Preparing Your Tobacco
Break up your tobacco. The first thing you need to do to make your own apple shisha is to prepare the tobacco by breaking it up into strips. The tobacco serves as the base ingredient that holds everything together. As well as the main ingredient for smoking. American Spirit loose tobacco works well, but you should feel free to try any type of loose leaf tobacco to get the flavor you want. Cheaper loose leaf pouches like Drum also work. Pipe tobacco can also be used for a more smokey flavor, but will be harsher than regular tobacco. Make sure your tobacco has dried out before preparing it. If it is moist, expose it to open air to let it dry out for a few hours or overnight. Once dry, break up any large pieces of tobacco in a Tupperware dish. Take out any spines that may be present on larger leaves. Then, you may want to chop the leaves with a knife if you have whole leaf tobacco.
Soak the tobacco. Once the leaves are chopped and broken up into smaller bits, you need to soak the tobacco. Soaking the tobacco makes it pliable and removes some of the nicotine and takes out some of the harsher tobacco flavors. The longer you soak the tobacco the less flavor you will taste. Less tobacco flavor allows you to taste more of the apple. Pour cool water into your Tupperware. Use enough water so that you can mash the tobacco down under the water level. Mash the tobacco down so it really soaks. Soak the tobacco for at least 30 minutes. If you soak longer than 30 minutes, change the water. The water will turn brown from the tobacco and nicotine. Alternatively, you can boil your tobacco, then rinse it several times with cool water.
Add honey or molasses. Once you have soaked the tobacco to your liking, strain it to remove the water. Let the tobacco dry a bit. Then add either honey or molasses. Before adding your honey or molasses you will want to let the tobacco dry somewhat. Mash it up into a ball and squeeze any moisture out. Like you would if you were wringing out a wet rag. Honey and molasses are fairly similar but will yield slightly different results. Honey won’t flavor the shisha quite as strongly as molasses will. Whichever you choose, you want to use a honey or molasses that aren't very expensive. If using molasses, make sure it is not sulfured. If using honey, less expensive honey is better because most of the flavor will get lost in the process. It’s easiest to use honey or molasses that are more raw which you can spoon out onto your tobacco. Spoon the honey or molasses over your tobacco. The ratio should be roughly 3 to 1. For every three grams of tobacco, use one gram of honey or molasses. However, the amount is up to your preference.
Add a tiny bit of water to help mix everything together. You may want to splash a bit of water over the honey or molasses so it’s easier to mix with your hands. You can also purchase extra flavoring oils to add to your shisha if you like. Flavorings made by LorAnn can add more of a fruity taste to your shisha. Always use high-quality flavorings. While these are often called flavoring oils, you don’t want something with actual oil in it. The oil will separate all your ingredients. Mix the ingredients until your tobacco has a nice sticky texture. keep adding your honey or molasses as needed until you get the consistency you’re used to from store bought shisha.
Preparing Your Apples
Cut the apples into fourths and remove the core from each piece. Before adding the apples to your tobacco, you have to remove the core and any seeds before blending the apples. You can prepare your apples while you’re soaking the tobacco. Cut the apples into fourths and make sure that you remove the core, seeds, and the stem.
Put the apple pieces into a food processor or cut into very small pieces. Be careful that you don’t chop or cut the apples into even pieces. A food processor is best because it will give you a nice consistency that is in-between apple sauce and apple chunks.
Heat the apples briefly in a saucepan to remove any moisture. Let the apples simmer on a medium low heat. Cooking the apple mix will remove moisture. You don’t want a lot of water in your apples because the moisture will make it harder for the shisha to burn. The amount of time you heat the apples is somewhat subjective. You don’t want to burn the apples so keep an eye on the pan.
Cool the apple mix and add glycerin. Glycerol is an organic compound sometimes called glycerin or glycerine. Glycerin is used to absorb any water from your ingredients. The glycerin will help to bind your apple mixture with your tobacco mixture. But it will also reduce the chance of your shisha burning quickly and unevenly. Glycerine can even increase smoke production as it creates puffy white clouds when vaporized. While glycerine can produce smoke, add a bit of sugary flavor, and act as a preservative, it isn’t necessary to use in your shisha. However, many shisha brands use it so the shisha lasts longer and it can help you get your apple shisha to a good consistency. You’ll want to use vegetable glycerine or glycerine made for shisha.
Cooking Your Shisha
Mix the apples with the tobacco mixture. After your apple mixture has cooled down, mix it with your tobacco mixture. You’ll want to use a fork or your hands to toss the ingredients together so that the apple and tobacco are mixed evenly. If the mixture seems dry, add a little more honey, molasses, or glycerine. You want the consistency to be sticky and moist. Once you’ve mixed the ingredients together, ball it up. Then lay out a piece of tin foil large enough to cover and wrap your shisha in. Place the shisha on the foil, and mold it together into a solid, well-packed brick. Then wrap the foil around it. This will keep the juices in while you bake the shisha.
Bake the Shisha. Put the package of tin foil in an oven safe tray or pan in case the juices leak. Then place the shisha in your oven. You will want to bake the shisha at the lowest possible temperature. About 180-degrees is best. If your oven’s lowest temperature is 200-degrees that’s ok, you’ll just have to monitor the shisha more closely. If you can’t go as low as 180-degrees, you may want to open the door intermittently to lower the temperature. Bake the shisha for around 45 minutes to one hour. This will allow the juices to break down and really mix into your shisha.
Add any extra flavorings. Once you have baked the shisha, the honey or molasses, will have liquefied. However, you may want to add a bit more if the shisha seems a little dry. Before adding any extra flavoring, make sure you let your shisha cool down while still wrapped in the foil. You can also play around with adding extra flavors like vanilla extract if you wish. Depending on how you prefer your shisha and what consistency you like, you may want to play around with when you add ingredients. If you feel that you lose the apple flavor from baking the apple mixture with the tobacco mix, try adding it in after you bake. Additionally, some people prefer to add glycerin and additional flavoring only after baking.
Store your Shisha overnight. Once the shisha has baked, cooled, and you have mixed in any extra flavors or ingredients, you should store it. Store the shisha in an airtight container in your fridge. Storing overnight or longer will allow all the ingredients to fully mix together and blend. Once everything has had a chance to truly blend you’ll get the best smoke.
Check the shisha and enjoy. After you’ve let it sit and cure for at least a night, take it out of the container and check the consistency. If the shisha is to your liking, you can pack a bowl and enjoy. After you let it sit, you want to make sure that the shisha hasn’t dried out too much. If you added enough honey, molasses, and glycerin, it should be preserved. If it seems a little dry, add a bit more, mix, and enjoy.
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