Easy Light Rye and Caraway Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Light rye with caraway is a timeless combination, often overlooked but incredibly satisfying when done right. Rye bread, with its chewy texture and unique flavour, has a way of surprising me every time—I always forget how delicious it is until I take that first bite.
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While working with whole grains in bread can sometimes feel like a challenge, I’ve found ways to simplify the process to make it more approachable. This recipe focuses on creating a loaf that’s not only beautiful on the outside but also delivers the right texture on the inside—because, in the end, it’s all about the crumb.
One of the key techniques I like to use in this recipe is autolyse, while optional, it’s a practice that I believe makes a significant difference when working with whole grain flours. Autolyse involves mixing just flour and water (sometimes with the starter), while holding back the salt for a period of time. We’ll dive into the reasons why this technique is beneficial, but I highly recommend incorporating it into your baking routine—it truly elevates the final loaf.
Bronwyn’s Sourdough Notes
This is your loaf! I’m here to share my tips, experience, and what’s worked for me — but sourdough is wonderfully flexible. Whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out, feel free to experiment and make this recipe your own. There are a bajillion ways to make a great loaf of sourdough, and my goal is simply to help you find the methods and rhythms that suit you best.
Water: If you can drink it, you can bake with it. I’ve used city, tap, well, and filtered water — all with great results. Don’t overthink it.
Salt: Use whatever fine salt you have. Unrefined salts like Himalayan or Redmond Real Salt support fermentation beautifully, but table salt works fine too.
Sourdough Starter: Start bread with an active, bubbly starter for best results. Learn more about your starter here.
Temperature: Dough rises best around 23–26°C (73–79°F) dough temperature.
Colder = Slower fermentation (6-12 hours)
Warmer = Faster fermentation (3-6 hours)
Adjust with warm or cool water depending on the season.
Flour: I always do a blend of standard all-purpose flour and freshly-milled whole grain flour. Use whatever flour works for you.
Hydration: In summer, I use cooler water and slightly less. In winter, warmer water and a touch more can help balance fermentation speed.
Autolyse: This step involves holding back salt and sourdough starter at the mixing stage. I prefer a simpler variation — I mix in the starter right away but hold back the salt for 30–60 minutes. This short rest gives the dough time to hydrate and relax, especially important when using whole grain flour, which takes longer to absorb moisture.
Is rye flour gluten-free?
No, it is not! It is lower in gluten than modern wheat but is not suitable for celiacs.
Where To Source Fresh-Milled Rye Flour
If you’re living in a city, you can mostly likely find a bakery or fancy grocery store that sells fresh-milled flour.
If you’re living in the country and you can source whole-grains, you may want to consider milling your own flour. You can start without making a large investment by using a powerful coffee grinder or blender that you already own. A step up would be purchasing a KitchenAid grain mill attachment.
If you’re really enjoying working with fresh-milled whole-grains and you have a reliable source of grain, you can also consider a Harvest NutriMill which is the one I use almost everyday and love both for its beauty and practicality.
When you’re ready to invest, get your Harvest NutriMill using this link and my discount code BRONSBREAD20 at checkout to get $20 off your order!
Scoring Your Sandwich Loaf
Scoring is the process of slicing into the top of your dough just before baking. This helps the bread expand in a controlled way as it bakes, allowing the loaf to rise evenly and develop a beautiful crust.
When you look around, you’ll notice many sandwich loaves with a smooth, unscored top. These loaves are typically enriched with butter, eggs, oil, or other fats, which soften the dough. The addition of these ingredients breaks down the gluten network, resulting in a tighter crumb structure that doesn’t need scoring for proper expansion.
This recipe, however, is simply flour, water, and salt like an artisan loaf which means the gluten is strong and can produce large bubbles. This is also known as “tunnelling” and can look like this:
Materials You’ll Need
- Medium-Sized Mixing Bowl: A heavy set ceramic mixing bowl would work best.
- Bowl Cover: Anything that covers and seals the bowl and covers your loaf for final proofing. I use these reusable elastic bowl covers.
- Dough Whisk (optional): It is cleaner to get things started with a dough whisk but it’s definitely not necessary. I like using a wooden spoon or my hands.
- Plastic Bench Scraper: I find this tool very handy for cleaning and scraping the dough out of the bowl. It can also be used for dividing dough and pre-shaping.
- Metal Bench Scraper: I use this tool for dividing dough, pre-shaping, and cleaning the table. Not essential though, as the plastic bench scraper can serve similar purposes, but I like using both.
- Kitchen Scale: I prefer sharing most of my recipes in grams so there is less room for error as I’m not in the kitchen with you! Everyone scoops things differently.
- Bread Pan: I really like 8″ x 4″ size for this recipe but you can use a bigger bread pan, your loaves might just be a little shorter. These are my FAVOURITE BREAD PANS. Don’t need to grease or line with parchment paper, they are truly truly non-stick. If you don’t have these pans, you’ll just have to flour and grease your pan or line with parchment paper so the loaf doesn’t stick.
- Razor Blade, Bread Lame or Sharp Knife: I haven’t found a bread lame I really like so I just use razor blades as is.
- Deep Metal Baking Tray or Muffin Tin (optional): This vessel is placed at the bottom of your oven to hold water to produce steam.
- Cooling Rack: For cooling down your loaf.
Ingredients
- White Flour: I use Rogers all-purpose flour, nothing fancy.
- Rye Flour: I use fresh-milled organic whole-grain rye flour but any spelt flour from the store will get the job done.
- Whole Wheat Flour: I add a little freshly milled whole wheat to my rye bread for more protein and complex flavour.
- Active Sourdough Starter: An active sourdough starter is bubbly with large bubbles, a domed top, double to triple in size, sweet and sour smelling, and floats in water. A perfectly active starter is essential for the perfect loaf but it’s not essential to make sourdough bread. You can work with the starter you have even if it’s not perfectly active, just expect inferior results.
- Caraway Seeds: For that traditional German rye bread flavour.
- Salt: I use Himalayan sea salt but any salt is good. Avoid highly processed table salt. The more mineral content, the better.
- Water: Any drinking water can be bread-making water.
How To Make Light Rye and Caraway Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour, rye flour, whole wheat flour and caraway seeds. Mix until no dry bits. Rest 30–60 min (autolyse).
Add Salt – Add salt with a splash of water, squeeze in until fully integrated and dissolved. Rest 30 minutes.
Strengthen – Perform a series of stretch and folds. Let rest for another 30 minutes.
Strengthen (pt.2) – Perform another series of stretch and folds.
Bulk Ferment – Let the dough rest until doubled in size, jiggles, and has a domed surface. (Warm 4–6 h; cool 8–12 h.)
Shape – Pre-shape into a ball and let it bench rest for 20–30 minutes. Final shape into an oval log shape. Grease and flour your loaf pan (or line with parchment paper) and place your loaf into it, seam side down.
Proof Options
Same-day bake: cover and let rest on the counter at room temperature until risen and puffy (1-3 hours).
Next-day bake: cover and place in the fridge 8–24 hours for enhanced flavour, structure, fermentation & easy scoring.
Score & Bake: Preheat the oven to 500°F. Once hot, add a tray with water (around 1 cup) to the bottom rack. Once that water starts to bubble and boil, lightly flour the surface of your loaf, score as you wish and place your loaf in the oven. Drop temperature to 375°F. Bake for 35–45 minutes, until a dark golden crust is achieved.
Cool – 1 hour minimum before slicing to ensure the crumb has fully set and then enjoy with a generous amount of butter!
Light Rye and Caraway Sourdough Sandwich Bread
ingredients
- 250g White Flour
- 100g Whole Rye Flour
- 25g Whole Wheat Flour
- 250g Water
- 150g Active Sourdough Starter
- 10g Salt
- 1 tsp Caraway Seeds
instructions
- Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour, rye flour, whole wheat flour and caraway seeds. Mix until no dry bits. Rest 30–60 min (autolyse).
- Add Salt – Add salt with a splash of water, squeeze in until fully integrated and dissolved. Rest 30 minutes.
- Strengthen – Perform a series of stretch and folds. Let rest for another 30 minutes.
- Strengthen (pt.2) – Perform another series of stretch and folds.
- Bulk Ferment – Let the dough rest until doubled in size, jiggles, and has a domed surface. (Warm 4–6 h; cool 8–12 h.)
- Shape – Pre-shape into a ball and let it bench rest for 20–30 minutes. Final shape into an oval log shape. Grease and flour your loaf pan (or line with parchment paper) and place your loaf into it, seam side down.
- Proof OptionsSame-day bake: cover and let rest on the counter at room temperature until risen and puffy (1-3 hours).Next-day bake: cover and place in the fridge 8–24 hours for enhanced flavour, structure, fermentation & easy scoring.
- Score & Bake: Preheat the oven to 500°F. Once hot, add a tray with water (around 1 cup) to the bottom rack. Once that water starts to bubble and boil, lightly flour the surface of your loaf, score as you wish and place your loaf in the oven. Drop temperature to 375°F. Bake for 35–45 minutes, until a dark golden crust is achieved.
- Cool – 1 hour minimum before slicing to ensure the crumb has fully set and then enjoy with a generous amount of butter!
new ebook
getting started with sourdough
and the “why” behind each step
Whether you’ve never touched sourdough or you’re tired of every recipe being different and not knowing why – this guide will help clear things up.
Learn the basics, avoid common beginner mistakes, learn why you’re doing what you’re doing and finally bake an edible loaf!
What a wonderful layout. Very well presented and in great detail. The loaf looks so good! I’m sure it makes the best sandwiches!
Thank you! It is delicious:)
How much salt, please?
Thanks for catching that! It’s 20g salt or one heaping tablespoon 🙂
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Recipe says 1 loaf but in the instructions you say divide and make 2 loaves.
Oops thank you! I originally made it for 2 loaves because thats what I always do but realized most people want to just make one haha I’ll fix that ASAP thanks for pointing it out!