This high-hydration deli-style rye bread is soft, chewy, and full of that classic caraway flavor. Made with a blend of rye flour and bread flour, it has a moist, slightly airy crumb and a lovely thin crust with just the right amount of crispness. A simple caraway seed tea infuses the loaf with the tangy, earthy flavor you expect from a seeded deli rye bread. Baking it in a loaf pan ensures a perfect, sandwich-ready shape every time.
I love eating thick slices of this rye bread toasted with homemade butter, but it's also so good for making a corned beef or deli-style tuna salad sandwich.

Like all my homemade bread recipes this is a beginner-friendly recipe that you don't need a lot of special equipment to make. You do need a kitchen scale, but you don't need a mixer, and you can make this in the span of a few hours on a lazy afternoon.
Even if you've never made bread before, with this easy rye bread recipe you'll have fresh homemade rye bread coming out of the oven before you know it!
5-STAR READER REVIEW
“I have been looking for fifty years (no kidding) for a rye bread recipe that is soft and not so heavy. This is it!! I used it to make Reubens tonight. So delicious!! This recipe deserves more than 5 stars.”
—Karen S.
📋 About This Recipe / Notes from Recipe Testing
When I first started working on this seeded rye bread, I approached it like I did my soft white sandwich bread recipe — I dumped all the ingredients in a bowl, kneaded vigorously with my stand mixer, and plopped it into a loaf pan. But following that method, the dough was so sticky and hard to handle and loaf after loaf baked up dry and dense. It wasn't pleasant to eat.
So I took a step back and began testing a different, more gentle approach to handling the dough. Out went the mixer and the vigorous kneading. In went a little more patience and a few sets of gentle folds.
The end result was such a vast improvement — an airy, easy to handle dough that baked up into a gorgeous rye sandwich bread. It was soft and chewy with a moist, slightly open crumb that toasted up beautifully. Yes, it's a little bit of a longer process, but since it's mostly hands-off resting time, I really do think the extra time is so worth it for the end result. Plus, you don't need to get out your mixer to make it! What a win!
I know caraway seeds can be a bit divisive — my husband hates them, but that's okay, more rye bread for me — but when I think of a deli-style rye bread the flavor that comes to mind really is the caraway seeds more than the flavor of the rye flour. So including caraway seeds was a non-negotiable for me.
Just like in my popular easy rye bagel recipe, the first step of this rye bread recipe uses one of the most useful techniques I learned in pastry school for adding flavor to dough: making a caraway seed tea. Letting the seeds steep in hot water for just 10 minutes softens the caraway seeds and infuses the dough more evenly with caraway seed flavor.
The final version of this seeded deli rye bread uses a blend of 25% rye flour and 75% bread flour. Rye flour on its own is notoriously bad at developing a strong gluten network, so blending it with a high-gluten flour like bread flour provides the necessary strength and structure for this rye bread to hold its shape.
Because rye flour is tremendously absorbent, this dough clocks in at a whopping 95% hydration! While most doughs with that much water in them are super sticky, loose, and hard to handle, the rye flour does such a good job soaking up water that this rye bread dough ends up being really lovely to work with.
🧂 Ingredient Notes
Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make this deli-style seeded rye bread recipe! See recipe card for ingredient quantities.
- Bread Flour - For this bread you'll want to use a high-gluten/high-protein flour, like bread flour which has a protein content of 12% or more.
- Rye Flour - I use King Arthur Baking Company's medium rye flour (also available on Amazon) here which has an 8% protein content. This means it is a low-gluten flour. I find it works best for bread making when combined with a high-gluten flour like bread flour.
- Caraway Seeds - When you think of deli rye bread flavor, what you're often thinking of is actually the flavor of caraway seeds. If you can't find caraway seeds in your local grocery store, you can order them online (as I usually do) from reputable spice sellers like Burlap & Barrel or Curio Spice Company.
- Water - You'll need hot but not boiling water for this recipe — around 160°F. I use my electric kettle to heat the water to exactly 160°F, but you can also just use the hottest tap water setting you can get.
- Honey - A little bit of honey sweetens the dough slightly and feeds the yeast. If you'd rather use sugar, that's fine; just use half as much by weight.
- Olive Oil - Plain olive oil or extra virgin olive oil will both work here. You only need a little bit, but it helps make the dough soft and tender.
- Instant Yeast - I use instant yeast, sometimes called "rapid rise" or "quick rise" yeast in my baking recipes. You can also use active dry yeast here without having to make any adjustments, it will work just fine.
- Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which is half as salty as other brands. If measuring by weight, it doesn't matter what brand of salt you use. But if you're measuring by volume and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, cut the amount of salt in half.
🥣 Instructions: How to Make Deli-Style Rye Bread
Start by making the caraway seed tea. Pour hot water (160°F) over the caraway seeds. Note: this is HOT water, not boiling water. Then, stir it and let it steep for 10 minutes. This caraway seed tea softens the sharp caraway seeds and will help infuse the rye bread with that classic seeded rye flavor.
When the caraway tea is finished steeping, it's time for the autolyse step. This process will be familiar to you if you've made my popular overnight pizza dough recipe before.
Autolyse might sound fancy, but it's really quite simple. It just means mixing the flour and water together and letting them rest so the starches in the dough can begin to relax and align before adding any ingredients that might tighten up the gluten network in the dough, like yeast, salt, oil, or sugar.
Because rye flour is super absorbent and not great at forming a strong gluten network, giving it even just 10 minutes to autolyse with the bread flour (which is great at forming a strong gluten network) and water gives it lots of time to fully hydrate. This 10-minute resting period makes a big difference in your final rye loaf — it will be much softer and chewier because of the autolyse step!
While the dough is resting in this autolyse step, combine the remaining liquid ingredients with the yeast.
This gives the yeast a head start to begin activating before adding it to the dough. It also helps the sugar in the honey begin dissolving so it can incorporate evenly.
Here's what the yeast mixture will look like before and after:
Now we're going to finish mixing the dough.
First, sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough. Then pour the yeast mixture over the salt.
Why do we add the salt separately? Too much prolonged direct contact between salt and yeast can slow down the yeast. It's safer to add them separately and mix them into the dough immediately.
Squish, squeeze, pinch, and fold the dough over itself until you don't feel any grains of salt and all of the liquid has incorporated into the dough. The dough will be very wet and sloppy, that's okay.
Gather the dough into a messy ball in the bottom of the bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest.
⏲️ Resting and Folding (Bulk Fermentation)
After the dough has been mixed, it's time to let it rest for two hours (this is called "bulk fermentation"). During this two hour window, you're going to periodically build strength and structure into the dough using a technique called folding.
There are a few different folding techniques, but for this dough you'll be doing a stretch and fold.
The folding process criss-crosses the gluten network over itself to build structure and strengthen the dough. But by letting the rye bread dough rest between these sets folds, air bubbles and gas (produced by the yeast) are trapped inside the gluten network, giving the rye bread a lovely soft texture.
If this sounds complicated, don't worry — all you really need to know is it's a two hour rest, with folds every 30 minutes. That's three sets of folds total.
TIP: To keep track of which set of folds you're on, put a small bowl with three candies, crackers, or snacks in it. Eat one each time you do a set of folds.
The two hour timer starts immediately after you finish mixing the dough. The first set of folds is counted 30 minutes into that resting period. So the dough will rest for 30 minutes, and then you'll do the first set of stretch folds. Each "set" of folds consists of four folds.
TIP: Set one timer for 2 hours and another timer for 30 minutes. Reset the 30 minute timer each time you do a set of folds until there are only 30 minutes left on the 2 hour timer.
To do a set of folds: Use a damp hand to gently grab the top edge of dough, stretch it up and away from you, then fold it down across the center of the dough. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Do this all the way around the bowl for a total of four folds.
You'll be able to feel the dough getting stronger with each set of folds. On the first set, the dough might tear a little; that's fine. By the last set of folds, the dough will feel very strong and elastic.
By the end of the two-hour bulk fermentation window, the dough will have almost doubled in size and will be quite airy.
🍞 Shaping Rye Sandwich Bread
Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop. You'll be able to see the gluten network you built; pretty cool!
Dust the dough lightly with flour and gently deflate it with your fingertips. Tug the corners into a loose square shape.
Fold the right third of the dough across the middle third of the dough. Press gently to seal the edge in place.
Then fold the left side across the middle. Use your fingertips to seal the edge in place.
Starting from the top, roll the dough toward your body until you have a nice fat coiled log of dough. Cup your hands behind it and scoot it toward you to tighten it up.
Place the shaped rye bread in a greased 9x5" loaf pan. It will likely already reach the top edge of the pan and fill out the width of it, but it won't fill the length. That's okay.
Cover the pan loosely (I like using these elastic, plastic bowl covers) and let the rye loaf rise for 45-60 minutes until it fills out the length of the pan. If you poke the dough with a floured fingertip it should feel springy and not deflate.
Toward the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 400°F. Make sure you give the oven plenty of time to preheat — you want to really make sure it's at temperature before your bread goes in.
Immediately before baking, use a lame or a sharp knife to score several diagonal slashes across the top of the bread about ¼" deep. The dough is sticky and even with a clean, new lame blade I found there was some catching and tearing on the dough. It'll be fine, I promise!
Bake the rye sandwich loaf for 40-45 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of at least 200°F. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack to finish cooling completely.
Letting it cool on the rack is super important for airflow — if you let it cool in the pan the steam escaping from the loaf will make the bottom and sides of the loaf soggy. If you let it cool on a rack, the steam can escape and you'll have a nice crust!
🔪 Suggested Equipment
This recipe is scaled to bake in a 9x5" loaf pan, which is a 1.25 lb loaf pan. If you have a smaller loaf pan, I recommend scaling the recipe down by about 20%.
USA Pan Bakeware Aluminized Steel Loaf Pan, 1.25 Pound
Dimensions: 9 x 5 x 2.75. Durable construction with corrugated surface for optimal airflow. Non-stick finish is PTFE, PFOA and BPA free.
As always, I recommend using a metal pan rather than glass, ceramic, silicone, or stoneware. If you're using a glass pan, you may need to adjust the baking time and temperature!
To score the top of the bread loaf, you'll need a sharp knife or a bread lame (pronounced: LAME). Lame is French for blade.
A lame is basically a razor blade with a handle, used to create functional and decorative slashes on top of bread before baking.
Lames come in a variety of sizes and styles at a range of price points. Use whichever one is most comfortable to you! A sharp knife will also work, if you don't have a lame.
📖 Storage Notes
This soft deli rye sandwich bread is best eaten within the first 4-5 days after baking, though you can store it in an airtight bag or bread bag at room temperature for up to a week. I usually store it in a large resealable plastic bag with as much air pressed out as possible.
Do not refrigerate bread; the cold temperature will make it go stale even faster.
This rye bread freezes beautifully. You can freeze the whole loaf, defrost it at room temperature, then pop it in a 325°F oven for 20-30 minutes. You can also slice the loaf and place the slices in a plastic bag with as much air pressed out as possible and freeze it that way. Simply break off a slice of frozen sandwich bread, pop it in a toaster oven, and it'll be ready to eat.
👩🏻🍳 Practical Tips and Recipe Notes
- If you want the flavor of caraway but don't want the seeds, use a strainer to remove the seeds from the tea when you add it to the flours to autolyse.
- You can use instant or active dry yeast interchangeably in this recipe without having to make any adjustments.
- If you don't have caraway seeds, dill seeds, anise seeds, or fennel seeds can work in a pinch. The flavor isn't quite the same, but it'll be close.
- To keep track of your folds during bulk fermentation: Set a 2-hour timer and a 30-minute timer at the start of bulk fermentation. Reset the 30-minute timer each time you do a set of folds until there's 30 minutes left on the 2-hour timer. When the 2-hour timer goes off, it's time to shape the bread.
💭 Why is this recipe in grams? I want to use cups!
A kitchen scale is more accurate than cup measurements and will give you the right ratio of dry and liquid ingredients so that the rye bread dough behaves the way you want it to. I tested and developed this recipe using weight measurements. If I were to convert it to volume measurements, I would be using Google — just like you would.
There's no set standard for how much "1 cup" of flour weighs (I use 120 grams, but other recipe developers use as much as 150 grams as "1 cup"), which means online converters can't truly convert accurately. Beyond that, when you scoop flour into a cup measure, depending on how you scoop it, you might end up with a lot more flour than the recipe needs. Basically, if you convert this recipe to cups I can't guarantee you'll end up with the same results! You'll have a much higher rate of recipe failure. Do so at your own risk.
📖 Recipe
Fresh Deli-Style Rye Bread Loaf (with Seeds)
Equipment
- 1 9x5 inch pound loaf pan (1.25 lb pan)
Ingredients
Caraway Seed Tea
- 355 grams hot water (160°F)
- 33 grams caraway seeds
Autolyse
- 300 grams bread flour
- 100 grams rye flour
- All of the caraway seed tea (from step 1)
Yeast Mixture + Salt
- 25 grams warm water (100°F)
- 13 grams extra virgin olive oil
- 13 grams honey
- 6 grams yeast
- 10 grams diamond crystal kosher salt
Instructions
- Make the caraway tea. Heat water in an electric kettle or on the stove until it reaches a low simmer (160°F). Pour the 355 grams of water over the caraway seeds and let steep for 10 minutes.
- Autolyse. In a large mixing bowl, combine bread flour, rye flour, and all of the caraway seed tea. Mix until a sticky, messy dough forms. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.Bloom the yeast. In a small bowl, mix together 25 grams warm water, yeast, olive oil, and honey. Mix to combine. Set aside until the dough is done autolysing, at least 5 minutes. The mixture will become quite foamy and bubbly.
- Add salt and mix. Sprinkle the salt over the surface of the dough, followed by the yeast mixture. Use your hand to squish and pinch the dough between your fingers until you no longer feel the grit from the salt and the liquids have incorporated into the dough. It will be quite wet, sticky, and messy. Gather the dough into a loose ball in the bottom of the bowl.
- Bulk ferment. Let the dough rise for a total of 2 hours, with a set of stretch-and-folds every 30 minutes, a total of 3 sets of folds. The first set of folds is counted after the first 30-minute rest.
- Shape. Dust the top of the dough in the bowl with flour, then turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently deflate the dough with your fingertips, tugging it into a loose square shape. Fold the right third of the dough in across the middle and gently press down along the edge to seal. Fold the left third of the dough in, overlapping just slightly with the first folded flap of dough. Again, press down along the edge to seal. You should now have a narrow vertical rectangle of dough (about 5" wide). Starting from the top, roll the dough toward your body until the seam is tucked neatly underneath. You will have a thick coiled loaf of dough. Cup your hands behind the dough and gently pull it toward your body to tighten it up.
- Final rise. Transfer the dough to a greased 9x5" loaf pan. It will likely already be crowning over the top rim of the pan but will not fill the length. Cover and let the dough rise for 45-60 minutes, until the dough has filled out the length of the pan.
Toward the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Score and bake. Immediately before baking, slash the top of the loaf 4-6 times diagonally with a lame or sharp knife. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until an internal temperature of at least 200°F is reached.
- Cool. Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.
RECIPE NOTES
- If you want the flavor of caraway but don't want the seeds, use a strainer to remove the seeds from the tea when you add it to the flours to autolyse.
- To keep track of your folds, place 3 candies or pretzels or something in a small bowl. Eat one each time you do a set of folds.
- Set a 2 hour timer and a 30 minute timer at the start of bulk fermentation. Reset the 30 minute timer until there's only 30 minutes left on the 2 hour timer. When the 2 hour timer goes off, it's time to shape the bread.
Melynda Lewis
I can't wait to try your rye bread recipe - I'm trying to find THE rye bread recipe for my father in law. Just one question: how much water is for the caraway tea? Is it 255g and the rest of the water goes in at another point, or are we heating more to make sure it's at the correct temperature?
Thanks! Your recipes are amazing!
-m
Rebecca Eisenberg
Apologies, that was a typo on my part — it should be 355g of water in the caraway seed tea in step 1! I've updated the recipe to correct it. Thanks for letting me know! Enjoy the bread!
Pat
Is it 255g water or 355g for the tea?
Rebecca Eisenberg
Apologies, that was a typo on my part — it should be 355g of water in the caraway seed tea in step 1! I've updated the recipe to correct it. Thanks for letting me know! Enjoy the bread!
Sondra
Do I add the other 100 grams of water in the tea list to the autolyse? Step one just has me using 255 with the seeds.
Rebecca Eisenberg
Apologies, that was a typo on my part — it should be 355g of water in the caraway seed tea in step 1! I've updated the recipe to correct it. Thanks for letting me know! Enjoy the bread!
Kathy Johns
Thank you so much! I’ve been waiting, somewhat patiently, for you to post this.
Robin
I just made this for my birthday tomorrow - a birthday rye bread! Of course we tried some tonight after it cooled. It’s DELICIOUS! How do you recommend storing it?
Robin
Forgot to rate the recipe when I commented earlier.
Sus
Just made this rye bread! It’s good but he loaf cooked in 30 minutes and the top is overly dark. Any suggestions? Is my oven too hot?
Rebecca Eisenberg
Definitely sounds like your oven is too hot! To prevent the browning you can loosely tent aluminum foil over the pan while it bakes, but I would suggest picking up an oven thermometer if you don't already have one. Most ovens aren't calibrated correctly and can be off by as much as 50°F! If I had to guess, your oven is definitely running hot.
Karen Schnee
I have been looking for fifty years (no kidding) for a rye bread recipe that is soft and not so heavy. This is it!! I used it to make Reubens tonight. So delicious!! This recipe deserves more than 5 stars. The only adjustment I made was to use fewer caraway seeds — my little bottle of seeds weighed 45g so I used half so I could make another loaf. I can’t wait to have it toasted for breakfast with my guilty pleasure of butter and a little brown sugar (instead of cinnamon-sugar).
Is there a chance you might develop a dark pumpernickel recipe?? Thank you for all your hard work. Your small batch recipes are wonderful for small families.
Rebecca Eisenberg
I'm so glad to have helped you find the rye bread recipe of your dreams. Butter and brown sugar sounds like a great pairing for this bread — no need to feel guilty about it (i don't believe in food guilt). Pumpernickel is definitely on my list but it'll be a while before I have one ready to share. Stay tuned though!
Wes
Made this yesterday, I was disappointed that we had dinner out so I didn't get to try it last night. I had to leave in the middle of the day, so I did the last rise in the refrigerator while I was gone for a few hours. It came out so delicious. Sliced perfectly. It did use more caraway seeds than I thought (all I had) but I love the flavor.
Rebecca Eisenberg
So glad you enjoyed it‚ good call to pop it in the fridge while you were out! Happy baking!
Jamie Henderson
Can I make this as a boule in a Dutch oven?
Rebecca Eisenberg
I haven't tried it but I don't see why it wouldn't work!
Helena Voltmer
If we love dye bread without caraway seeds, could we still do the caraway tea, strain the seeds out and use the water as the recipe suggests?
Rebecca Eisenberg
Yep! You can absolutely strain the seeds out if you just want the flavor without the seeds.
Parker
Very delicious, chose this one to take on a camping trip due to the note that it is good for several days. Easy to slice and perfect for the trip. I did find that it deflated quite a bit on the final folds and shaping. Was I just too rough?
Dan Donovan
First time I made as a loaf, second time I used a dutch oven rather than a loaf pan and made it as a boule. Excellent flavor.
Great recipe, as usual. Thanks Rebecca.
Cheryl Barnes
Do you have this converted to US metric. I have tried for 30 minutes to convert this and I can’t figure it out.
Rebecca Eisenberg
US metric isn’t a thing. I do recommend getting a kitchen scale if you want to make this recipe!
Mary
I am 82 years old and have been making bread for many, many years. I am not very good at it until now. I love rye bread so when I saw this recipe come up on Instagram I knew I had to try it. It is the best loaf of bread I have ever made. The flavor is superb and the bread is so moist inside and crunchy outside.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Rebecca Eisenberg
I am so so so glad you enjoyed this recipe and had success with it! Happy baking!!
Jay Mueller
Could you comment on the temperature of the autolyse when adding the yeast mixture? After ten minutes of steeping the tea and ten minutes of resting the autolyse, it seems still quite hot. Should the tea and/or autolyse be cooled before adding the yeast mixture?
Rebecca Eisenberg
I don’t have a specific temperature for you but it should be warm to the touch, not HOT. If you want to pop the tea in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool it down a bit that’s fine. Letting the tea or autolyse mixture cool a bit longer won’t hurt them at all.
Jay Mueller
Thanks for the quick reply. The bread was great. Also, your readers might want to know that a pound of good quality caraway seeds online (Amazon?) cost less than two ounces at the grocery store.