I’m glad you like the recipe Leo. My ceramic Emile Henry pan has a lid and I have another I bought in Italy that does too. Your inversion idea works well, thanks for sharing. Otherwise you can tent the loaf pan with foil. There’s a link to a video showing how to do this (with only one pair of hands!) in the recipe (https://ancestralkitchen.com/tentvideo). Enjoy your sourdough!

I know of NO loaf pan that comes with a lid (other than Pullman tins) so:

Invert a second loaf pan overtop of the tin with the dough. Follow the times as said in the recipe.

Using that second tin ensures the loaf comes out as if it was made in a dutch oven (which can be used instead of two loaf tins).

This recipe makes a pretty big loaf so in my opinion you need two 9×4 loaf pans (well, 4 actually–two to hold the dough and two for covers OR two dutch ovens 4.5qt size (can use a 5qt but the bread will end up being a bit flatter).

Great recipe BTW.

Hi Marion, Yes, the bread is dense. Authentic wholegrain rye bread is dense. It’s 100% rye we are using and it’s 100% wholegrain too. You barely find that out in the world – most rye breads are white rye mixed with wheat. You can see a clear picture of the crumb of my 100% wholegrain rye sourdough bread in this post: https://ancestralkitchen.com/2025/04/14/how-to-make-sourdough-rye-bread-from-scratch/

Having said that, as you become more confident with this process/recipe there are many things you can do to ensure you get as much rise as possible: a strong starter, the right timings for getting into the pan and the right timings for getting into the oven.