Bread failures

When 550ºF is not 550ºF.
When I'm preparing to bake bread, I normally fire my for approximately an hour an a half and put in the breads when the temperature is about 550ºF. and falling. Yesterday I put a loaf into the oven when the temperature was also 550ºF, but the oven was not falling because it had been fired six hours earlier and was fully saturated with heat. I attempted to rush the process, and I achieved a failure. The loaf was more than a little rustic in appearance; it was burnt.
A simple temperature reading is certainly not enough. I should have waited until the oven was clearly falling.

Yesterday's Workshop

June 4, 2011

Under clear blue skies, no humidity and a temperature of 72º F., no one could complain. Besides, we constructed three mud ovens that participants took home and one demonstration brick oven that was an instant hit. In fact, two of the participants returned today to gaze in wonder at the simple brick oven that they had constructed yesterday. And who would blame them.
The oven took three fledgling oven builders about two hours to construct.
The cost of the materials was about $68.00

 Low-cost, easy-to-build brick oven

Immediately after building the oven, it was fired up, and within one hour we were making pizza. The floor temperature easily reached the desired temperature of 700ºF.

               At work

  Brick oven in back

(folks were still mixing mud, and the brick oven was already done and fired up)

Not only did this oven go up faster than the little mud ovens, but this was supposed to be a mud oven workshop. Sure, folks enjoyed the mud ovens, but really, I think most decided that they'd like to have the low-cost brick oven in their back yards.

  Yesterday's oven builders

But will they ever be able to get it out of the car?