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You’ll love these deli rye pan buns, fragrant with caraway seeds and savory pickle juice and yogurt.

With German, Czech, and Polish ancestry, I can safely say that all my people eat rye bread! I grew up on proper Bohemian rye from a now closed Czech bakery in my hometown of Omaha. It was the most magical perfectly sliced deli rye made from a decades old starter.

When I do make sourdough, it’s always rye. Still, all sourdough takes time and rye sourdough in particular is a little grumpier than wheat. What I wanted was a reliable recipe you could easily make on a weeknight. Even if you’ve never worked with rye flour before, you’ll have no problem with these rye pan buns.

What you’ll get in these deli rye pan buns are an easy to make rolls that are perfect for sandwiches. We love them in our house for quick Reuben sliders. They’re great for any meaty deli sandwich style sliders.

So grab some caraway, and let’s make some rye buns!

Deli Rye Pan Buns

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A quick note about rye

I started writing this post and wrote 1000 words about rye before I even started talking about the ingredients. I graciously saved you from a left turn into the weeds and give you the TLDR summary.

Rye flour will react differently than your standard all-purpose, bread flour, or even whole wheat flours. There’s a stickiness that will always be present in rye that’s unique. Also, the dough will look like it’s poofed up from underneath the surface of the dough when it’s proofed well. Look for these things, and know that it’s not you, it’s the rye making those differences in the dough.

Persevere, and you’ll be rewarded with deli rye pan buns with a MUCH more interesting flavor than regular flour.

Save the image below to your favorite Pinterest board and save the recipe for later:

sprinkling caraway on rye buns, Reuben sliders

Ingredients for rye pan buns

Water: for hydration
Instant yeast: for lift and easy rising
Honey: flavor and to make the yeast happy
Pickle juice: for flavor, to improve the texture of the rye
Salt: for flavor
Caraway seeds: classic complement to rye since their intense earthy flavors love the mineral tang of rye.

Yogurt: for fat and to improve the texture of the rye
Butter: for tenderness, flavor
Rye flour: mill your own or use a dark or medium rye flour.
All-purpose flour: to give the dough the gluten structure it needs to rise since rye is low in gluten and can have a hard time rising.
Egg white: to make shiny tops and to glue on MORE caraway!

About pickle juice and yogurt in deli rye pan buns

You’re looking at this recipe seeing pickle juice and I see the lines of confusion on your face right now. It’s actually not weird at all to add pickle juice to rye bread.

There’s a couple of things that pickle juice can do for rye bread:

Adds more flavor: you serve rye with pickles and dill flavored things, so why not add it in there?
Adds acid: because rye is low in gluten, it has a hard time firming up and rising upwards. The dough literally has a hard time holding its shape. Cutting the rye with some wheat flour helps it, and acidic ingredients like buttermilk, yogurt, and yes even pickle juice can help tighten up the structure, making it easier for the dough to hold its shape. Baking is chemistry you can eat!
Tenderness: acidic ingredients also tenderize dough.

Process for making rye pan buns

This couldn’t be easier. This is a bread you don’t even need a mixer for, though a gram scale will greatly help you.

Dissolve: yeast and honey in the warm water.
Measure: the flours and the rest of the ingredients except the salt and caraway into a big bowl.
Mix: Pour the yeast mixture over everything. Use a flexible dough scraper to scrape around the bowl to form a shaggy dough.
Knead: Move the dough scraper under the dough, then fold it towards the top middle of the bowl. Continue to do this until you get a loose bowl. It should take about 2 minutes to do this. The dough will feel sticky, but keep it moving, and use the scraper to help it stick less to your hands. Do not add more flour.
Sprinkle: Flatten out the dough, cutting it in a couple of places with the scraper, then sprinkle the dough with the salt and caraway.
Finish kneading: Fold the dough as before about 20 times to incorporate the salt and caraway.
Rise: rest the dough, covered until it’s visibly poofy right under the surface of the dough.
Shape: weigh out 40 gram pieces of dough, then quickly roll them into balls.
Second rise: let the dough balls rise until they’re touching each other in the pan.
Egg white wash: brush on egg white and sprinkle with more caraway before baking.
Bake until dark golden and crusty on the bottom. Cool completely before cutting.
Cut: Slice the rolls in one sheet horizontally just like the Hawaiian Sweet Rolls to make into a tray’s worth of and any mini sandwiches you’d like.

Tips to make the best rye pan rolls

Pick good pickles: Try and use pickle juice from pickles with no preservatives. I’m using Grillo’s which literally just use salt, vinegar and spices. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, it’s a hard pass for putting it in your bread!
Don’t add more flour: as I said, the rye in this dough will make the dough feel stickier than the same weight of wheat flour would. Use your scraper to keep the dough moving while you knead it. Adding more flour will just make for drier, denser rolls.
Use a gram scale: I’ve talked about this before. When you’re ready to shape, weigh the dough and divide the result by 20. I’ve already done the math for you here, and the dough balls should be about 40 grams. It may seem fussy, but if you have evenly sized buns, they will bake more evenly. I love my Tanita because it’s so little and portable for tasks just like this.
Don’t skip the caraway: I always have a caraway hater among my baking students (They usually hate anise too). Having grown up with the flavor in kraut, salads, rye, goulash, etc., I don’t understand them! Caraway with its earthy complex spiciness is such a natural partner to the zippy tang of rye. If you really hate it, you can make these rolls without the caraway, but know that I’m judging you.
Don’t skip the egg white: I tell my kids this, I tell my baking students this: always glaze bread because unglazed bread is sad, and we don’t make sad bread. It makes it shiny, it helps it brown better, and in this case, it’s the glue that holds on more caraway.

Deli Rye Pan Buns

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Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
Yield: 20 buns

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Description

Easy to make savory rye buns that are the perfect base for meaty sliders.

Ingredients

Scale

Cooking spray for the pan
3/4 cup warm water (177 mL)
2 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup pickle juice (from good dill pickles with no preservatives)
2 Tablespoons butter (28 g)
1/3 cup Greek yogurt (75 g)
1 and 1/2 cups dark rye flour (195 g)
2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g)
2 tsp caraway seeds, plus more for sprinkling
1 tsp salt
1 egg white for brushing

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Instructions

Whisk the warm water, yeast and honey together in a small cup. Set aside for about 5 minutes.
Melt the butter, then mix it with the yogurt.
Measure the flours into a large bowl.
Pour the pickle juice, yogurt and yeast mixture over the flour.
Use a flexible dough scraper to mix everything into a rough dough.
Scrape under the dough with the dough scraper, then fold the dough over on itself to knead the dough. Continue this until the dough is noticeably smoother, about 5 minutes.
Flatten the dough in the bowl, then pour over the 2 teaspoons of caraway and salt. Squish the seeds and salt in with your hands, then fold the dough about 20 more times to distribute the seeds well throughout the dough.
Fold the dough back on itself to form a ball, then sprinkle the dough with a little extra all-purpose flour.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the bowl in a warm place for about 1 hour. The dough will be noticeably puffy when it’s ready.
Spray a rectangular pan (8×12 or 9×13) with cooking spray, then line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter, then divide the dough into 20 equal pieces. Use a gram scale to weigh out your dough to help you get even dough balls.
Roll the dough in your hands to make round dough balls. Place the balls in the prepared pan no more than 1/2″ apart.
Cover the buns to rise for about 30 minutes. By then, the sides will be all connected together and the buns will be noticeably taller and puffy.
Towards the end of the 30 minutes, turn on your oven to 375 F (190 C).
Brush the tops of the buns with egg white, then sprinkle them with more caraway seeds.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the sides are crusty.
Allow the rolls to cool for about 20 minutes before you attempt slicing them.
Buns are best the day they’re made, though you can freeze them for up to 2 months. To do so, let them cool completely, then place the rolls in an airtight plastic bag. Freeze them flat.

Notes

Pan size: I use a 8×12″ cake pan here, but feel free to use a 9×13″. If you do so, place the rolls no more than 1/2″ apart. This way as they rise, they’ll bake into each other. This will make for soft sides but also let you cut the rolls in one sheet for easy sandwiches.

Fresh milled?: I used my grain mill to mill 195 g of whole rye. I like the richer taste of the freshly milled flour, but if you don’t have a grain mill, Bob’s Red Mill makes very nice dark rye flour.

Less salty?: I’m using Grillo’s Pickles here for my pickle juice. Their brine is not overly salty and has no preservatives. If you make this recipe and find the buns too salty, it’s likely because your pickle juice was more salty than mine. Make them again and use less a little less salt in the dough and see what you think.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Category: Breads
Cuisine: Jewish, Czech

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 roll
Calories: 73
Sugar: 1
Sodium: 215
Fat: 1
Saturated Fat: 1
Unsaturated Fat: 1
Trans Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 13
Fiber: 1
Protein: 2
Cholesterol: 3

How to turn your rye pan buns into AMAZING Reuben Sliders

Dressing: make up a quick dressing of 1/2 cup mayo, 1/4 cup chopped pickle, 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup whole grain mustard, 1 Tablespoon tomato paste, 1 tsp sweet paprika, handful finely chopped dill, juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt and pepper
Slice: Pull on either side of the parchment under the rolls and transfer to a cutting board. Slice the cooled buns horizontally, keeping them on the paper. Place the tops on a sheet tray.
Spread: Spread a layer of the dressing on the bottoms of the buns.
Layer: Hold onto the parchment and move the bottom of the buns back into the baking pan. Layer on stacks of thinly sliced pastrami and cheese. I used Butterkäse here, but provolone is a favorite in our house for all deli-style sandwiches. I’m personally not a fan of swiss, but most people like it on Reubens.
Bake: bake the bottoms of the buns until the cheese is melty and the meat is warmed. This takes about 5-7 minutes if you keep the oven on at the 375 F you baked the rolls at.
Top: Top the meat and cheese with drained GOOD sauerkraut (Cleveland Kitchen or Bubbies are my favorite if I’m not using my homemade kraut), then drizzle with more dressing and lines of yellow mustard.
Cut: Slide the tops of the buns back in place, then place toothpicks in the center of each bun. Cut along the lines for amazing Reuben sliders fit for a party.