Attempt at Mini's Favorite 100% Rye Ratio loaf

I have finally managed a 100% wholemeal rye loaf using Mini's Favorite 100% Rye Ratio that I am not too unhappy about.

Two previous attempts were not bad taste-wise and both rose well in the proving, but one ended up having the dreaded flying top crust and being quite gummy and the other also gummy, even if slightly less than the first one.

The one pictured was made as follows:

Used Mini's ratio (1 SD starter, 3.5 water , 4.15 flour), but also added about 1tbs of carob flour that is like cocoa powder and 1tbs honey as well as the rye spices suggested by Mini. It probably messes with Mini's ratios, but used my 100% hydration SD starter. Only just realised that Mini uses a stiff SD starter. 

Trying to avoid the gumminess of the first 2 attempts, I added 1% salt right at the beginning of the mixing of the SD starter with the water and flour and manipulated the resulting dough as little as possible, just mixing it up initially and then doing a few folds with the wet dough scraper after a few hours of BF and before placing the dough in the baking tin.

The proving in the 500g tin was along the duration suggested by Mini, maybe an hour or so longer and the dough rose well and made the nice marbling cracks on the surface of the loaf on the dry flour sprinkled on top that can be seen in the photo. In retrospect, maybe the pinholes on the surface were a little too large by the time I was ready to bake, so maybe a slightly earlier baking would have given a slightly more open crumb.

I put the tin in a DO preheated to 200C, covered for about 30min and then, with the lid off gradually dropped the temperature by about 20C every 10min, for a total bake of 1h and left the loaf outside the tin in the oven till the oven had almost completely cooled. Again, I only now understood that Mini actually bakes her loaf starting with a cold oven, so this may also affect the bake.

This time there was almost no gumminess and the longer baking and temperature reductions seem to have helped with that. Maybe it could have been a little less in the oven as the crust was a little dry this time, but better like that than gummy in my opinion.

If I could get a little more open crumb, eliminate any gumminess completely, and get the baking right so it is cooked but not dry on the outside, I would be happy.

Any advice, comments, or suggestions very welcome from those with more 100% whole rye flour experience. While I regularly use up to 30% whole rye flour in my wheat SD loaves,  this is the start of my 100% rye voyage and I can see it is a completely different beast compared to other flours.