Reuben Danish

Ingredients

• For the pastry:
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 1/4 cups cold water
• 9 ounces medium rye flour
• 4 1/2 ounces bread flour
• 2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter
• Eggwash
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• For the filling:
• About 1 pound cooked corned beef, thinly sliced or chopped
• About 2 cups sauerkraut, drained
• About 1/2 cup Thousand Island dressing
• About 1/2 pound Swiss cheese, grated

Directions

1. For the pastry, pour the water into a medium bowl and add the yeast, stirring until combined. In a food processor, add the rye flour, bread flour, gluten, sugar, and salt, then pulse a few times to blend. Cut the butter into chunks, add it to the processor, and pulse until the butter is mostly in garbanzo bean-sized bits, with some variation totally fine. Tip the flour and butter mixture into the bowl with the yeast mixture, and stir gently just until the flour is dampened, taking care not to smash the butter pieces. The dough may look dry at first and then sticky once mixed, which is exactly okay. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a plastic bag, and chill it overnight.
2. The following day, take the bowl from the refrigerator. Generously flour your counter, turn the dough out onto it, dust the top with flour, and pat it into a loose square. Roll it into a 10- by 18-inch rectangle, adding more flour as needed so it does not grab onto the counter or rolling pin.
3. Move briskly so the butter stays cold. Fold the dough into thirds, the way you would fold a business letter, making a 6- by 10-inch rectangle. Roll it back out to an 18- by 10-inch rectangle. Fold it again, roll it again, and fold it once more. If the butter starts feeling soft, pause and chill the dough for 10 minutes before continuing. After the third rolling and folding, fold the dough in half crosswise so you have a roughly 6- by 5-inch rectangle. Press it down slightly, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or as long as overnight.
4. For assembling and baking, position 2 oven racks in the upper and lower-middle parts of the oven, then heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Dust the work surface with flour and divide the dough into 4 pieces. If you are moving quickly, the pieces can stay out; if not, keep them chilled until you need them. Roll the first piece into a 9- by 12-inch rectangle. Arrange 1 quarter of the corned beef, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing, and cheese down the center third of the dough lengthwise, using more or less of each as you like, and leave about an inch bare at both ends. If you like a lot of Thousand Island dressing, go easy inside the pastry and put extra on the table instead; too much can make the sandwich soggy.
6. With a sharp knife, pizza cutter, or pastry cutter, cut slits about an inch apart along both long sides of the dough, stopping when you reach the filling. Angled cuts look nice, but straight cuts work too.
7. Fold one bare end up over the filling. Then bring the strips over the top one by one, switching from side to side so they cross over the filling. If the strips seem just shy of reaching, do not fuss; they will stretch. At the other end, fold the uncovered dough over the filling before crossing the last strips on top.
8. Move the Danish to one of the prepared baking sheets, cover it with plastic wrap, and repeat the shaping with the remaining 3 pieces of dough. Let the shaped Danish rest until the dough feels puffy to the touch, about 30 minutes.
9. Take off the plastic wrap, brush the dough with egg wash, and scatter caraway seeds over the top. Bake at 400 degrees F until the pastry is well browned, about 35 minutes. Take it out of the oven, move it to a wire rack, and let it cool a bit. Serve warm.