Serves a Crowd
Portable Reubens
- Serves 6-8
Author Notes
This rye bread comes mostly from Bernard Clayton's New Book of Bread, although I've tweaked it a bit. The fillings are my own. The key to this being portable, and not soggy, is first draining the sauerkraut and then squeezing it in a cheesecloth to rid it of as much water as possible; it will still be moist when baked. You can also omit the kraut and use pastrami and provolone. This will feed a carload of kids all the way from Memphis to Orange Beach, Alabama. ***Please note: edited to fix an amount. It's only ONE cup of rye flakes!*** —Kayb
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- Double rye bread
-
2 cups
rye flour
-
1 cup
rye flakes
-
2 tablespoons
active dry yeast
-
2 cups
hot water (105 degrees)
-
1 tablespoon
caraway seed
-
1 cup
hot water
-
1/4 cup
molasses
-
1 cup
rye flour
-
3 1/2 cups
bread or AP flour
-
1 tablespoon
salt
-
1
egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk
- Sandwich filling
-
1 pound
deli sliced first cut corned beer
-
1/2 pound
deli sliced swiss cheese
-
2 cups
sauerkraut
-
4 tablespoons
spicy mustard or Thousand Island style dressing
Directions
- Two days before making, mix 1 cup of hot water, 2 cups rye flour, yeast and rye flakes in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to ferment.
- Pour all the sour into big mixing bowl. Add molasses, hot water and remaining rye flour and blend with paddle attachment. Add salt and AP or bread flour, a cup at a time, mixing after each addition, until dough forms a ball around mixer paddle and is no longer sticky.
- Turn dough out onto counter and knead for about five minutes, until smooth and satiny. Put in oiled bowl, cover with kitchen towel, and put aside to rise until doubled in bulk, about two hours.
- Put kraut in cheesecloth lined container in sink to drain.
- Cover your largest baking sheet with parchment. Punch down dough, turn out onto baking sheet, and pat/roll it out to the edges of the sheet. It should be about 3/4 inch thick.
- Mentally divide the dough rectangle into thirds, lengthwise. Cut the outer thirds into strips about an inch wide, at an angle. Leave center third untouched.
- Paint center third liberally with mustard or Thousand Island. Gather up cheesecloth filled with drained kraut, and squeeze as much liquid as possible from it. Blot kraut between several layers of paper towels. Scatter mostly-dry kraut over mustard.
- Layer corned beef slices atop kraut. Layer Swiss cheese atop corned beef.
- Beginning at one end of rectangle, lap strips from alternating edges over center of filling. If possible. You may need to stretch the strips a little; they should overlap a bit more than the ones shown in my photo.
- Brush top of bread with beaten egg/milk mixture and bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely, then slice into serving-sized portions, reassemble as a loaf on a big sheet of aluminum foil, and wrap for the trip. Accompany with individual kosher dill pickles in plastic bags, and good potato chips. Also excellent picnic or tailgate fare.
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I'm a business professional who learned to cook early on, and have expanded my tastes and my skills as I've traveled and been exposed to new cuisines and new dishes. I love fresh vegetables, any kind of protein on the grill, and breakfasts that involve fried eggs with runny yolks. My recipes tend toward the simple and the Southern, with bits of Asia or the Mediterranean or Mexico thrown in here and there. And a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a float in the lake, as pictured, is a pretty fine lunch!
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