da bread and how I am a less then a fool

I made bread with blackbird on Wednesday afternoon. This was my request, I mean if I'm going to meet the bread making queen I might as well steal a bit of her wisdom. So in her lovely (why can't I find another word to describe her and her home?) kitchen while saxophone practice played in the other room we mixed and she imparted some knowledge.

Here's the ingredients...

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast (the shiny pack that says something like
HIGHLY ACTIVE)
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed (for dusting)

So, I left her house with this mixture safely in the pot and traveled to the big city where I left it to rise in my car all night and morning. Here's what it looked like before I traveled back to CT...

After traveling back to CT and being informed that the boy's father (who just happened to go to a VERY good cooking school so is quite daunting to cook for) was coming to dinner. So in between cleaning the house and becoming presentable I did step two and three...

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly
flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little
more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely
with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work
surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a
ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour,
wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust
with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel
and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more
than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with
a finger.

This two hours (after the rising was done), happened during dinner, so I simply put the bread in the oven (step four) and was pleased that everyone thought I was a decent cook, girlfriend, etc.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450
degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel,
Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully
remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over
into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K.
Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will
straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then
remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is
beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

So, after thirty minutes had passed I took the lid off and then twenty minutes later went to check the oven for my final (and hopefully impressive) product.

IT WASN'T NEARLY DONE.

Why you ask?

Because APPARENTLY the oven needs to be ON for baking to be done successfully.

Embarrassing? Yes, a bit.

So after the boy's father left, I put in the oven for about a half an hour on 400 degrees (making that up of course) and it came out looking like this...


Good, edible.. but embarrassing none the less.
So much for fool proof!