Caramel boba pearls are tapioca pearls that are made with caramel in them. This article will show you how to make them. They will have a better taste and flavor than boba pearls that are just simply dipped into caramel syrup to soak after they have been cooked. When it comes to tapioca pearls and adding flavor to them, it is always better to put the flavor in them than to try to soak them in the sweeteners to sweeten them.
Caramel boba pearls can pair well with caramel, chocolate, peach, regular milk teas, sea salt cream, and vanilla bubble teas the best. They can also be placed in desserts like ice cream too of the same flavors, or just vanilla ice creams.
How To Make Caramel Boba Pearls
To make caramel tapioca pearls, you will need tapioca starch or cassava flour. They will be easy to make if you are used to making tapioca pearls from scratch. Either way, step-by-step instructions will be provided to help with making them.
A caramel dough has to be made first in order to make the caramel boba pearls. If you need any help while making the tapioca pearls, and run into any problems with the dough, then refer to the guide to fixing tapioca dough.
Equipment needed to make the caramel tapioca pearls:
- A non-stick pan.
- A heat resistant spatula.
- A measuring cup.
- A measuring spoon.
Ingredients for making the caramel tapioca pearls:
- 5 tablespoons of caramel syrup.
- I used the Hershey caramel syrup for this.
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.
- 1 teaspoon of salt.
- A pinch of xanthan gum.
- Tapioca starch or cassava flour.
- Use tapioca starch if you have it, or cassava flour if you don’t.
1. Put 1.5 ounces of water into the pan.
1.5 ounces of water will be enough to start with for making a small batch of caramel tapioca pearls. The more water that is used, the more caramel tapioca pearls you will have in the end. Adding more water will also mean adding more of each ingredient too to make the boba taste good.
2. Heat the stove to medium-low heat and place the pan on the stove.
Heat is needed to make the boba come out right after it is made from the dough and formed into pearls.
3. Add 5 tablespoons of caramel syrup to the pan and mix it into the water.
The caramel syrup will in no doubt be the flavor for the tapioca pearls, so add in 5 tablespoons and mix it into the water.
4. Add in a pinch of xathan gum and thoroughly mix it in.
Only add in a little xanthan gum, else the mixture will gelatinize and be ruined. Thoroughly mix in the xanthan gum into the caramel mix in the pan.
5. Add in a teaspoon of salt.
A teaspoon of salt works well with the caramel flavor. Add in a teaspoon of it to enhance the overall flavor of the caramel pearls.
6. Add in 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and mix it into the mixture.
The vanilla extract will also enhance the flavor of the caramel boba pearls. Add it into the pan and then mix it in.
7. Add in half of the amount of tapioca starch or cassava flour to the proportion of the mixture. Thoroughly mix it in.
Half of the mixture needs to have that amount in tapioca starch or cassava flour (whichever you are using) added to the caramel mixture. Thoroughly mix it in. The mixture should now be thicker, but still runny. It shouldn’t be dry and clumpy.
8. Continously stir the caramel mixture until it thickens into a really thick sticky paste on medium-low heat.
Keep stirring the mixture, keeping it towards the center of the pan. Eventually the heat will cause the mixture to thicken. Once it has become really thick and hard to stir, it will be ready for more starch/flour.
9. Add in more tapioca starch/cassava flour and knead it into the paste until it is no longer sticky.
Use the spatula to fold and flatten the sticky paste repeatedly into the dough. It will become less sticky until it sticks no more. Keep repeating this until the dough can hold no more starch/flour, then it will be ready to take off the stove.
10. Take the dough out of the pan and place it on a flat surface. Thoroughly hand knead the dough until all the starch/flour is gone.
Add more tapioca starch/cassava flour if the dough is still sticking to the hands. It should no longer stick at all to the hands once enough has been thoroughly kneaded into the dough. Once this is done, it is ready to form caramel tapioca pearls. The dough should be dry, not sticky, and slightly grainy.
11. Form tapioca pearls for cooking from the caramel dough.
Form tapioca pearls from the dough by taking small pieces of the dough off and rolling them into balls in the palm of your hand. Measure the pearls up against a boba straw to make sure they are the correct size. They need to be big enough so that they cook properly, but small enough to fit through the straw. Do one pearl to measure it, then make all the pearls the same size as the first. Gently roll them in tapioca starch or cassava flour, lightly covering them, to keep them from sticking to each other.
They are ready to cook after this. They cook for the same times as the original tapioca pearls (30 minutes boiling, and 30 minutes simmering). They do not need to be soaked into sugars, as all the flavor is already in them from the caramel syrup. They will come out soft and chewy just like tapioca pearls if everything is done correctly.
