I started baking bread a year ago...yes COVID lockdown. I make a white bread, rustic garlic bread, whole wheat, 10 grain, cinnamon raisin and rye. In the beginning they were dense and chewy. Now by experimenting with flour combinations, rise times and overnighting the dough in the refrigerator depending on the bread, all but one of my breads are lighter, with good flavor and pockets and a nice crust.
The one troublemaker is rye bread. I've tried many combinations from 40% to 20% rye, with various combinations of bread and AP flour. All turn our various levels of too dense, and collapsed somewhat during baking. My latest was the rye sandwich bread recipe on this site which was the best so far. Not too dense, and good flavor. But still the top collapsed in the oven. Only this bread is giving me problems.
Is rye really that difficult. Am I missing something.
I'm a retired engineer, so maybe my approach and experimentation is too technical. Maybe less tech and more art would do it
Thanks for your thoughts on the subject.

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