweet enough for your taste, add some more sugar.

Now scoop half (you can eyeball this) of the jam out of the saucepan into a small bowl. We are saving this for the slush.

Note: you want to make your jam a bit sweeter than you want because the sweetness can be easily overpowered by the water and starch that you are going to use for the pearls.

Step 3: Making the Dough for Your Pearls

Make sure to keep your oven on low heat for this!

Mix the jam left in a saucepan with water.

Measure your starch and dump it into the saucepan with jam on top of a sifter.

Stir your mixture until a solid lump of dough is created. Do not stop stirring! It will look like something straight out of an alien movie but don't worry, it will be delicious.

Don't worry if the dough is too sticky! The stickier it is, the chewier the pearls will be. But of course, if you don't want pearls that are that chewy, feel free to add more starch.

Dust a wooden board with some starch and transfer the dough onto it.

Step 4: Rolling Out Your Pearls

Note: Keep a bowl of tapioca starch by the side of your wooden board.

Start kneading the dough like how you would regularly knead bread. Incorporate tapioca starch into the dough if you feel like it's getting stickier and harder to work with.

Keep kneading until the dough has the texture of playdough.

Now cut the dough into thin strips (approximately 1 cm wide).

Line the strips up then cut them vertically to make little cubes (they should be around 1cm x 1cm)

Sprinkle some tapioca starch on top of the cubes, then use the palm of your hands and roll them out on your wooden board.

Throw them into a little bowl and sprinkle it with a bit of tapioca starch again. Toss the pearls around slightly in the bowls to make sure all of the sides get covered by the starch.

Step 5: Cooking Your Pearls

Get around one cup of water and heat it up to a boil in a saucepan.

After your water is boiled, turn the heat down to medium and throw in your brown sugar.

Mix thoroughly then dump in your pearls, and stir immediately or they will stick to the bottom of your saucepan.

Let it cook for approximately 15 minutes, and give it a good stir every 2 or 3 minutes.

After they are cooked, get your drainer and dump everything in your saucepan into the drainer.

Now run your strainer and pearls under cold water, give the strainer a few tosses and make sure none of the pearls are sticking to each other.

Transfer the pearls into a small bowl.

Step 6: Preparing Your Pearls

Get a spoonful of the strawberry jam you previously made and mix it into the boba. If you'd like, you can also mix some sugar or honey into there as well. Let this sit on your counter for a bit while you make the slush so the flavors can soak into the pearls.

Step 7: Making Your Slush

Get your blender out and plug it in. Get your milk and frozen strawberries, throw them in the blender, and blend it all together.

Pour the rest of your strawberry jam into your cup and decorate the sides using a spoon. Now grab your pearls and dump them in. Lastly, pour your slush from your blender and into your cup.

Note: I poured my almond milk into my cup first to see how much I wanted, then I poured it into the blender.

Step 8: Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labour!

I hope you guys enjoy your bubble tea! This recipe is very versatile and there are so many aspects that you can tweak to your preference. If you liked my recipe, please vote for it in the Copycat Challenge! Happy quarantine, stay safe :)