**The Art of Creating Alkaline Bath Pretzel Buns**

Just being bread, that flavor comes from this alkaline bath. Now, often, sodium hydroxide is used, which is essentially lye. It's used in soap making and preparations like 1,000-year-old eggs. It's very basic, not that basic, but the opposite of an acid and concentrated and effective. However, it's also very corrosive. And so you can use baking soda instead, or bake it to make it more alkaline, which I've never done before. I've never done this, so I wanted to try it. So that's what we have here.

My baking soda is completely cooled off, and we're going to create a little alkaline bath. To four cups of cold water, I am going to dissolve a half cup of my concentrated baking soda. (mixture splashing) Now we're going to place our little dough friends into the bath. I'm going to let them sit in there for a few minutes, look how stinking cute. Slip it right into there; it can soak in there. Isn't that wild? Never done anything like that in my life.

So it's been about three minutes, and now we're going to pop these little dough friends into preheated 425 degree oven and bake them for about 15 to 20 minutes or until everything is nice and golden and fully cooked. And then we're going to give these little friends a taste. Cannot wait! All righty, my lovelies, my little pretzel chickens have completely baked and they turned out all right. Here is the full-sized chicken. Browned up very nicely.

The shape is a little bit quirky, isn't it? I don't think you can tell that it's supposed to be a whole chicken. I think these slits here that I made make it a little bit confusing, but I can see the wings and the drumsticks are a little bit fatter than they should be. They should be a little bit thinner, I think, but not bad; I would say for my first try.

And here is my little drumstick, got a little bit darker on the tail there, but it looks almost more like a little fish than a drumstick, but still, pretty proud of my first try. So they've had some time to cool, so let's just cut it open and see what it's like inside.

(Ta-da!) Looks pretty good. All righty, let's give it a taste. It adakimasu. Mhm! Mm. Cheese and the chicken go so nicely together. That filling – delicious! Pretzel dough is pretty good. Mm. Nice chew on the outside with that delicious signature soft pretzel flavor that can only happen when you use an alkaline bath on the outside.

Totally got it spot on. The layers of my pretzel are a little bit thick on top as opposed to on bottom, but that's just user error. But the texture is fantastic. Because we used bread flour, the bread has a really nice chew to it, and that filling is fantastic. A little bit spicy, intensely savory. It goes really well with the cheese. A little bit smoky because we used grilled chicken.

This one's gonna be exactly the same, but let's go ahead and cut it open and see what it looks like inside. Ooh, that one's much more even, look at that. That one's, like, perfectly even. Let's give that one a taste. Mm, mhm. In terms of an eating experience, this one's a lot better because it's a lot more uniform. You've got a nice layer of pretzel on the top and the bottom, and then you've got the generous filling in the middle.

Again, that great combination of spicy chicken with lovely creamy cheese, delicious. Now going to the length to make this actually look like a chicken is extra time. I still think you can enjoy this recipe by simply just making little buns filled with the filling and just keep them round. Save yourself a lot of time and still really enjoy this tasty treat.

Thanks so much for watching, and big thanks to Blueland for sponsoring this video. If you'd like to try Blueland for yourself, please click the link down below or head over to blueland.com/emmymadeto receive 15% off your first kit. Thanks again for watching. I hope you enjoyed that one; I hope you learned something. Please share this video with your friends, follow me on social media, like this video, subscribe, and I shall see you in the next one. Toodaloo! Take care! Bye!

(Soft upbeat music)(Gentle music)

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(gentle music)- Greetings, my beautiful lovelies.It's Emmy, how are you?It's great to see you and welcome back.Today's video is sponsored by Blueland.Blueland are the makersof effective eco-friendlyrefillable cleanersthat use no single-use plastic.And Blueland has no plastic waste.That includes the packaging --the box that it's shipped in.Everything is eitherrecyclable or compostable.Blueland products are hypoallergenicand are sourced from veganand non-GMO ingredients.I recently was introducedto the Blueland dishwashertablets, and I love them.They're super effectiveand they don't haveany of that plasticcoating on the detergent.It comes in this metal tinand the dish washing detergenttabs come in a paper bag.I am highly sensitive tofragrances and perfumes,so I really appreciate thatthese are fragrance-free.60 tablets, so this will do 60 washes.And pour in.You just load one of theseup into your detergent hopperand wash like you would normally.There's no need to useany rinse aid whatsoever,and my dishes come out beautifully clean.And Blueland products are affordable.You can save even more moneyby purchasing refills in bulkor setting up a subscriptionso you never run out.So Blueland is sharing a special offerto all of my beautiful lovelies.You can click the link down belowor head over to blueland.com/emmymadeto receive 15% off your first kit.Big thanks to Bluelandfor sponsoring this videoand for allowing me to makebetter videos for all of you.So today, we're going to beattempting to make a breadthat looks so stinking adorable.It was inspired by abakery found in South Koreacalled Lala Bakery,and they make little breadsin the shape of a whole roasted chicken.And inside is a chicken filling.It looks slightly spicy and chili,it has a little bit of American cheese,but it just looks so stinking cute.It looks like a little ministuffed holiday turkey.It's burnished with abeautiful brown colorand it looks absolutely delectable.There's another version thatlooks like an emoji drumstick.It just looks so stinking cute.It too is filled with a chicken filling,but it's a drumstickand it has this beautifulbrown color to it.They also do wings that you can dip inwhat I'm assuming is a cheese sauce.They just look absolutely stunning.But everything is made out of bread.But what I'm really intrigued aboutis the bread seems to looka lot like a soft pretzel.There's just a beautifulmahogany color to themand I really want one.So we're gonna be attemptingto make a homemade version today.And so the pretzel recipethat I'll be adaptingcomes from the New York Timesand I will put a linkto that original videoand recipe down below.So the first thing we're goingto do is bloom our yeast.We're using dry active yeastand it needs to be reconstitutedand hydrated in some water.So I've got some warm water herealong with a little bit of brown sugar.That's to feed the yeastand get them started ontheir bubble making journey.Set that aside for a few minutes.So in the bowl of my stand mixer,I've got some premeasured bread flouralong with brown sugar, salt,and some butter that I'vecut up into little cubes.And this is at room temperature.Now I imagine like mostbread making recipes,you don't need to makethis in the stand mixer.It just helps speed things along.And now I'm gonna use my handsto kind of incorporatethe butter into the flour.(attachment tapping)We're gonna add our yeast mixture.(mixer whirring)So our dough's been mixingfor about five minutes,and the dough is so beautiful.Look at it.Look how smooth it is.Now we're gonna placeit on some plastic wrapand wrap it kind of looselybecause this is going to expand.And we're gonna placethis in the refrigeratorand let it rest for at least eight hoursup to 24 hours, so overnight.Many hours later, wehave our rested dough.We are gonna be stuffingthese little breadswith some chicken filling I made earlier.Here's the finished filling.And I made it really simply.I purchased two pre-cookedgrilled chicken breastsfrom the supermarket.I chopped them up and I seasoned minewith the seasoning packetsfrom one Samyang spicychicken instant ramen,including the littleseasoning flakes as well.Added that to thechicken, stir-fried that,added a little bit of soysauce, a pinch of sugar,stirred that up, tasted it for seasoning,add a little salt and pepper if you like.It's plenty spicy in my opinion.And then I just sauteed ituntil everything was warmed throughand I've let it cool onthis plate completelybefore we stuff it.I'm gonna divide this dough into halfto make it a little bit easier to manage.So the chicken is madeout of one central pieceand it has some wing pieces,so that's gonna be the main body.And the wing pieces,I'm going to divide into pieces like this.And just pinching the seams inand then narrowing that part right there.So that will be, like,the little drumstick.Look, so easy.Cute.And then these will be the wing tips.So we've got two littletapered pieces like that.And now this is going to bethe main central portion.And I'm gonna roll this out.And then we're gonna takea slice of American cheese,lay that right into the middleand take the chickenand draw up the sides.Okay,pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch.Shape it like that.And then use my little wing tips hereand add a little bit of water.Place the ball on toplike that.Add a little bit of water around the topso it helps stick it.And then we're gonna wrapthese wing tips over.Okay, cute.Stick one leg on.Oh my gosh, look. (chuckles)So chubby and cute -- I love it!Now we're gonna make a drumstick version.So we have the stick.Cut the tip in half so it forks like this.And I will roll thisone a little bit wider.Place cheese inside.Little bit of our stuffing.Fold this up.Gonna place the bone of thedrumstick right in there.See that? (laughs)I'm gonna let these chill inthe fridge for about an hour.All righty, my lovelies, sowhile my doughs are cooling,I wanna talk a little bitabout what's going on in this baking dish.This contains....baked baking soda.So I took some bakingsoda, got a bunch of it,dumped it into this oven safe dish,and baked it at 300 degrees for one hour.This cooks out some of the waterand it concentrates the alkalinityof the baking soda.Now why do we want to do this?Well, we're gonna becreating an alkaline bathfor our pretzel doughs to swim around it.And that is the secretto the beautiful burnished brown colorsof the soft pretzels andthat pretzely flavor.You know what I'm talking about?The flavor that separatespretzels from just being bread.That flavor comes from this alkaline bath.Now, often, sodium hydroxide is used,which is essentially lye.It's used in soap making.It's used in preparationslike 1,000-year-old eggs.It's very basic, not, like, that basic,but the opposite of an acidand concentrated and effective,but it's also very corrosive.And so you can use baking soda.Instead, you can use regular baking sodaor you can bake it tomake it more alkaline,which I've never done before.I've never done this,so I wanted to try it.So that's what we have here.My baking soda is completely cooled off,and we're gonna createa little alkaline bath.To four cups of cold water,I am going to dissolve a half a cupof my concentrated baking soda.(mixture splashing)Now we're gonna placeour little dough friendsinto the bath.I'm gonna let them sit inthere for a few minutes,look how stinking cute.Slip it right into thereso it can soak in there.Isn't that wild?Never done anything likethat in my life. (giggles)Swimming in their bath.All righty, so it's beenabout three minutes.Let us grab our little dough friends out.Boop, so cute.And now we're gonna pop theseinto preheated 425 degree ovenand bake them for about 15 to 20 minutesor until everything is niceand golden and fully cooked.And then we're gonna givethese little friends a taste.Cannot wait!All righty, my lovelies,my little pretzel chickenshave completely baked andthey turned out all right.Here is the full-sized chicken.Browned up very nicely.The shape is a littlebit quirky, isn't it?I don't think you can tellthat it's supposed to be a whole chicken.I think these slits here that I mademake it a little bit confusing,but I can see the wingsand the drumsticks are alittle bit fatter and chubbier,they should be a littlebit thinner, I think,but not bad I would say for my first try.And here is my little drumstickgot a little bit darker on the tail there,but it looks almostmore like a little fishthan a drumstick,but still, pretty proud of my first try.So they've had some time to cool.So let's just cut it open andsee what it's like inside.(knife grinding)Ta-da! (laughs)Looks pretty good.All righty, let's give it a taste.Itadakimasu.Mhm!Mhm.Mm.Cheese and the chickengo so nicely together.That filling -- delicious!Pretzel dough is pretty good.Mm.Nice chew on the outsidewith that delicioussignature soft pretzel flavorthat can only happen whenyou use an alkaline bathon the outside.Totally got it spot on.The layers of my pretzel area little bit thick on topas opposed to on bottom,but that's just user error.But the texture is fantastic.Because we used bread flour,the bread has a really nice chew to it,but that filling is fantastic.A little bit spicy, intensely savory.It goes really well with the cheese.A little bit smoky becausewe used grilled chicken.This one's gonna be exactly the same,but let's go ahead and cut it openand see what it looks like inside.Ooh, that one's muchmore even, look at that.That one's, like, perfectly even.Let's give that one a taste.Mm, mhm.In terms of an eating experience,this one's a lot better,because it's a lot more uniform.You've got a nice layer of pretzelon the top and the bottom,and then you've got thegenerous filling in the middle.Again, that greatcombination of spicy chickenwith lovely creamy cheese, delicious.Now going to the lengthsto make this actually looklike a chicken is extra time.I still think you can enjoy this recipeby simply just making little bunsfilled with the fillingand just keep them round.Save yourself a lot of timeand still really enjoy this tasty treat.Thanks so much for watchingand big thanks to Bluelandfor sponsoring this video.If you'd like to tryBlueland for yourself,please click the link down belowor head over to blueland.com/emmymadeto receive 15% off your first kit.Thanks again for watching.I hope you enjoyed that one;I hope you learned something.Please share this video with your friends,follow me on social media,like this video, subscribe,and I shall see you in the next one.Toodaloo! Take care! Bye!(soft upbeat music)(gentle music)I am so full!\n"