Honey Lemon Whole Wheat Bread

Looking for a bread recipe with a difference, I stumbled upon this recipe for a Honey Lemon Whole Wheat Bread in my Bernard  Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. The honey lemon combination sounder quite lovely, so I decided to give this one a go. Reading the directions though, I discovered that this recipe required a very short (20 minute) first rising, followed by a  2 to 24 hour second rising in the refrigerator. I'd not come across a cold rise recipe before so this intrigued me as well as the ingredients.

 I did the 2 hour second rising, with fabulous results. Bread rose properly above the pan, and came out of the oven with a lovely crust. Smell was divine. Lovely bit of tang from the lemon rind, with a hint of sweetness. Not a sandwich bread, but great toasted with butter and jam.

Doing a bit of research, I discovered that cold rise is quite an old method, much used in artisan baking these days. Apparently this technique will let the flavours develop more than with a fast rise, and can be used with any recipe. So if for some reason I was to start making bread, and then something came up that prevented me from baking it within the normal time span, I could just throw the dough in the fridge an deal with the baking when I had time. This could be as long as 3 days later. I did not know that. I will try the long cold rise on a recipe soon.